Local Link Building: 17 Tips & Strategies to Acquire Local Backlinks [With Tools & Examples]

Everyone complains about how difficult it is to build SEO backlinks, but no one talks about the challenges of local link building. 

If you are a local business owner and you are confused about what local; link building is, and want to know how it impacts your business, then you are at the right place. 

Kudos, to you for having a flourishing local business and then also opting to do SEO and digital marketing for it. That takes guts and a vision for sure! 

So let’s get started and learn A to Z of local backlinks.

What is local link building? 

SEO backlinks refer to the links that another website is giving to you. These links are more like a certificate that showcases Google that you are being endorsed by the other website and thus, helps you increase your domain authority and improves your chances of ranking. 

When you get these links for your local business from another local business website, to rank for the relevant keywords, or show up in Google Searches and Maps, then these are called local backlinks. 

For instance, checkout this example, when I search for the coffee shops near me, then this shows up in my search results. 👇

This is exactly where you want to be as well when someone searches for a keyword relevant to your service or product and local SEO link building helps you with that. 

How is local link building beneficial? 

Keeping everything in mind that we discussed above, here are a few things that local SEO backlinks help you with. 

• To show up in Google Searches and Google Maps for relevant local keywords. 
• To reach the right target audience, because what would you do if you are ranking for search queries in Chicago but your ice cream cafe is in Atlanta. 
• You enhance local SEO. The stronger your backlink profile is the stronger your SEO will be so you will be able to outrank your competitors in searches. 

How to build local backlinks - All the tricks in the book! 

Link building for local SEO is definitely not going to be easy because you have to be even more creative with your approach to get links when you are a small brand. 

But don’t worry I have got you a list of tricks with tools and examples that will help you build quality local backlinks so you can leverage all the benefits of SEO for your business. 

Be present on GMB to get automated links 

GMB refers to Google My Business, which is like a social media profile but on Google. Build your profile on GMB to establish your presence on Google and to be found when people are searching for queries around your business. 

Checkout this snapshot below, to see how GMB shows your business in search results. 

But your GMB profile will rank better only if you have quality backlinks and a completed profile, and once you are ranking, there is a high possibility that your business will build local SEO backlinks automatically. 

Let’s see how this loop works. 

So you need to build your presence on Google by having a complete profile. Add your business address, post your list of services and products online, post images of your services, do SEO copywriting for your services, and engage with your reviewers. 

Along with that, just like social media, keep updating your profile with images, new offers, and keep engaging with your audience. 

Let’s say you have a book shop, and you have followed all the steps we just discussed, so once someone accesses your services and likes them, then they might give you a review as well or they might give you a mention on their blog/ social media. 

In that situation, they would link the GMB profile of your business so that other people can find you and reach you as well. So, be present on GMB and maintain your profile well. 

Register yourself on local directories 

Local directories are like local search engines for a region that keep information of the businesses, the services provided, and also details like where you can find them. 

In India, Justdial is one such directory. 

Manta is another famous directory, especially in America. 

These are the places you want to be listed as. When you list yourself, you get a good quality local backlink and also earn yourself some brand awareness as they make you more accessible to your target audience. 

There are tools for local link building like Moz Local and Yext can help you find as well as manage the directories’ listings as well within their dashboard. 

Register yourself on niche directories 

Along with registering yourself on local directories, you also need to register yourself on niche directories which are the directories specifically about the industry you are in. 

For example, if you are in India and own a restaurant, then Zomato is a food and restaurants’ directory where you want to be present at. 

Similarly, if you have a small local hotel, or a gaming complex, then directories like Tripadvisor are where you want to be present at.  

When you list these directories, again you are getting multiple benefits. The benefit of being found by your target audience, possibly increased footfall at your business, and of course very high quality backlinks for local SEO. 

Make social media pages 

If you do not have social media pages yet, then you are missing out on not just local backlinks but also a lot of customers who otherwise would have found you. 

Having social media pages and attaching your GMB link or website link there, earns you social signals and these signals further add to your credibility in the eyes of Google. 

So, if you have a profile on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, then you are getting 3 quality backlinks. Along with that, your business appears more accessible and easy to engage with for your audience as well. 

I assure you, social media presence can significantly boost your number of leads, because you will be present where your audience are and they will be able to reach you through your DMs itself. 

Get links from the site your competitors are getting from 

One thing that I assure you is absolutely not going to be easy is finding the websites to get local links from for your GMB profile or SEO content. But this is not the adversity that you will be facing alone. Your competitors are right there with you so the challenges are the same. 

But, in most cases, these competitors can help you as well, especially if you are a budding brand and they have been in the market for some time now. 

What I mean by that is, there are tools like Ahrefs and Semrush that can help you find the entire backlink profile of your competitors in one click. For instance, check this out, the entire backlink profile of a pun in Leeds, UK. 

Now, when you have the entire profile, you can pick up their best local SEO links, and reach out to those websites to give a link to your business as well. 

So basically, you have an entire list of sites and directories all you have to do is reach out and convince them to give you a link. 

It cannot get any easier than this! 

Leverage broken links of your competitors 

Here is another creative, or sneaky trick for you to get local SEO links. Through this, you are not getting one extra link for yourself, but also reducing one link from your competitor’s profile. 

Some call it stealing, I call it being proactive and smart with your approach. If your local competitor is not running regular SEO audits or tracking their links then you can and you should take advantage of that. 

When you will find the link profile of your competitors in Ahrefs or Semrush, you might come across some broken links or lost links as shown in the snapshot above. 

Broken links are the links which due to any circumstance are not being found or are unable to reach the destination page. You can leverage these links for local link building. 

If you spot any such links in your competitors’ profile then reach out to the editor/writer of the source page (the page giving the backlink), and ask them to replace the link with a relevant link from your business. 

I assure you, they would be happy to do that because everyone wants to give the best user experience to their readers. 

Spread a word on community platforms

If you did not know until now, then you just found out that community based platforms like Reddit and Quora are the next big thing, especially because of the lack of duplicate content and more original opinions. 

If you do not believe me then the deal between Google and Reddit will make you believe that. 

There are certain circumstances where Google pushes these community platforms in search results more than business websites and blogs. 

Those circumstances are when questions are being asked from a community: 

• Someone is asking for reviews of a product or service. 
• Questions regarding living conditions in a city/country. 
• People finding the best solution/tool/service. For instance, - “Can you share the best cosmetic surgeons in Tel Aviv”

So, as these community platforms get ranked for these queries, you want to be part of these platforms as well. Engage within communities on Quora and Reddit, answer questions that might be related to your business, and feel free to drop a link to your business profile or website there. 

That way, you are sharing a genuine suggestion with the community, engaging with your probable customers, and getting yourself a local SEO backlink as well. 

Become a trusted source for news media outlets

This is one of the most unconventional ways local link building but also one of the smartest. 

There are several news forums and websites that cover local news and local stories to create different types of SEO content for their audience. 

To add an element of credibility in those stories, they are often looking for testimonials and statements from local people who have the experience of living in that region and have a say on the story as well. 

You can become a trusted source for such media outlets, give your statements, and get a local backlink in return as the owner of the local business. Here is an example, where a local business owner, Marc Magliozzi, contributed to an article of Forbes and got a link not just for himself but another local business owner.  👇

Get links from mentions that have not linked back to you

So, there are very high chances of someone talking about your local business or referencing it and they might not have linked to you while doing that. 

In that scenario, you can reach out to them and get yourself a local backlink. For instance, a local blogger is talking about the best stationary shops, and your name is there, then you can reach out to them to give you your business a link. 

Now the question is how to find such mentions. Well, there is a tool for that as well, which is free of cost, known as search operators. These are commands and symbols that help you get filtered search results. 

So here is a search operator you can use to find your business mentions for local link building. 

{{“ [Business name/Relevant terms specific to your business] ”}}

Here is what your search results will look like with it. 👇

Have a local content blog/feed to get automated backlinks 

One thing you need to realize is that to scale your local link building, you will need automated links, otherwise with a ton of effort you will be able to secure very few links. 

Having a consistent content feed, or a local blog talking about your business and your services can help you build those automated links by making SEO & content marketing work together. 

For instance, if you have a plumbing business, then you can have a local blog for it, where you address the concerns related to plumbing and share information that people should be aware about. 

Let’s say you made a blog on “7 Situations You Need to Call Your Plumber In.” Then that blog might get picked up by some magazine as a reference, or maybe another blogger, and you'll get a local link. 

Also, the above example was not hypothetical, it is as real as it can get and there are multiple local plumbing businesses who have written content on the same. 

Reach out to travel websites/bloggers 

You don’t want your target audience to just find your business, you also want them to know that you are good at what you do and provide, and along with that you want a local backlink as well. 

This combination is achievable on travel websites, bloggers, or explorers. These are the people, who have a huge following for their content, and they focus on local attractions of the region they travel too. 

If they visit you, tell them to add a mention for your business in their next blog. Or maybe reach out to them, and tell them to visit you for free services and products and in return give a link to your local business when they talk about your region. 

Run online contests 

Sharing another unconventional idea for local link building which can help you get some good local links and also great traction. 

The idea is - run online contests. Be it on social media, or maybe on Google as well. 

For instance, let’s say you have a local pastry shop, you can ask people to drop a mention of their favorite product along with your business link, and whoever’s post gets the most likes will be rewarded with their favorite free pastries. 

That was a hypothetical example but you get the point right!? Engage your target audience through these contests and you can earn multiple local backlinks thus, increasing your business’s credibility. 

Give your space for events 

You want as many local SEO links as possible and from different platforms, so another way of doing that is lending your space for events. 

For instance, if you have a cafe, or a club, then you can lend space for events like comic shows, or celebrity meet and greets. That way, your business would get a link in the venue section from apps and websites selling tickets for such events. 

For instance, on one such website in India, Book My Show, a cafe named - Delhi Heights have lended their space for events and are not earning a backlink in return. 

Reach out to other local businesses 

You, and the businesses in your vicinity are all pining to get local SEO backlinks. So why not collaborate? 

Connect with other local businesses who are not your competitors, and do A-B-C link exchange and endorse each other’s businesses. This could be a good bonding experience as well that everyone will benefit from. 

(A-B-C link exchange refers to getting a link from website A and then giving a link to website A from website C to ensure Google’s link spam policies are being followed.)

Do guest post on your area of expertise 

Another way of getting a solid local SEO link is by doing guest posts on your areas of expertise. Guest posting refers to writing a piece of content for a website different from yours as a guest author to get a backlink in return. 

For instance, if you have a local flower shop, then you can write an article about the plants and flowers to keep inside the house for an interior design and decoration website and get a link in return. To do these articles, you can use content writing tools to get work done quickly and score yourself a backlink. 

Gotta get creative with it! 

Offer testimonials to other businesses 

I am sure, currently, you must be using products and services from multiple businesses in the market. I am also sure that they would be glad to have your testimonial on their website. 

So why not give that testimonial and get a link for your local business website as well?  

Let me elaborate. Let’s say, you have a wholesale business of groceries, and you are using services of a local logistics company of your region to get products every week. So why not give them a testimonial for your services, and in return you get a mention on their website with your business name and link attached. 

For instance, if I was Dylan, I would have git a link for my business for the video testimonial from Goldman Sachs. 

Find link building opportunities with SEO tools 

If you have exhausted all your options and have tried all the tricks but are still finding opportunities for local link building, then tools like Majestic can be of huge help. 

It is one of the SaaS tools that helps you find your desired and also websites relevant to your business to build links for your business. It can point out the opportunities for you to grab and you can then simply reach out to build links to those. 

Automate local link building with the best services! 

By now you must have figured that building local backlinks is going to be a task. You can do it all yourself, or you can have someone else do it for you, while you focus on scaling your business.

If you are unable to get the local SEO links yourself then go for the best link building services from ZeroAdo. We are one of the SEO agencies that understands what your business needs and we put your link building for local SEO on autopilot mode!