Develop Local Link Building for Better Backlinks and SEO

Backlinks improve a website's reputation and authority, increase website traffic, and boost local search engine rankings. A Chicago SEO agency prioritizes creating an effective backlink strategy to optimize a local business for localized search.

This guide focuses on the top local link-building strategies approved by experts, such as

• Building local relationships
• Offering to write in local publications
• Creating local content, case studies, and research
• Connecting with local creatives
• Monitoring competitor backlinks

Learn how local link-building can help promote your products, services, and brand. Let's go!

Want to learn more about the Digital Authority Partners approach to SEO? Watch this video!

Building Local Relationships

Building local business relationships is about connecting and engaging with businesses in your community, creating partnerships, and working together. It is relevant to local link building because it can help local enterprises earn high-quality backlinks from other reputable and relevant companies and groups.

A website’s credibility and reputation increase when other local businesses link to or endorse it. Such links drive more referral traffic and leads that help the website’s sales and revenue.

Local businesses can improve backlinking through the following local SEO strategies:

• Join local business directories and ensure business information is accurate and up-to-date.
• Collaborate with other local businesses to create content that promotes shared community, such as articles, blog posts, or social media content.
• Host joint events or promotions with other local businesses and promote them on your social media channels.
• Give testimonials or reviews of other local businesses and request a backlink.

Offer to Write for Local Publications

Writing for local publications can be an effective link-building strategy. These publications reach a larger audience and establish businesses as industry experts. Your work published in newspapers, magazines, or online blogs increases visibility and attracts more potential customers.

Local publications often have a solid online presence, thus providing valuable backlinks to the business’s website. Adding links to the website in your articles or author bios further improves your link-building strategy.

Writing for local publications helps establish relationships with other local businesses and organizations, leading to opportunities for collaboration, joint marketing efforts, and different link-building strategies that can benefit both companies. Here are some strategies:

• Identify local publications in the industry or niche relevant to the business, including local newspapers, magazines, blogs, or websites.
• Develop content ideas in which you have expertise.
• Pitch ideas with a brief bio to local publications and highlight why the content would interest their readers.
• Write high-quality content that is engaging and informative. Add links to your website or author bio.
• Promote published content on your website and social media channels.

Create Local Content, Case Studies, and Research

Creating local content such as case studies and research provides value to the community, which aligns with Google's guidelines. People are more likely to click on valuable, informative, or entertaining content. Businesses can share local content on social media, forums, and other websites to improve reach, which can potentially lead to more backlinks.

A Chicago SEO agency can provide local optimization, including content creation. They follow these content-creation techniques.

• Identify local topics of interest, including local news, events, trends, or challenges unique to your area.
• Conduct research and gather data on a chosen topic. Use surveys, interviews, or existing data.
• Analyze and interpret data to draw insights. Create infographics, charts, or visual representations of the data.
• Promote your content and encourage social media followers to share it and link back to your website.

Connect with Local Creatives

Creatives often have websites and social media channels, providing excellent backlink opportunities. Working with local creatives helps businesses earn backlinks to their website or social media channels. 

They bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to content creation.  Companies can thus present engaging and visually appealing content that people will likely link to and share. Working with local creatives also allows companies to tap into new audiences. Here are steps for effective collaboration with local artists:

• Research local artists, photographers, graphic designers, writers, and other creatives in the area using online directories, social media platforms, and organizations.
• Attend or offer sponsorships for local creative events such as art shows, design expos, or writing workshops.
• Reach out on social media like Instagram or Twitter to connect with creatives.
• Collaborate on projects that align with the company’s brand and marketing goals.
• Subscribe to local community sites and social media to keep updated with the latest on creatives in your community. 

Monitor Competitor Backlinks

Backlinks are crucial for optimizing websites for local SEO. Businesses and organizations heavily rely on the number of links and the quality of the sites that link back. One way to find quality links is by checking competitors' backlink profiles.

Monitoring your competitors' backlinks reveals which websites are linking to them. Use this information to identify potential link-building opportunities for your own website. Doing so also helps you keep track of trends and changes in the industry.

By studying competitors' backlinks, businesses can identify valuable industry links. Here are a few ways to use competitors' backlinks to improve your own link-building strategies:

• Use backlink checker tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush. These tools provide a detailed analysis of competitors' backlink profiles, including the number and quality of the backlinks and the anchor text used.
• Use Google Alerts for your competitor's brand names, products, or industry-related keywords.
• Analyze their social media profiles to identify the websites linking to them.
• Monitor their mentions using tools like Mention or Brand24 to identify websites discussing your competitors.
• Manually check competitor websites for new backlinks.

Summing Up

When going local, you improve your link-building strategies by building relationships, writing in local publications, creating content relevant to your community, connecting with local creatives, and monitoring competitor backlinks. You can improve your ranking, reach the right audience, and promote your brand locally with quality links.

An expert Chicago SEO agency guarantees local visibility and ranking. Contact Digital Authority Partners for local SEO help.