Building backlinks to your website is just one of many important steps to boost your SEO rankings and bring more people to your website. Small businesses may feel intimidated by the idea of link building, not knowing where to start. Once you break it down into various tips, however, it becomes clear that while link building will take some effort, it is something any small business owner or marketing person should be able to handle. To get the best results, keep the following tips in mind.
1. Develop High-quality, Useful Content
Your number one priority for link building should be to create high-quality content. Remember, it should be content that people want to share. This is the absolute best way to get organic links. This content doesn’t have to be written either. In addition to blog posts, it can be podcasts, infographics, how-to guides, tutorials, videos, and more.
- Reuse What You Have
If you already have some content from other marketing efforts, take advantage of it! You can combine and repurpose content in a fresh way.
- Promote Your Content
Just creating the right content won’t be enough; you also need to get it out there. To do so, find out what social media platforms your audience uses and promote on there.
2. Create Some Local Content
The challenge with creating high-quality content is the level of competition you will face. The good news is that the competition reduces if you focus on more local or specific issues. For example, a bike store could make a blog post or video about great local bike paths. Think about topics that are relevant to your business and community.
3. Get Ideas From Keyword Research
Typically, keyword research is done so you can include those keywords in your content marketing or bid on ads for them. This is a related idea, but a bit different. Essentially, you want to look at keywords to see what your audience is searching for. Specifically, pay attention to the intent behind the search. Then, use this to create the content that they want.
By creating quality content, you should automatically generate some backlinks.
4. Write Guest Posts
While putting high-quality content on your company’s website is useful, it isn’t your only option for building backlinks. You should also consider guest posts or appearing as a guest on a podcast or something similar. Just remember to focus on delivering useful and interesting content, not on backlinks. The backlinks should come naturally.
5. Work With Other Local Businesses
As a small business, you get a unique opportunity to build connections with other local businesses. You can then promote each other and become strategic partners. You share their content, and they share yours. If someone asks for a recommendation, you recommend them, and they do the same.
6. Work With Local Bloggers and Influencers
Don’t limit yourself to working with other “traditional” businesses. Consider working with local bloggers or influencers as well. You could both benefit from a partnership. For example, you could give them free products in exchange for a post or set up an affiliate partnership where they earn commissions.
7. Be Active Locally
Another link building method that focuses on local connections is interacting with the community. Consider sponsoring an event or hosting events. Most local events will have a website and list your website on it if you sponsor them. This will also get your company’s name in the local papers and social media pages.
Remember that you aren’t limited to sponsoring one-time events. You can also look for opportunities to sponsor local non-profits in the long term.
8. Don’t Forget About Local Directories
You hopefully already listed your business on all the relevant local directories, as well as Yelp and Google My Business. If you haven’t, do so now. If you have, take a moment to confirm that all of the information on the listings is up to date.
Join Local Organizations to Get in More Directories
When looking for local directories you can have your business listed in, don’t forget about those from local organizations. For example, there may be a chamber of commerce focused on a particular demographic that you fit into.
With the help of these tips, you’ll be well on your way to building backlinks and increasing your audience.
