Matt Stoddardt of Linkworth offers these tips on how to get local links:
Get the obvious local links
– BBB
– Chambers of Commerce
– Search city+state+associations to find relevant local organizations. There are hundreds of listings for realtor groups, legal groups, medical groups, etc. Chances are there is something that is relevant for your business
Leverage social
– Local directories/classifieds/review communities- see The Local Review Spammer’s Guide
– Join region-specific groups within large social sites. MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
– Find local & niche bloggers and interact. Use Techonorati or MyBlogLog to find bloggers who might be relevant.
The interaction and participation is the key. Nothing is going to happen overnight. It takes time to build relationships but over time it pays off and earns in-bound links.
Buy links
– Search for relevant, non-competing businesses to buy directly from
– Buy from a linkbroker
– Buy links from Google! Buy Google’s mini-search appliance and you could get a link from Google on their testimonials page.
Be Creative
– Donate to local charities and request a link
– Sponsor a youth sports team and ask for a link
– Talk to other local businesses like a dry-cleaner and offer to give their customers a deal on your business if they give you a link.
5 Response Comments
The job is connecting up those seeking links and those that have linkability. When you can connect numbers of active small businesses in a local metro area to actively promote each others businesses, you can simply ROCK!
Sounds like collusion to me Mike…
I wish BBB Online and Chamber of Commerce memberships/links were cheaper.
Perhaps it would be best to put a warning around buying links as it is against Google’s TOS. Touchy topic I know….in a competitive niche you know the top guys are still practicing this so you have to fight fire with fire sometimes.
I appreciate the idea of looking for local associations like the BBB and Chamber Of Commerce. Just curious about trying to get links from these types of sites, will I be able to comment or need a profile I wonder?