Build Links To Your Local Business Like A SEO Pro

Every local business site needs a solid foundation of quality links in order to be competitive in the search engines. Here is a list of quality links which are easy to obtain by anyone. You don’t need to be a SEO expert to get started; all you need is an empty spreadsheet, a form filler and a list of sites to submit to. Let’s take a look at basic linkbuilding for your local business.

The ‘Big 3’ Business Listings You Need

It’s imperative that you set up a business listing at the following sites; Yahoo local, Bing local and the most important one Google My Business. We”ll go over the Google My Business listing since it’s the one that will generate the most amount of traffic. Make sure you submit your business to the correct category; this is extremely horny and will affect your search engine rankings. Write a long and detailed description explaining exactly what your business does and don’t forget to include the areas or cities where you conduct business. Adding images to your page the listing more complete. You can add pictures of your actual office or products offered. All of the three major search engines require postal verification which means they will mail you a postcard within a few business days with a code that needs to be input in order for your listing to go live.

Work Smarter Not Harder

The next step is to submit your business to quality business directories. Most directories will want you to provide basic information such as your business name, business description, phone number, email address and website address. I highly recommend that you use a form filler to expedite the process instead of doing it manually. LastPass is an excellent free tool which will enable you to fill out the submit page rather painlessly. It’s a good idea to create a spreadsheet with columns indicating the business directories to submit it to, the URL of the listing and the status of the listing (submitted vs listed) in order to stay organized.

Here is a list of top quality directories to include in your submission activity.

Submitting to business directories isn’t enough; you will also want to submit to directories in your vertical or niche. For example, if your business is a car dealership you may want to submit to Dealerrator which is an established automotive site. Make sure that you are submitting to quality sites; quality is more important than quantity. You don’t want to submit your site to hundreds of low quality sites; this may actually increase your chances of being penalized by Google.

Acquire Links From Local Sites

It’s important for local businesses to acquire links from local sites. This means that if your business is located in the Los Angeles area you will want to get listed at the local ‘Los Angeles’ specific websites such as At-La.com You can utilize the following search operators in order to find local business sites.

(Type the following into Google)

business direcotory Los Angeles
Los Angeles business directory submit
Los Angeles ‘submit a business’
Los Angeles ‘add a businesses’

In addition, you will want to try to get listings from local sites that you have an association with. For example, if you sponsor a local soccer league you can ask the website to link back to you. If your business volunteers at a charity regularly you can try and ask if they mind giving you a link back.

Google’s algorithm is getting more stricter against spammers so you don’t want to over optimize your anchor text (also known as the link back to your site). For example, if you are a doctor in Los Angeles and you want to get ranked for ‘Los Angeles Doctor’ don’t use that exact phrase in the link back to your site. Mix it up by incorporating your brand (example: ‘Dr Boone is a Dr in the Los Angeles area’ and link that entire phrase) or you can even use a ‘naked url’ to your site without any anchors (example: http://www.mysite.com)

This is by no means a guarantee for a first page listing but it will give you a solid foundation from which to build on. Some local businesses may prefer to handle their own SEO while others may want to hire a professional SEO service such as Elevated Rankings. Building links yourself can be satisfying but it can also take valuable time away from working on growing your business. Every local business needs a foundation of quality listings in order to build authority.