Links are critical to ranking, but link-building in local is hard. Most local SEO presentations on local link building are vague and fall back on cliches like “get links from church groups and little league teams.”
A recent LSA Webinar with Local SEO Guide‘s Dan Leibson and ZipSprout‘s Megan Hannay served as an antidote to those cliches. The webinar featured real information and case studies, and a discussion of what actually works in local link building and how to do it.
After LSA’s Greg Sterling provided some data to show the importance of link building for organic local search ranking, Dan and Megan provided some tactical advice for link building. Here are a few of the takeaways:
- 6 of the top 11 organic local search ranking factors are related to links.
- On average a multi-location brand will have 200-300 link citations per location.
- If you locate unlinked brand mentions online, it is important to request that the publication/website add an appropriate link to your website.
- Use Google to find local events to sponsor. Search for “our sponsors/donors/partners” in your targeted location.
- When contacting local entities for sponsorship, locate the “right” contact responsible for sponsorships and keep the email short.
- High authority link opportunities include: associations, schools, nonprofits, museums, music festivals, government entities.
Watch the entire webinar replay below:
For access to all of LSA’s past webinars, visit http://bit.ly/LSAwebinars.