The importance of getting Links for Local Business – get links or perish
Posted by Jan at 12:30 am
Getting links is an important part of any online marketing strategy
- but especially critical for local business websites
….however it is one that many people misuse or just choose to ignore. Getting links is important local folks- REAL important!
GONE baby GONE.
If your competitors have more incoming links than you – you are knocked off the first page. If you have no incoming links then you only have one stream of traffic. getting links isn’t hard, but it does take time and effort, so alot some resources to this activitiy.
I am not talking about link farms or spammy paid links but real links from other trusted sources online.
Talk to your peeps!
The best way to get links is to create content worth linking to, what does this mean for unsexy or boring topics like flooring, light bulbs or plumbing supply companies?
Create: how to articles, videos or slideshows, do test and write a report on it, have sales people create their monthly favorites list, tell people why to use one product over another, share industry news and facts, talk about changes in your inventory, sales process or location – basically take the time to communicate in the online world!
this creates the content you can optimize and them link to.
For promoting Local Atlanta Business websites think about optimizing specific pages for local keywords + location
One page optimized per phrase like:
Alpharetta plumbing supply
Altanta wholesale plumbing
plumbing supplies Atlanta Ga
Plumbing supply Alpharetta
North Atlanta Plumbing supply
Make them match
Then you use these keywords to link INTO the same page. So an article uses ” atlanta wholesale plumbing ” as the text link INTO the page optimized for that same term.
This next article really describes the exact process of using content creation, keywords and link strategy to optimize a website.
Here is an awesome article excert Posted by Pete Caputa on Hubspot
Graduate from Link Building High School Yet?
….Link building is not easy. And it’s not that intuitive until you do it. There are also many different techniques and methods that will have varied results. Below is how I recommend clients start and master link building.
I tell people that there are 4 Levels of Link Building Excellence. And it usually takes 4 years to master it – just like high school:
9th Grade: Links You Can Build Yourself That Require Little Time Investment
Before I get into this, I’d like to stress that you should have a really good keyword strategy and make sure you’ve optimized each page on your site around a different keyword phrase. Any link you’re building should be designed to help a specific page rank high in the search engines for a specific keyword.
That said, the first set of links that every business should get are the ones that don’t require anyone else’s help. There are lots of business directories out there where you can just submit your URL, company name and a description of your business. Some of them require approval. Some of them require a fee. Yahoo’s directory, Joe Ant, Aboutus.org are some of the ones you should do right away.
In this class of Level I links, there are also many social media sites where you can simply build links to your site. Most of these no longer pass SEO credit, but they’re still good links to get, assuming your target audience visits the site or these sites rank high for your keywords already.
It’s arguable that you should hire someone to do(or start) this stuff for you. It’s low level work that generates low level returns. Just make sure that you don’t hire a firm that will get you 1,000 links for < $1,000 dollars. If it’s too good to be true, it is.
10th Grade: Links You Build Yourself that Require Effort
Before I get into this level, I’d like to stress that launching a business blog should be done before doing this. Without having a blog on your site with lots of good well optimized content, you don’t really have anything to link to.
That said, there are two very common link building techniques that work well that don’t require you to be a “thought leader”. Yet. These activities require a bit more time investment and a small financial investment. They are article marketing and press release optimization. With both of these methods, you have to create relevant content that will appeal to your market. So, it requires more time than Level I. Also, the process of getting your articles syndicated and your press releases submitted and picked up – takes effort. You might consider hiring a wired pr firm or a strong seo firm to do some of this stuff for you.
If done correctly, both of these methods can significantly increase the links to your site. Also, if you write your articles and press releases with a keyword strategy in mind, and with links that support your keyword strategy, it can significantly raise your rankings for specific keyword terms. Run your press releases and your articles through press release grader to determine whether they’re going to help.
11th Grade: Links You Network For that Require a Significant Time Investment
This part of link building is kind of like sales. Cold calling can be done effectively with persistence. But, networking, getting referrals, giving first, the law of attraction, etc is a better way of getting new clients.
Link building is the same way. If you’re more of a cold caller type, and there are lots of potential places you can get a link, you might consider just creating a list of webmasters and asking them for a link.
If you’re a natural networker and you’re in this for the long haul, I’d recommend being a bit more patient.
Apply your persistence and spend your time building relationships.
No matter what route you take, the goal of this level is to make yourself visible among people interested in the same topics as you. This process is a bit self promotional. But, you must promote yourself in a way that you’re adding value. You master this level by acting like a resource for people in your industry. How do you do this? It’s all about networking and building meaningful relationships. The first step is reading other people’s blogs. Then, commenting on them. Then, eventually starting a relationship where you’re communicating 1 on 1 with them.
I recommend you take the leap from reader to 1:1 with a blogger, by pointing them in the direction of other people’s content that might be interesting to them. In the non marketing world, this usually happens through email. In the marketing world, this usually happens through Twitter. If you’re techy, this might happen through Delicious. If you use StumbleUpon or Digg, those are great platforms to share things with peers.
Even google reader lets you do this kind of networking. But, it can certainly happen through any social networking platform or system that enables 1:1 communication.
From a link building perspective, the ultimate goal of this level is to get invited to write a guest article for other people’s blogs or website. For example, I wrote an article about inbound lead generation for Aaron Ross not too long ago. In the article, I linked to relevant resources on my blog and the HubSpot blog and site. These are great links from an authoritative source. Aaron reaches our target market sending relevant traffic. These links also help us rank for our target keywords.
During this process, you’re also building up a group of people that will most likely begin following you…
Seniors Rule! (12th Grade): Links Other People Give You Because You Create Remarkable Content.
This level is like the last month or two in high school when you’ve already passed mid terms and you’ve been accepted to the college of your choice. You’ve done the hard work already. Now, it’s time to go to parties and enjoy being the care free big man on campus.
You don’t necessarily halt the activities above. But, you spend more of your time just creating remarkable content. (And some link bait.)
read the rest of the article here at one of my favorite sites HUBSPOT
