Venchito Tampon Jr

How to Build Edu Backlinks Using Scholarships (Without Spending a Penny)

If you've been in the SEO industry for years, you know how important it is to scale link building to help multiple clients rank in search for their respective keywords.

Given that almost every year, there are new link building strategies being created, the best way to be on top of the game is not to think of new strategies (since mostly they're just revised versions of old ones) but to create scalable processes for your link building campaigns.

What is an edu backlink?

An EDU backlink refers to a link from a .edu domain, representing educational institutions like schools and universities. These backlinks carry authority and can improve a website's credibility and search engine rankings. Creating quality content and building relationships with educational websites can help obtain valuable EDU backlinks.

In this post, I will walk you through one scalable strategy we've tested internally that can give significant results to your website: building .edu links using scholarships.

It's amazing because we hadn't spent a single penny when we built 14 .edu links in two months.

Want to learn how?

Keep reading:

 

How to Build Edu Backlinks Using Scholarships

Step 1: Target Relevant Niches

Audience targeting is not only necessary when executing common link building strategies like broken link building and guest blogging.

Even when you build .edu backlinks, you must know your target audience that is highly relevant to your website or client.

Here's how to make it simple.

Identify an audience of students who'd be interested in your scholarship program.

With our link building services, for example, we focus our scholarship efforts on students majoring in marketing, business, and advertising courses because we've found them to be more relevant to our website.

 

 

This is critical because if you got backlinks from .edu pages that are too far from your industry, they would be less valuable to your website. I'm not saying that generic .edu links aren't good enough, they are, of course, but if you can get a high-quality link from a much more relevant page, that would be better.

Here are a few examples of audiences you can target for scholarships:

 

Step 2: Create a Scholarship Page

It's very simple to create this type of content.

However, you've got to have the important details.

Here are a few pieces of information you must include on your scholarship page.

1. COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Provide a short description of your company. This is actually where your whole domain will mostly get value from.

Internally link to your homepage or other important pages to pass link juice to these pages.

Here's a quick example of what I did for our link building company site.

[internal-links-scholarship]

2. ELIGIBILITY

The more specific you are when stating who will be your target applicants, the better you'll get responses from university and college staff members.

These are the necessary details you need to include in the eligibility section:

• Full-time or part-time students?
• Specific and relevant courses for students
• Upcoming college students (high school), undergraduate or graduate?
• Target country (if it is within a city or local, make sure it is stated).

See this example:

3. AMOUNT VALUE

The scholarship amount depends on your client's budget or your website. But I'd prefer the minimum to be $1000. Any amount lower than that won't be attractive to educational institutions. I've seen a $300 scholarship program, not sure how it went.

4. APPLICATION DETAILS

This section should include how your applicants can get the scholarship. This could be a submission of a written or video-based answer to a question related to the industry.

For example, we've asked our applicants to submit a short essay or a 4 to 5-minute video answering any of these questions:

What would be your main strategy to market your business online?

What is your number one tip to manage a team of millennials?

Alongside the application process, you should also state the deadline and award dates.

To make the application much easier, provide a contact form at the end of your page so they can attach and send their requirements immediately.

 

Step 3: Prospect for EDU Backlink Opportunities

Not all educational websites have relevant scholarship listing opportunities you could get links from.

When finding those link targets, I use two methods to find opportunities that best fit my scholarship page.

METHOD 1: USING SEARCH ENGINE OPERATORS TO FIND OPPORTUNITIES

Search engine operators are useful to help you seek possible link sources straight from search engines – Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Combining appropriate search operators with proper keywords can filter the right prospects, enabling you to do link research much faster.

I use different search phrases I've collected and listed in a spreadsheet to find .edu link sources with scholarship pages.

This is pretty handy as you can hand over this task to a virtual assistant, freelancer, or your in-house SEO specialist (thanks to Jayson Bagio!).

What you are looking for in a scholarship page are two things:

• Solely list down relevant scholarship links or has a specific section that caters to your audience (i.e. a generic scholarship listing page with marketing external scholarship links).
• Has linked mentions of your scholarships (you want to get the most value from your effort, of course – so make sure they provide external links).

With this strategy, you don't have to worry about domain authority, Ahrefs rank, or other metrics you are using to qualify link opportunities since most .edu websites are within the range of DA40 to DA90.

You should also ensure that external links point to individual scholarship pages, not just to scholarship search engines or websites solely for scholarships.

 

METHOD 2: REVERSE ENGINEER A SIMILAR SCHOLARSHIP PAGE

If you run out of .edu scholarship listing opportunities, another way to expand your link list is to reverse engineer scholarship pages with edu referring pages.

You can use Ahrefs to plug in a similar scholarship page (which you can simply search in Google for the "keyword" "scholarship").

Scan through the list of backlinks and .edu websites with scholarship listing pages.

Once you've exhausted all possible link opportunities from one scholarship page, find another similar page and repeat the process.

Rinse and repeat.

MAKE SURE YOU ORGANIZE EVERYTHING

The key to properly scaling this .edu link building strategy is to organize everything.

I use a Google Docs spreadsheet for all tasks in a link building campaign.

Once you find a qualified link opportunity, include it in a Google Spreadsheet with all these required fields:

• Scholarship Listing Page
• Domains
• Relationship Status
• Name
• Email Address
• Remarks

 

FINDING CONTACT PERSON

Universities and colleges have several staff members, and the only way to build Edu backlinks is to reach out to the right person.

There are two types of emails we consider for scholarship link building technique:

scholarship@domain.edu – you can get this email straight from the scholarship listing page

financialaid@domain.edu – if you can't find the first email above, look for this one by checking out the admissions and/or finance aid department/section of the website.

contact@domain.edu  or contact form – if you can't see any of those emails above, you can simply send a simple message (email template later) to a generic email or through a contact form, asking for the right person to contact to about your request.

Step 4: Reach out to EDU Websites

When all details have been filled up, you are now ready to do outreach.

This is the exact email template that I used to reach out to .edu contact persons.

Scholarship for [ UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE ] students

Hello [ NAME ],

I noticed that you provide a list of private scholarship for students.

I'm sending you a message to let you know that my company offers one (1) [ AMOUNT] scholarship to [ UNIVERSITY / COLLEGE ]  students that major in [ INDUSTRY ] courses.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have so that I can send more information about our scholarship.

If it's not you who directly manages scholarships, can you forward me to the right person, please? I'd greatly appreciate that.

Regards,

[ YOUR NAME ]

When you send pitches to these people, you'll most receive three types of responses.

RESPONSE #1

 

If you receive this positive response, you just have to send all the details of your scholarship to them either via email or via a form that they will provide.

Once your scholarship is posted, they will give you a heads-up. If you don't receive a reply, make sure you monitor new backlinks to your site to see if you've got a backlink from one scholarship page. Pro tip: use Monitor Backlinks to ease this process.

Anchor texts on Edu backlinks are diversified: some are naked URLs, and others are exact scholarship titles.

RESPONSE #2

If you can only offer less than $1000 or $500, some Edu sites won't include yours in their scholarship listings since they have a certain threshold they consider.

RESPONSE #3

Another case is when financial/admission departments restrict scholarship listings to only one or two districts or local-based scholarships. See the response below.

A few more things:

• Some Edu sites don't list individual scholarship pages, but they get to add new scholarships from scholarship search engines. You can try submitting your site to scholarship search engines to increase the chance of getting an Edu backlink.
• Be specific with audience targeting because some EDU financial departments do not add any scholarships not thematically related to their students' courses (e.g. if it's a marketing-centric scholarship, don't dare to reach out to a psychology-based scholarship page).

WITHOUT SPENDING A PENNY

The title of this post says, "Without Spending A Penny."

That's true because I'll only spend some money ($500 in my case) on the scholarship award date.  I would have received the returns on the efforts before the money was spent. A $500 budget for 14 links already amounts to $35 per 1 Edu backlink.

If you liked this post, subscribe to our newsletter and follow me on @venchito14.

Need help with your link building campaigns? Check out our link building services here.

 

EDU Backlinks Frequently Asked Questions

What are edu links?

Edu links are a valuable component of SEO strategy. An edu domain represents educational institutions like colleges and universities. The power of edu backlinks lies in their high domain authority and trustworthiness. By obtaining these links, websites can enhance rankings and visibility in search engines.

 

How do I get a backlink from a .edu site?

To get a backlink from a .edu site, try these effective strategies:

1. Create valuable and relevant content that appeals to educational institutions.
2. Guest post on .edu blogs or contribute to their resource pages.
3. Reach out to professors or students for collaboration opportunities.
4. Offer scholarships or sponsorships to universities.
5. Join relevant forums or communities where .edu members are active.
6. Conduct research and share findings with educational institutions.
7. Build relationships with influential figures in the education field.
8. Use social media platforms to engage with .edu communities and promote your content.

These strategies will help you establish quality backlinks from .edu sites.

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by Venchito Tampon Jr

Anchor Text: The Definitive Guide

What is an anchor text?

An anchor text is a clickable text that appears as a hyperlink and links to a web page. It tells search engines what the linked page is about, and its usage is an important factor in SEO. Anchor texts should be descriptive and relevant to the linked page's content to help users and search engines understand the page better.

 

This is an anchor text guide for beginners and advanced SEO and link-building practitioners.

What are the types of anchor texts?

The types of anchor texts are exact-match, partial-match, branded, naked link, generic, and images.

SEO-friendly anchor text is that which clearly describes the linked-to page's content and context, and the surrounding content should provide additional context. It is recommended to use various anchor text types to appear natural to both users and search engines. Remember that excessively using exact-match or other manipulative types can lead to penalties by search engines.

 

To simplify things, let’s say I want to rank for the term, “link building” and I’m publishing a post for another link building blog with a link to my web page.

If I’d use these types of anchor text, here’s what the link with each type of anchor text looks like.

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Exact match anchors – the anchor text is the target keyword you’re trying to rank for.

I’ve shared at SharpRocket a post about link building that includes all actionable tips you need to get quality backlinks for your website.

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Partial match anchors – the anchor text contains the target keyword or keyphrase you’re trying to rank for.

I’ve shared at SharpRocket a post about actionable link building tips you need to get quality backlinks for your website.

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Branded anchor text – the anchor text is the name of the brand.

I’ve shared at SharpRocket a post about link building that includes all actionable tips you need to get quality backlinks for your website.

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Naked URLs anchors – the anchor text is not a word or phrase but the URL of the page or domain itself.

I’ve shared at SharpRocket a post about actionable link building tips. See it here: URL 

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Descriptive anchors – the anchor text is a description of what the page or URL is all about, it may or may not include the target keyword.

This post at SharpRocket explains what link building is all about and 101 link building tips that includes the exact step by step processes to apply each of those tips.

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Generic anchors – the anchor text is a generic phrase that does not include the target keyword.

I’ve shared at SharpRocket a post about link building that includes all actionable tips you need to get quality backlinks for your website. If you want to check it out, click here.

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LSI anchors - the anchor text is a synonym or related word or phrase of the target keyword you’re trying to rank for.

I’ve shared at SharpRocket a post about off-page SEO that includes all actionable tips you need to get quality backlinks for your website.

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Image anchors – the anchor text is the alt text of the image.

Google Penguin in 2012 and 2023 Forward

Before the Google Penguin update, websites could build massive article directories and guest post links with ~100% exact match anchor texts. This was not a problem for SEOs as they can automate everything, from prospecting link opportunities to putting these links into their desired pages, not considering the relevance between linking pages.

Private blog networks weren’t a big option for link builders then, too, since the usual massive spammy link building tactics were already enough to get website ranking results.

But then Google Penguin came in 2012, which affected websites in different industries. As you can see in the image below, it shows a few statistics of niche websites that were hit back then.

Anchor Text Usage

Anchor text usage on all inbound links is one factor Google considers in determining if a page should be penalized and demoted in its organic rankings.

Aggressive anchor text or too much exact match anchor text on all inbound links for a certain page isn’t a normal activity to think about. Websites with all backlinks with more than 50% exact match anchor texts, “payday loans” for example, are questionable to be natural in their backlinking method.

Source Website

Google’s Gary Ilyes has been tweeted/asked questions on Penguin 4.0 since its launch last September 23, 2016. One point he made is how Google Penguin targets a specific page. He clarified that it’s not just about the link, but rather the “source site” where the link comes from is what they also consider.

Questionable or penalized websites have much more risks to give to you when acquiring links.

To ensure you’re only building high-quality sites, check out the site’s organic traffic data if the linking site has a history of organic drop. This organic drop is a possible sign of Google penalties.

SEMRush can aid you with this task, so have someone check the site’s estimated organic data.

 

More Granular

The granular attack of Penguin on pages that need to be demoted in its rankings isn’t any newer to the search engine optimization community (in Penguin 2.0, it seemed to be on page-level and keyword-level concerns already). The only thing that becomes clearer here is the word “more”, which we should all consider as we work on the website’s link acquisition campaigns.

It’s just that Google considers page-to-page or a few website parts as its consideration for penalties. In that sense, you shouldn’t be confident enough to think that the spammy link building tactics you are doing right now won’t hurt your website’s health in the future.

More Google Penguin 4.0 Resources:

• Google Penguin 4.0 Recoveries
• Google Penguin 4.0 Declines

9 Anchor Text Optimization Best Practices

1. Avoid Acquiring Backlinks With Too Many Exact Match Anchors

I’ve worked with a lot of SEO agencies and digital marketing agencies all over the world, catering to 100+ clients throughout my SEO corporate experience, and there’s one thing people are still confused about:

Are exact match anchors good for my rankings?

When you answer them “YES” right away, they’ll defend you with their “NO”s and just tell you to use generic anchor texts, like click here and go to this site, because they think this is the best anchor text strategy.

Wrong.

Exact match anchor texts aren’t bad at all.

Ryan Stewart had an interesting short case study of how he could rank for Miami SEO after he published a guest post on Ahrefs with the exact match anchor text: “Miami SEO”.

 

You don’t have to consider the anchor text distribution percentage in your backlink profile - say 3 or 5 percent.

You can test for yourself building one or two backlinks to your page with an exact match anchor text.

Don’t be afraid. Your site won’t get penalized with 1 or 2 backlinks. After all, if you have hundreds or thousands of backlinks, those 2 exact match anchor text links account for less than 1%.

Check how the site will react to those two backlinks and see what movements your page will take you (e.g. from position 40 to position 12). You’ll then also see how tight the competition is for the target keyword you’re trying to rank for.

2. Focus on Various Link Types

It’s so easy to be stuck with the idea of anchor text ratios. While running other SEO activities like technical audit, content creation, and outreach, you still have to think about establishing a natural backlink profile.

Instead of getting a headache with that issue, focus on the link type. After all, why must you create a list of anchor texts with exact/estimated percentages if you’re aiming for a natural link profile?

That itself is unnatural.

A natural link profile is composed of backlinks with different link types.

Here are some examples of different link types.

1. Community-based link

 

2. Referential link

 

3. Blog comment link

 

Don’t focus too much on anchor text variations, but ensure that you get various backlink types for your website.

Note: There’s one exception here, I’ve seen websites that focus only on contextual (both earned and built) and resource types of links, and they didn’t acquire directory or citation links but are still dominating SERPs. But if you’re into local SEO, combining those contextual and resource links with local-centric profiles/association/directory links is a must.

But if your site gets directory and citation links with a few to zero contextual backlinks, that looks unnatural.

3. Optimize Clicks Using Descriptive Anchor Texts

If you are still thinking about what anchor text strategy to use for your link building campaign, let me give you one simple tip.

If you are reaching out to bloggers in your industry (assuming it is a linker outreach approach), let them choose anchor texts.

They wouldn’t tell you what anchor texts they chose. They’d only give you a heads-up if they have linked to your page, and you’ll see the anchor texts yourself.

Most of the time, backlinks built using the linker outreach method are in descriptive anchor texts. The advantage of that anchor text is that it encourages user clicks.

While links can help increase rankings, their other purpose is to drive referral traffic.

Letting bloggers choose how and in what section of the linking pages they’ll add anchor texts with backlinks to your webpage affects the number of visitors those referring sites will drive back to your site. Backlinks placed on a higher position of the content have a high chance of more clicks.

 

One good example is the number of conversions (email subs) from my guest post on GotchSEO. That post itself drove 100+ impressions with 60+ converted email subscribers. That backlink is aimed to be clicked, given that it was placed under the bonuses section.

 

 

In cases where you have control over anchor text usage, i.e. content distribution on other blogs, it’s imperative to understand LSI and Co-occurrence as part of your overall anchor text strategy.

4. Understand and Use Co-Occurences

Co-occurrence s the frequency and proximity of similar keywords across one context in content. These are topically relevant keywords but not exactly the same as your ranking keyword.

Instead of frequently using your ranking keyword as your anchor text to be an exact match, what you can do is place your target keyword near descriptive anchor texts.

One good example of this is co-occurrences within links to Kaiserthesage. Here are a few examples:

 

 

 

 

 

Google understands the relevance of a link without having to use exact match anchor texts all the time. Adding co-occurrences to linking pages can help search engines fully identify the context theme of your website with its linking web pages.

5.  Find New Organic Ranking Keywords

When a linkable asset has been ranking for several long-tail keywords, finding untapped match keywords your content isn’t primarily catering to would be strategic.

You tend to rank these keywords (or had some impressions on SERPs) because search engines have highly perceived your content as worthy to rank for pages 3 or so.. (may not be visible on the first two SERPs pages).

The advantage when monitoring new keywords is that you can upgrade your content to cater to new audiences or be more desirable to rank for newly found organic ranking keywords by adding some topical sections to your piece.

What’s the implication of this to your anchor text link strategy?

If you’ve added a new section in your content piece to service those new organic keywords, it’d be additional anchor texts to use for internal and external manual link building. This will add more trust and authority to your content and help it dominate searches for those newly found organic keywords.

6. Search For Related Phrases and Instagram Trends

There is no such activity of finding new ranking keywords to add to your current list of target anchor texts, as you don’t want to use them all for exact match link strategy.

However, when trying to manually add descriptive anchor texts to internal linking pages and build linking pages (i.e. guest posts), you have to know what keyphrases are thematically relevant to your target keyword. Thus, it’d be easy for you to write robust content with LSI keywords and strategically do co-occurrences on links.

Two simple ways to find related search phrases of your target keywords.

First, do a straight Google search for the exact keyword or key phrase you’re trying to rank for. You can try two different searches. One is with quotes. The second is without. See at the bottom of search pages related search phrases Google provides based on the keyword you entered.

Second, just type in your keyword and wait for Google to suggest more specific/relevant search phrases. You’ll find out that some of them aren’t included in your keyword list from Google Keyword Planner or other common keyword research tools you use. They don’t need always to have a high search volume to decide whether or not they are good to target for content pieces.

If you ask me, where is this going? The answer is adding more keyphrases for your anchor text link strategy to be used for LSI keywords for internal and external content assets and to be better at co-occurrences on backlinks.

7. Optimize Content Using Content Gap Monitoring

I’ve been discussing how to find new organic keywords ranking in your content because these are useful for upgrading your content to its next version (or to 10x content if it hasn’t been achieved yet).

While you can simply focus on your content’s search results performance alone, you’d want to try seeing new organic keywords of similar content pieces your competitors normally produce.

The only difference between this process, which I’d like to label as “Content Gap Monitoring” with the typical “content gap analysis,” is that you’re doing it regularly – as part of your monthly SEO or content marketing activity.

SEO agencies that want to test this process out don’t have to worry about the time it’ll consume to run the entire process, as it is scalable through the use of Ahrefs as our primary content gap monitoring tool.

The first step is to find similar competing content. Only choose content assets that are specifically ranked for your target keyword. If you’ve done a robust competitor keyword research analysis as your first SEO initiative, you can skip this part already.

The second step is to monitor new organic keywords competing for similar content assets. Go to Ahrefs, then click on Alerts - New Keywords.

 

 

Click add alert button in the right section.

 

Choose URL as its mode, so you’ll only receive a list of new organic keywords that a specific page has been acquiring, not the whole domain. For volume, the default, “All” is good, so you can also see low-volume keywords.

For email frequency, it’s your decision whether to receive those organic keyword-centric emails weekly or monthly, but I highly recommend you go with weekly to upgrade your existing content for potential ranking keywords as sooner as possible.

8. Backlink Audit on Exact Match Anchor Texts Links

With the recent Google Penguin update (most SEOs believe that it is indeed real-time), our activity to continuously monitor our site’s incoming links and make sure there aren’t any negative SEO isn’t any more a tedious task for us (SEOs/link builders).

If you have read posts on Google Penguin’s specific effects on SEO activities, there’s no need to make serious efforts to remove existing bad/toxic links to your website, as Google tends to devalue them anyway. So if a site has been receiving new low-quality links from a Negative SEO attack, for example, the efforts now shouldn’t be focused on removing those types of links but on continuously acquiring new high-quality backlinks for your site (this posts of mine on how to get backlinks and actionable link building strategies will help you a lot).

 

What’s the implication of this to my anchor text diversification?

In cases where those incoming toxic links are on exact match anchor texts, you don’t have to focus on removing them from your backlink profile but on driving new high-quality backlinks to your site. Since websites are dealt with granularly, those bad links won’t affect your site as a whole, only on parts that should be affected.

Nonetheless, a link audit is still a must. Google states that bad links are simply being devalued. The possibility of needing to disavow more links is unlikely. However, if you have a lot of unnatural links and never disavowed them, you need to disavow them. It may be why you’re still not recovering from the penalty.

You still have to do some groundwork for disavowing bad links. But keep in mind that while doing it, the focus shouldn’t just be there but more on helping your site continuously acquire good links to boost your site’s health over time.

If it’s real-time, your site can easily recover (some have proven this to happen to some fully/partially-recovered sites), and there’s much more work now to be put into higher-level link acquisition.

9. Convert High-Quality Exact Match Anchor Texss To Branded Links

Other posts on link audit (which I highly suggest need to be updated) discuss managing exact anchor text links by converting them into branded links.

In my experience, filtering your exact match anchor texts based on their quality should be everyone’s link builders/SEOs’ first initiative.

Don’t spend time converting low-quality exact match anchor texts to branded links, as these will be devalued (if it’s a negative SEO attack) or if they’ve been built by your past SEOs (do a link audit and link removal/link disavow).

What you have to focus on now is checking on only existing high-quality exact-match anchor text links. These links shouldn’t just be any type, i.e. directory or any massive link type, but only editorial links that are manually built, i.e. guest blog posts.

Whether or not these high-quality exact-match links are affecting parts of your website, you should still be converting them into branded links (as possible as you can), by manually reaching out to web admins to whom you’ve contributed guest posts in the past. Ask them if they are capable of changing those exact matches to branded types of links. This should help some parts of your site not to be negatively affected by real-time Penguin.

Now It’s Your Turn…

How do you diversify your backlinks' anchor texts?

Or maybe you have a question about implementing any of the insights in our above list?

Either way, leave a comment quickly below.

I'll be more than happy to reply to comments and answer questions.

So if you have a question, insight, or new tactic, leave a comment right now.

 

Anchor Texts Frequently Asked Questions

What is anchor text vs keywords?

Anchor text and keywords are two important elements in SEO. Keywords refer to the words or phrases you want to rank for on your webpage, while anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink that leads to another page.

In other words, the anchor text provides context to the link and helps search engines understand what the linked page is about. Using descriptive and relevant keywords in your anchor text is crucial to optimize your webpage's ranking.

 

What is the content of anchor text?

The content of anchor text refers to the words that make up the clickable link. It gives users and search engines context about where the link will take them. Using relevant and descriptive anchor text is important to improve the user experience and help search engines understand the page content. Keep it brief, clear, and concise for maximum impact.

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by Venchito Tampon Jr

How to Do Local SEO Keyword Research

Undoubtedly, keyword research is one of the most important aspects of any SEO campaign, local or otherwise. Uncovering relevant, high-traffic keywords that you can realistically rank for is essential to the success of your local SEO efforts.

Unfortunately, keyword research can also be one of SEO's most difficult and time-consuming parts. If you're not careful, it's easy to get lost in the sea of data and come up empty-handed.

In this post, we'll share some tips and tricks on how to do local SEO keyword research the right way. By the end, you should have a solid list of keywords to target to improve your local SEO.

In this article, you'll learn:

• What is local keyword research? 
• Why is local keyword research important? 
• How to Do Local SEO Keyword Research (5 Steps Using Ahrefs) 
• How to Track Local Keyword Rankings 

 

What is local keyword research? 

Local keyword research is the process of locating high-traffic, relevant keywords that you can rank for in your local market.

Unlike traditional keyword research, which focuses on general, broad keywords, local keyword research is all about finding keywords specific to your geographic area.

For example, if you're a plumber in Los Angeles, you'll want to focus on keywords like "plumber Los Angeles", "emergency plumber Los Angeles", and "24 hour plumber Los Angeles".

 

Not only are these keywords relevant to your business, but they're also specifically targeted to users in your city. This makes them much easier to rank for than general keywords like "plumber" or "emergency plumber".

 

Why is local keyword research important? 

If you want your business to be visible in the local search results, you need to be ranking for local keywords. Here are a few other reasons why local keyword research is important:

Local keywords are more relevant to your business. 

Think about it this way: when someone in your city is searching for a business like yours, they're not going to type in "plumber". Instead, they will type "plumber Los Angeles" or "emergency plumber Los Angeles".

If you're not ranking for these keywords, you won't appear in the search results. And if you're not showing up in the search results, you won't get any traffic (or customers).

Local keywords are generally more relevant to your brand because they're specifically targeted to users in your city or region. This makes them a valuable asset to any local SEO campaign.

Local keywords are easier to rank for. 

Local keywords are generally easier to rank than general, broad ones. This is because there's less competition for these keywords.

For example, we are targeting "coffee shop in San Jose Del Monte Bulacan" for our brick-and-mortar business in the Philippines. Given that the keyphrase is so specific, it only took us weeks to rank on the first page. See below: 

 

 

This is good news for your business. It means that, with a little effort, you can rank for local keywords and start getting traffic from the search results.

Local keywords are more likely to convert. 

Not only are local keywords easier to rank for, but they're also more likely to convert. This is because users who search for these keywords are usually further along in the buying cycle.

They know what they need, and they're specifically looking for a business like yours in their city or region. This makes them much more likely to convert than someone just searching for a general keyword like "plumber".

To get the most out of your SEO efforts, you need to focus on local keywords. Now let's take a look at how you can find these keywords.

 

How to Do Local SEO Keyword Research (5 Steps Using Ahrefs) 

The best way to find local keywords is with a tool like Ahrefs. Ahrefs is a keyword research tool that allows you to see any keyword's search volume, traffic, and difficulty.

It also has several other features that make it perfect for local SEO keyword research, including:

• The ability to see local search results 
• The ability to filter keywords by location 
• The ability to see the "local pack" for any keyword

 

Here's how to use Ahrefs for local SEO keyword research:

Step 1: Set your location 

The first thing you need to do is set your location. To do this, go to "Settings" and "Location".

You can either choose your current location or set a custom location. For the purposes of this tutorial, we're going to set a custom location.

To do this, enter the city or region you want to target into the "Location" field and click "Set location".

 

Step 2: Enter your seed keyword 

Once you've set your location, it's time to enter your seed keyword. This is the general, broad keyword that you want to rank for.

For example, if you're a plumber in Los Angeles, your seed keyword might be "plumber".

To enter your seed keyword, go to the "Keywords Explorer" tab and enter your keyword into the "Enter one or more terms" field.

 

Step 3: Filter for local keywords 

Once you've entered your seed keyword, it's time to filter the results for local keywords. To do this, go to the "Filter" dropdown and then click "Location".

This will bring up a new window where you can select the location you want to target. Make sure to select the same location that you set in Step 1.

Once you've selected your location, click "Apply".

 

Step 4: Sort keywords by difficulty 

The next step is to sort the keywords by difficulty. This will help you to find the easiest keywords to rank for.

Go to the "Difficulty" column and click the arrow icon to do this. This will sort the keywords from easiest to hardest.

 

Step 5: Choose your target keyword 

Once you've sorted the keywords by difficulty, it's time to choose your target keyword. You will focus on ranking for this keyword in the search results.

 

How to Choose Which Keywords to Use

When choosing a target keyword, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

Search volume 

The higher the search volume, the more traffic you'll likely get from the keyword.

Competition 

The lower the competition, the easier to rank for the keyword.

Difficulty 

The lower the difficulty, the easier to rank the keyword.

Once you've considered all these factors, choose the keyword you want to target and add it to your SEO plan.

In deciding which keywords to target, the rule of thumb is usually to target the keywords with the highest search volume and lowest competition.

But that's not absolute, as there are local keywords with 0-10 or zero search volume that can generate hundreds of organic traffic to your website. See what keywords make sense for your business and content theme, and publish pages around those topics. 

 

Other Tools for Local Keyword Research

In addition to Ahrefs, there are several other tools you can use for local keyword research. Some of the most popular options include:

• Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
• Google Keyword Planner 
• Moz Local 
• BrightLocal 
• Whitespark Local Citation Finder 

These are all great tools that can help you to find the right keywords for your business.

 

Next Step: Expand Your Keyword List

Now that you've found some great local keywords, it's time to expand your list.

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that allows you to enter a seed keyword and see a list of related keywords.

 

UberSuggest is another tool that can be used to expand your keyword list. It's a free tool that generates a list of related keywords based on a seed keyword.

AnswerThePublic.com is a free tool that allows you to enter a seed keyword and see a list of questions related to that keyword.

How to Track Local Keyword Rankings 

Now that you've chosen your target keyword, tracking your local keyword rankings is time. This will help you to see how well your SEO efforts are paying off and whether or not you need to make any changes.

You can track your local keyword rankings in a few different ways, but the best way is with a tool like Ahrefs.

To track your keyword rankings with Ahrefs, go to the "Rank Tracker" tab and enter your target keyword into the "Enter one or more terms" field.

This will bring up a list of all the keywords you're tracking and their current position in the search results.

You can also see other important information, such as each keyword's search volume, traffic, and difficulty.

 

Takeaways

Local SEO keyword research is a great way to find keywords you can rank for in the search results. While there are a lot of suggested strategies, the process is quite simple.

With a little effort, you can soon start ranking for high-traffic, low-competition keywords and driving more traffic to your website.

 

Local SEO Keyword Research Frequently Asked Questions

How do I target local keywords?

To target local keywords effectively, start by researching popular terms specific to your target location. Use tools like Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, and local search volumes to identify relevant keywords. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your website content, meta tags, and local business listings. Optimize your website for local searches through local schema markup and creating location-specific landing pages.

 

How to do location based keyword research?

For location-based keyword research, follow these steps:

1. Identify your target location.
2. Use location-specific keyword tools to find relevant keywords.
3. Analyze search volume and competition for each keyword.
4. Optimize your website and content with these location-based keywords.
5. Monitor performance and make adjustments as necessary.

By conducting location-based keyword research, you can improve your website's visibility and attract local visitors.

 

How do I track local SEO?

To track local SEO, start by setting up Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Use Google My Business Insights to monitor your listing performance and track keyword rankings in local search. Additionally, implement tools like Moz Local or BrightLocal for comprehensive local SEO tracking. Regularly review your website's organic traffic and local pack placement to gauge the success of your local SEO efforts.

 

Is local SEO worth it?

Yes, local SEO is definitely worth the effort for many businesses. Whether you have a physical store or offer services in a specific area, implementing local SEO can substantially benefit your business. By optimizing your online presence for local searches, you can increase visibility, attract more targeted customers, and drive higher conversion rates.

 

How can I SEO research keywords for free?

There are several free SEO research tools available. Here are some of the most popular options:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Moz Keyword Explorer
• UberSuggest
• AnswerThePublic.com
• Rank Tracker
• Google Search Console
• Keyword Tool Dominator

 

What is included in local SEO?

Local SEO includes optimizing your website for local search engines and directories, as well as making sure your business is listed in relevant local directories.

It also involves optimizing your website content for local keywords and making sure your website is mobile-friendly.

 

How do I use Google local SEO?

There are a few different things you can do to optimize your website for Google local SEO:

• Make sure your NAP (name, address, and phone number) is consistent across all platforms.
• Claim your Google My Business listing and make sure it is up-to-date.
• Optimize your website content for local keywords.
• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly.
• Add relevant Schema markup to your website.
• Encourage customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business listing.
• Monitor your local SEO efforts with a tool like Ahrefs.

 

How do you know you need local SEO?

Wondering if your business needs local SEO? Here are signs that you need one:

1) You have a physical location

If you're a brick-and-mortar business, then you need local SEO. Optimizing your website for local search will help customers find your store when they're searching for products or services in your area.

2) You serve a specific geographic area

If you only serve customers in a specific geographic area, then you need local SEO. For instance, if you're a plumber in Los Angeles, you'll want to optimize your website for local search so that people in Los Angeles can find you when they're searching for a plumber.

3) You have an online store

If you have an online store, then you need local SEO. optimizing your website for local search will help customers find your store when they're searching for products or services in your area.

4) You're a service-based business

Service-based businesses, such as lawyers, doctors, and plumbers, need local SEO. This is because people often search for these types of services when they're looking for someone in their area.

5) You want to increase foot traffic to your store

If you're a local restaurant, you'd want to reach diners around your area. One way to get in front of your target audience is to optimize your website for local search. This way, when people are searching for restaurants in your area, your restaurant will come up in the search results.

6) You want to increase phone calls or online bookings

If one of your KPIs is to increase phone calls or online bookings, then you need local SEO. Not only does Local SEO help customers find your business, but it also helps them find your contact information. This way, they can easily get in touch with you to book an appointment or ask for more information.

7) You want to increase online sales

Who doesn't want this, right? If you're looking to increase online sales, then you need to make sure your website is optimized for local search.

8) You're not ranking in the top 3 results

If you're not ranking in the top 3 results for your target keywords, then you need to optimize your website for local search. Because 75% of people don't go past the first page of Google, it's important to make sure your website is visible in the search results.

9) You're not appearing in the Local Pack

The Local Pack is a box that appears at the top of the search results that includes three local businesses. If you're not appearing in this box, improving your Local SEO can help you get in front of more potential customers.

10) Your competitors are doing it

If your competitors are doing Local SEO and you're not, they're getting an edge over you. By optimizing your website for local search, you can level the playing field and compete with them for top rankings in the search results.

 

How do I find local keyword volume?

Here's how to figure out how popular your local keywords are

1. Go to Google Keyword Planner.
2. Select “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category”
3. Enter your seed keyword and location
4. Click “Get Ideas”
5. Scroll down to the “Keyword Ideas” section and review the “Local Monthly Searches” column.

This will give you an estimate of the monthly search volume for each keyword.

You now better understand Local SEO and why it's important for your business. If you're not already doing Local SEO, now is the time to start!

---

by Venchito Tampon Jr

How To Do A Complete Backlink Audit (5 Easy Steps)

After conducting hundreds of backlink audit campaigns for our clients, we teach you the entire process to do it. 

In this guide, you'll discover:

• What is a backlink audit? 
• Why backlink audit is important? 
• 5 easy steps to do a backlink audit (in less than 30 minutes) 

So finish this guide if you want to know if your website is in good shape through a simple backlink audit. 

What is a backlink audit? 

A backlink audit is the process of assessing all the links pointing to your website. It involves identifying both good and bad links and devising a strategy to address them. You can download your list of links from Google Webmaster Tools and manually review each backlink. It's crucial for maintaining the health and credibility of your website.

In this activity, you want to ensure zero unnatural and toxic backlinks could harm your website, which could hinder future SEO initiatives or trigger a Google manual or algorithmic penalty. 

 

Why do a backlink audit?

Performing a backlink audit is essential to ensure the health of your website. You can identify and remove any harmful or spammy backlinks by conducting a thorough analysis. This not only protects your site from potential penalties but also enhances your SEO efforts, allowing for better organic rankings and traffic.

Before you perform a backlink audit, you need to know why you should be doing it. 

Here are three purposes of a backlink audit:

• Identify spammy inbound links to your website.
• Do more of what you did well in previous link building efforts.
• Get insights into your next link building plan. 

 

Identify spammy inbound links.

You could've taken a new client, and you're unaware that their previous agency built bad links to your client's site. 

Or your website has been hit by a negative SEO attack. Your competitors have done nasty things by building toxic links to your website instead of focusing on improving their backlink profile.

Either way, you want to know if you've got any spammy inbound links. You want to remove them as soon as possible as a course of action. Otherwise, you might receive a Google manual penalty, which could hurt your website's organic traffic (and conversions) 

 

Do more of what you did well in previous link building efforts.

A backlink audit isn't just knowing the negative stuff. It also gives you the time to assess what works well and do more of them. 

If you've been building and earning good backlinks, it is wise to replicate the types of links, link building strategies, and linkable content formats to improve your site's backlink profile even more. 

 

Get insights into your next link building plan.

Backlink audit helps you assess your website's link profile against the competition. 

With that, you can leverage a more cohesive action-oriented plan to outpace your competitor's backlinks and outrank their performance in search results. 

Insights gathered from backlink audits help you come up with a solid future link building plan. 

 

Backlink Audit Tools

You need tools to help you gather valuable information about your backlinks. 

In performing a backlink audit, you could use any of the following link building tools (or even combine them if you have spreadsheet skills):

• Moz
• Majestic
• Search Console
• Ahrefs 
• Screaming Frog
• SEMRush
• Screaming Frog 
• Link Assistant 

My recommended tools for backlink audits are Ahrefs, Moz, and Majestic. 

It is best to invest in at least one of the mentioned link intelligence tools, as you'll not only be using them for backlink audit but for other essential link building tasks (e.g. competitor backlink research and link search).  

In this guide, I'll be using Ahrefs and Majestic. So let's go about how to do a complete backlink audit in 30 minutes or less.

 

How To Do A Backlink Audit

Here is how to do a backlink audit in five steps:

1. Get an overview of your backlink profile and of your competitors.
2. Find low-quality backlinks to your website. 
3. Discover opportunities and methods by reviewing your backlink profile.
4. Check for any broken backlinks you can fix.
5. Strategize for your next link building plan.

 

Step 1:  Get An Overview Of Your Backlink Profile and Of Your Competitors 

In a backlink audit, you start from top to bottom. 

This means you look from a high-level view of your backlink profile and then lean into details. 

Begin by entering your domain into Ahrefs' Site Explorer to see overview details of your backlinks.

 

 

As of this writing, our example website has 39.8K total backlinks and 1.05K referring domains. 

The number of backlinks and referring domains gives you a quantifiable metric for the current success of your link building campaign. 

The higher your number with these numbers, the higher the domain rating you'll get for your website. More backlinks from high authority sites increase your own site's domain rating. 

Sidenote: If you find an imbalance number between the two, say 1M backlinks while having only 5K+ referring domains, take a closer look at the website, as this might indicate that the site did shady link building strategies. More on this later. 

Next thing to do:

 

Compute the average link gap between your website and your competitors. 

You have to compute the average backlink gap to keep up with your competitors (or get ahead of them).

What is backlink gap? 

Backlink gap is basically the estimated difference of links and referring domains between your competitors and your website.

It's not an absolute number, though, but this gives you a rough estimate of how many links you should be pursuing to get ahead of the competition. 

One tool you can use to compute for this initially is Ahrefs' Domain Comparison feature.

When you enter your competitors' domains, It shows you an overview of backlink data across multiple domains at a glance. 

 

You can see directly here how many backlinks and referring domains your competitors have compared to yours. 

The backlink gap isn't just about the quantity difference.

So to calculate the backlink gap, you should focus on high-quality backlinks. The easiest way to get the links' quality is by evaluating each referring domain's DR. You can do it via Ahrefs' Referring Domains report. 

Once you have a list of websites and their DR, you need to export the results and see how many links are high-quality (DR > 70), medium quality (DR ≥ 30 ), and low-quality websites (DR < 30). 

Sidenote: DR isn't the only metric to assess link quality. Other tools offer similar metrics, such as Moz' Domain Rating and Majestic Trustflow. But for the purposes of using Ahrefs, we use DR as our qualitative metric. 

Another initiative to get a top-level view of the competition is to: 

 

Assess your link velocity rate in comparison to your competitors. 

The link velocity rate is the speed at which backlinks to your website are added over a specific period of time. 

You can be so fast at a given time, which might dictate a potential negative SEO attack, or so slow that your competitors are outcompeting you regarding links. 

To check link velocity, you can see the website's referring domains graph on Ahrefs' Site Explorer overview.

Sidenote: Check if there is a big burst or big drop on referring domains graph. A big burst might indicate a potential negative SEO attack, while a big drop might signal loss of links to specific pages. 

Speaking of potential harm to your website, your next activity should be to:

 

Look for potential spam and keyword-rich anchor text in your profile.

Harmful links are easy to detect by looking at how they link to you — anchor text. 

One is checking for any dodgy anchor texts and keyword-rich anchor texts. 

Ahrefs provides an anchor text section of all backlinks in your profile.

A good anchor text profile must compose of branded anchor texts, as this is a natural way for other publishers to link to their external sources.

Check if there are any dodgy anchor texts:

Or high-density keyword-rich anchor texts: 

Sidenote: Backlinks with keyword-rich anchor texts aren't necessarily bad. In fact, it's common to have this type of anchor text. However, if you see that the high density of your anchor texts (let's say 70 to 90%) are all keyword-rich anchor texts, consider it for a backlink audit execution. 

Covered this earlier, but it's good to separate this one: 

 

Check for possible negative SEO attacks. 

Are there any big spikes or big dips in referring domains graph? 

Big spikes might indicate negative SEO to your website. Other webmasters and SEOs may be trying to pull your site's organic traffic by building toxic backlinks to your pages.

What will you do then?

Ignore or disavow. 

Why and how? 

Read our next step. I'll get into this in a little more detail. 

 

Step 2:  Find Low-Quality Backlinks To Your Website. 

This is one of the important steps in a backlink audit.

The reason you want to find low quality backlinks is to remove them (at all costs if you can). 

Toxic, irrelevant backlinks could hinder your SEO growth in the future if not taken into consideration.

So how do you find low-quality backlinks? 

First, know the difference between good backlinks and bad backlinks.

You can't find them if you don't know their nature and if they are considered as bad. 

 

Good Backlinks VS Bad Backlinks

What is a good backlink?

A good backlink is editorially given.

Editorially given links are natural backlinks. These are links gained without any manipulation or even some kind of manual outreach. 

You create value from the content or any other web assets, and that's why they link to you. 

 

A good backlink is from a reliable website.

A reliable website is a website that has an intended audience. It speaks to a target market (e.g. tech-savvy people). 

You'll know if a website is good when the website has a real audience (readers). If it's a blog, you can check the website's social engagement and its comment section. There you'll know that it has a community of readers. 

A reliable website has good-quality content. The information isn't generated by any AI copywriting tools or spun content by getting original content and running it through a word spinner content to make it look original.

You know that the content is high-quality when you can read information from beginning to end and still understand it.

 

A good backlink is from an authoritative website.

Authority is relative. But it can easily be determined by a quantifiable metric such as Ahrefs' Domain Rating.

An authoritative website must have a Domain Rating (or Moz' Domain Authority) of 25 and above. 

Sidenote: Some domains may have low DR given that they don't have many links yet pointing to the website. However, these low-DR websites have real authors and readers and are good sources of backlinks. 

 

A good backlink is do-follow. 

Dofollow backlinks improve link equity to destination pages, which is great for ranking websites.

While you can naturally get no-follow backlinks, you must aim for do follow backlinks, as it passes more link juice to your website. 

Sidenote: Do not discount no-follow backlinks, as it makes your backlink profile natural. But if you want to maximize your outreach efforts, pursue link opportunities that are do-follow because they pass link juice to your website. 

Now, it's time to know what a bad backlink is.

It's the opposite characteristics of a good backlink. 

 

What is a bad backlink?

A bad backlink is from a spammy source.

They don't come from reliable websites. 

Bad backlinks are from websites of low-quality Private Blog Network, content farms, and generic low-quality directories.

 

Bad backlink is from a website with rich exact match anchor texts. 

A high density of keyword-rich anchor texts can harm your website. Unnatural anchor texts signal your website to be manipulating each and every manual outreach effort. 

 

Bad backlink is from elicits websites.

Elicit websites are porn, gambling, hate, adult, and unsafe.

 

Bad backlink is related to spammy content.

Spammy content doesn't offer much value to its readers. Whether it is spun or AI-generated or it has grammatical errors. In other words, hard to consume for a general audience. 

 

Bad backlink is a no-follow link. 

No-follow backlinks don't pass any link juice to your website.

 

Now, you know exactly the difference between a good backlink and a bad backlink.

Let's get right to how you can find spammy backlinks. 

 

How to Find Low Quality Backlinks?

1. Enter your domain in Majestic to get backlink data. 

(I use Majestic this time as it gives me a more accurate spam score for backlinks through its Trust Flow). 

Export all backlinks.

 

2. Sort links according to spam metrics. 

Different link intelligence tools have different spam metrics. 

Moz has its Spam Score. Majestic has its Trustflow. For Ahrefs, you can use its Organic Traffic. 

Get low-quality links from the list that have either:

• Moz' Spam Score (Spam Score <8) 
• Majestic's Trustflow (TF <15)
• Ahrefs' Organic Traffic (<500)

Sidenote: You may be tempted not to check high-DR (DA) websites as it seems they don't have any indication for spam. But it is best to review high DR websites but with low organic traffic. 

Review websites with insignificant backlinks to referring domains ratio (e.g. 500K backlinks > 1K referring domains). 

 

Next:

 

3. Check anchor texts of these low-quality links. 

Dig deeper. 

See if they have irrelevant anchor texts or keyword-rich anchor texts. 

Make a note of these links with spammy anchor texts. 

 

4. See their link types. 

Bad backlinks are from non-authoritative websites and low-quality content (as mentioned earlier).

Check if any low-quality links are content farms, UGC (user-generated content), forums, and comments.

Also, make a note of these.

 

5. Manually check suspicious-looking websites.

Dig deeper and deeper.

After reviewing links with spammy anchor texts and low-quality link sources, check other websites with low spam scores.

There are other bad or spammy indications to links that are more obvious when you see the website.

Is the website full of display ads that the actual content gets difficult to read? 

Does the website have a general (non-niche) audience? 

Does the website have an old-school (the early 2000s) design template? 

These are just a few things to look at in the backlink source to assess their link quality. 

Now you need to:

 

6. Have a final list of websites.

This should be a list of backlinks:

• From low-quality link sources
• With irrelevant or keyword-rich anchor texts
• PBN-looking websites (old-school design template)
• From spammy content 
• From irrelevant and/or elicits websites

Once you have a list, you have three courses of action:

 

Ignore these toxic links. 

Because Google's algorithm has become so advanced in checking spammy links, they simply ignore backlinks to a website.

Especially if your website has gained authority and trust as it builds natural, high-quality links and offers readable and high-quality content. 

Google will simply ignore your toxic links. 

But if this is not your preferred action, you may:

 

Request for backlink removal. 

Find all email addresses of websites hosting these spammy links.

Contact those webmasters and ask them to remove your backlink.

There are cases where they would ask you for a payment before removing your link. For me, this is not worth your money (you should've invested it in link building).

If, in any case, some won't remove your backlinks, it's time to disavow them. 

 

Disavow

Disavow is simply telling Google that you don't count certain backlinks of your website. 

To start with this, list down all domains or web pages you find to be low-quality.

Then go to Search Console and to its disavow tool. 

You can check out the following guides to give more details on how to disavow toxic links:

• Google’s “Disavow Links Tool”: The Complete Guide
• When & How to Disavow Backlinks in 2021

 

Step 3:  Discover Opportunities and Methods By Reviewing Your Backlink Profile

Backlink audit is not only about finding low quality backlinks to your website.

It is also discovering the best opportunities and methods. 

 

Start by reviewing your backlink profile.

If your website has been successful in increasing its organic traffic. Plus, it attracts new backlinks every month.

It is best to uncover some content ideas.

How?

 

Use "Best by links" feature.

See which pages on your site have gained the most referring domains. 

 

You can assess which content formats, length of content, and topics have resonated most with your linkable audiences.

From this insight, you can create similar types of content to continue the momentum of gaining new inbound backlinks to your site.

Another important discovery:

 

Use "Best by links growth" feature of Ahrefs to know what pages naturally attract backlinks.

The first one knows the type and topic of content that works, with or without manual outreach, to get links. 

This time, it's more of getting insights into what gives your site the ability to attract backlinks, even without doing email outreach. 

By link growth, you see that the page attracts new links from publishers who used it as references for their content (they see it ranking on the first page while looking for references in search). 

 

This is an important process, as you can also use it for your competitors to see what pages bring them the most backlinks.

Besides links, you also want to know this:

 

Know what websites bring you the most traffic.

Go to Ahrefs and view Backlinks report. 

Sort websites based on Traffic. 

 

You want to know what websites pointing to your site bring the most referral traffic. 

This insight leads you to improve your link building strategies.

One is to go after these publications and contribute more guest posts to increase the traffic you get from them. 

Another way is to build content assets that resonate with high-traffic websites. So when you reach out to them and promote your content, you know it's something they'd be interested in linking as external sources. 

Want some more actionable methods?

Read the next link building opportunity. 

 

Discover patterns between your inbound links.

If you can identify commonalities between your most powerful backlinks, you start to understand why these people are linking to you.

Finding new backlink prospects that can help move the needle for your rankings becomes easier. 

 

In summary, to get insights and methods by reviewing your backlink profile:

• Use "Best by links" feature to uncover content ideas.
• Use "Best by links growth" to know what pages naturally attract backlinks.
• Know what websites bring you the most traffic.
• Discover patterns between your inbound links.

 

Step 4:  Check For Any Wasted Backlinks You Can Fix

Wasted backlinks are links that have brought value, but not giving desired link juice to your site anymore.

So what do you do about them?

Check for any wasted links and try to fix them.

How?

First:

 

Find broken pages of your websites with inbound links. 

This is an overlooked opportunity in link building:

Pages that gained backlinks but given they are no longer function, these links are put to waste. 

So, start identifying these broken pages by using "Best by links" feature of Ahrefs.

Then search for 404 pages by simply clicking the drop menu.  

 

These are defunct pages with links. 

Your action could be:

Redirect these broken pages to similar content on your site. This will pass link juice to your new page and, thus, help your linked-to page to rank for its target keyword.

Another plan is to create an entirely new page that covers the topic. 

Once you publish your new page, you can reach out to publishers and webmasters linked to your broken page. Ask them to change their external links (from the old broken page to a new page). 

 

Find pages with inbound links but with little to no organic search traffic. 

You also want to look at pages needing internal linking to push their rankings up in search results.

How to find them first?

Once you enter the domain in Ahrefs Site Explorer, go to "Top Pages" report from Organic Search tab.

Filter pages based on Traffic maximum of 50 to only get pages that receive 0 to 50 in organic traffic.

 

Export the results and examine them further.

Enter URLs in the Batch feature of Ahrefs so you can see how many referring domains are pointing to each page.

 

Sort the list from highest to lowest referring domains to arrive at pages with little to no organic traffic but receives a good number of referring domains.

 

What will you do with them?

Update and optimize this content.

Make sure on-page and off page SEO elements are added to the page. This doesn't only help the content to improve its rankings but also acquire additional inbound links. 

Last thing for backlink audit:

 

Step 5: Strategize For Your Next Link Building Plan

After weeding out toxic links and seeing methods and more link opportunities to your website,  your next action is to have a better link building plan. 

This goes to say you'll think not just about the details of your website but from a view of your competitors. 

Here are some tips in this last phase to make it work for your link building campaign: 

 

Assess the right balance of distribution of efforts to your pages.

Not all pages deserve your attention if you're doing manual outreach for links.

There are only linkable assets that you can promote and could give you links from interested linkers. 

Make a list of these linkable information pages.  

Then, add to your list are landing pages you aim to rank for. These pages are part of your mid to bottom-of-the-funnel strategy that brings sales to your brand.

Now, you have linkable informational pages and landing pages in your list.

 

Here are some considerations when you decide which pages to build more links to:

What commercial pages are sitting in positions 6 to 20 in search results?

More backlinks to these pages can help improve their rankings and drive more revenue to your business. There is a huge difference in clicks from a page ranking at #1 from its competing page ranking at #6. 

You can use Ahrefs to find these pages quickly.

 

Or you can go straight to "Top Landing Pages" report.

 

What pages are bringing you traffic but receive zero to few backlinks?

These are the pages that bring money to your website.

Building more links to these pages can drive up their rankings and increase your site's overall traffic value.

 

How to find them?

Enter your domain and go to "Top Pages" report. 

Export the list. Then filter to less than 10 RD (Referring Domains). 

Then sort the list by ascending Traffic. 

Here, you'll see a list of pages with the most traffic value, but with less than 10 referring domains. 

 

You can use our two considerations above to make a decision on which pages to push more links to. 

 

Select pages for targeted links based on the backlink gap index. [ADVANCED] 

Your next link building plan includes how to outperform your competitors.

That includes the quality and quality of backlinks you're building against them.

We've covered how to compute the backlink gap in the middle section of this guide. It is basically the difference between your site's number of referring root domains and your competitors' websites. 

You can compute the backlink gap index if you want a more accurate number.

So on top of linking the root domain gap, you also compute the volume/gap ratio.

To compute this, simply divide the link gap into the search volume. See the example computation below from Garett French's guest ost on Moz.

 

Know these two numbers: value per link VS cost per link. 

Have a rough estimate of how much you spend to earn a single link.

While there are different variables to cost per link, finding a good number gives you an idea if you're spending too much. 

For this section, here are good resources that exactly shows how to compute for value per link and cost per link:

• How Much Does Link Building Cost in 2022?
• Analyzing Cost Per Link

 

Assess and Improve Your Link Building Campaign 

A backlink audit aims to assess the current status of your backlink profile while identifying toxic backlinks you can remove and discovering opportunities you can maximize. 

Keep this in mind. Every website is different. Some backlink audits might take days to finish; if done well, others can initially be done in 30 minutes. 

 

Backlink Audit Frequently Asked Questions

What is backlink audit pro?

Backlink audit pro refers to thoroughly assessing all the inbound links to your website and determining their value and quality. By creating a comprehensive list of linking sites, you can evaluate each link and classify it as either beneficial or detrimental to your site's ranking and reputation. Ultimately, this analysis helps you optimize your backlink profile and improve your website's performance in search engine results.

 

How do I verify backlinks?

To verify backlinks, obtain a comprehensive analysis of the target's backlink profile. This will provide a breakdown of the websites referring to the target, helping you assess the quality and relevance of the backlinks. Analyzing backlinks is essential for understanding the link profile's strengths and weaknesses to improve your SEO strategies.

 

How do I remove harmful backlinks?

There are a few steps you can take to remove harmful backlinks:

1. Reach out to the website owner: If you can identify the website owner or webmaster, you can try reaching out to them and asking them to remove the backlink.
2. Use the "disavow" tool in Google Search Console: If you cannot remove the backlink through other means, you can use the "disavow" tool in Google Search Console to tell Google not to consider the backlink when evaluating your website. To use the disavow tool, you must create a list of the URLs of the backlinks you want to disavow and submit the list to Google.
3. Monitor your backlink profile: It is important to continue monitoring your backlink profile to ensure that new harmful backlinks are not added. You can use a backlink analysis tool to track your backlinks and identify any new low-quality or spammy links that may have been added.
4. Implement a backlink removal strategy: If you cannot remove harmful backlinks through the above methods, you may need to implement a more comprehensive backlink removal strategy. This could include using the disavow tool, reaching out to website owners, and using other tactics to decrease the value of harmful backlinks.

It is important to note that removing harmful backlinks can be a time-consuming process, and it may take some time to see the results of your efforts. However, improving the quality of your backlink profile can have long-term benefits for your website's search engine rankings.

 

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by Venchito Tampon Jr

Link Building for Local SEO [27 Strategies For 2025]

This is the most actionable guide to link building for local SEO.

You'll learn here how to build backlinks for any local business on a shoestring budget.

Also, you'll discover some advanced strategies for 2025 (and beyond) that I never shared anywhere.

Let's get started.

 

1. Use Job Portals For Quick Backlink Wins

When building links for our clients, one of the first questions we ask is, “what's the existing content asset in the client’s website we can use as USP for linker outreach?”.

This question breaks the “content mental block” often experienced when strategizing what link acquisition tactics require content to create to acquire high-quality links.

Interestingly, we’ve discovered that there are existing under-utilized pages published on client’s sites that we can use to show/provide to publishers and content creators to get them to link to the client’s page.

A great example of this content is “jobs portal”.

A “jobs portal” is a directory/curation of all job positions available in a local area.

Your brand can even curate available positions for a specific industry  (e.g. “tech startup jobs in New York”).

 

For some local brands I’ve audited, the jobs portal is inherently the first few pages published on their sites. It serves as a content hub for their local partners, like local professional organizations looking for new team hires.

The jobs portal caters specifically to the “job seekers” linkable market with a lucrative number of links pages.

Link prospecting for this strategy is pretty much the same as how you’ll normally do it for a resource page link building or broken link building strategy, but the difference is just that you are only looking for a local linkable market - “jobs links/resources pages in Boston” for example.

You can start prospecting using Google search with any of the following search queries to collect your initial set of local link opportunities:

• “job search” “resources” “CITY”
• employment” inurl:resources “CITY”
• “job hunting” resources “CITY”
• inurl:careers “CITY”

Expand your list by reverse engineering other local job portals or job board sites.

By checking which pages link to local-relevant job board sites on this page, I collected a few more tens of local links pages.

Once you have generated your list of prospects and their contact details, you can start engaging them through your outreach campaign.

Spend a few extra minutes to check if there are broken links on a prospect page.

If all links are working, simply request to be included as an additional resource on their links page.

I’ve found it helpful to add subtle changes to email copies to emphasize the local relevance of the jobs portal or any other local content pieces I’m building links to. I usually add lines for:

• The best section on the resource page to add the client’s local content
• Who is the target audience of the content?
• A few recommendations for content that serves as a social proof

 

With proper execution, we were able to acquire links:

2. Create Localized Visual Data

Image link building (infographic-based link building) is getting more saturated as more brands try to pick up on it. But with the right audience targeting, accurate data, and impressive design, visual data can still prove its effectiveness in getting high-value links, especially if it’s been massively promoted through different content distribution channels.

One way to get started with this approach is to find a local piece of content created by other publishers who had extensive research on a particular subject matter and transform it into a visual asset.

To give you an example, recently, we’ve been looking for a piece of content that we could well turn into an infographic.

By searching for available public data on different trusted sites, we’ve found a research study on teen dating, abuse & bullying with respondents in  New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

 

Side note: here are a few public data sites you can source information from for your visual assets:

• https://www.data.gov/
• https://socrata.com/resources/
• https://datahub.io/
• http://data.worldbank.org/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/datasets/

We’ve checked if the public data is still relevant in the current year, as we want to get the most recent study as much as possible (the latest we consider is 2016).

One way that helped us assess the relevance and credibility of a public data piece is by looking at the version history section. For example, the research study we considered was initially published in 2012 but has been updated for 2016 (indicated in the version history section).

Then we strategize how the public data content can be turned into an infographic without cursing the target audience with knowledge.

Given that the research study has two sections: teen dating & abuse and teen bullying, we’ve decided to choose teen dating & abuse and keep the latter for future content references.

 

The hardest part of visual data link building is content creation.

As an agency, there are two ways to attack this: outsource to a freelancer or hire an in-house graphic designer.

We chose the latter simply because it’s time and cost-efficient.

Produced the visual data (partial image below):

 

Then we spent most of our hours looking for potential link partners or content publishers interested in the content piece we produced.

We begin prospecting using the following local-centric queries in Google search:

You can also use Reverse Image Search or Tineye to find and track any local-based infographics for local bloggers and publishers who distributed these pieces on their blogs.

If you’ve been running out of prospects, you can tap other industries and look for local publishers who still cater to the targeted audience of your content.

In our case, we tapped local legal publishers with the injury/sexual harassment categories in their sections.

 

As for the outreach, make it easier for local prospects to know interesting facts about your visual data. It is best to state some numbers and your target audience to build the context, relevance, and credibility of your content piece.

 

You can test the two-blogger outreach process to capture your prospects’ interests initially, then eventually send the link pointing to your visual data (or attach it to your email conversation) if they’ve positively responded to your initial pitch.

Useful Resource: The State of Backlinks for SEO in 2021: What 800+ SEOs Think About Link Building

 

3. Realize Opportunity In "New To An Area" Pages

For local link building, what I’ve found to be the most quantitative (high amount) in links/resource pages are those that cater to audiences relocating/living in a new area or city.

Typically, these pages provide lists of resources/references that a person new to an area would definitely find.

Here are some examples of local “new to an area” topics:

• Quality schools in [City] or finding the right schools
• Local laws in [City]
• Tourist information, local attractions, or things to do in [City]
• How to get here
• Volunteer listings in [City]
• Moving and relocation in [City]
• internet & cable
• my neighborhood

If you are marketing a brick-and-mortar business, a local attraction, a local professional organization, or a utility company (i.e. internet cable), it’s best to get your initial set of links from this type of resource page.

 

You can start prospecting by using “page-level” qualifier queries (which I highly recommend if you’re looking for “new to an area” topical pages) through Google search.

If you're prospecting for "things to do in [City]" pages, here are the following search queries that you can use:

• inurl:"things to do" [City]
• intitle:"things to do" [City]
• inurl:links activities in [City]

The above approach is an alternate option to the basic link prospecting queries for resource page link building (i.e. using inurl:resources OR inurl:links “keyword”).  It expands your search for link opportunities that don’t necessarily have the title tag or URL qualifiers (intitle and inurl).

The next step is to reach out to webmasters of these links pages and offer your website to be included as an additional resource on the page.

I’ve found it helpful to prepare short lines/descriptions to be added to the links page along with your link. It can help remove webmasters’ burden of thinking about what texts to add that describe your brand/website (e.g. best description of your local attraction).

 

If you’ve executed it properly, you’ll get a link.

4. Get Resource Links From Summer/Off-Campus Housing [City] Pages

Summer housing/off-campus housing pages are resource lists of available housing options for students and interns in a local area.

This type of webpages can positively generate exposure to brands they’re linking out to and provide possible leads for brands’ services since the page focuses on recommending rental offerings currently available in the area.

The closest vertical that can benefit from generating high-quality links from summer housing [city] pages is real estate, particularly local apartment brands, housing, and rental services companies.

National brands with apartment rentals in different cities can also use this link acquisition technique by acquiring links from summer housing resource pages available in cities they cater offerings. The more cities they’re marketing to, the better they could take advantage of this local link building tactic.

 

You can start this link approach by creating a list of targeted link prospects from Google search results - using any of the following search terms:

• “Off-campus” housing [city] “resources”
• “Student housing” [city] “resources”
• “Internship housing” [city] “resources”

Populate your list by checking broken domains for inbound links from summer housing pages. A simple plug to your favorite link checker tool can help quickly assess the number of unique referring domains pointing to these dead websites.

For example, this extinct site that used to be an apartment rental site has 75+ unique referring domains that include solid .edu sites links pages. A quick look at it can reveal tens of potential summer housing pages that can be added to a link list.

 

Then craft email copies you can use for your local outreach that is straightforward and easy to personalize.

Finally, acquire the link:

5. Serve FSQ With Local Content

Creating content that’s really hard to do and that is better than its competitors is definitely one of the best ways to stand out as an authority publisher in the industry and acquire high-quality in-content links from other content publishers on the web.

In addition, ensuring that the content piece has well-served its audience by providing their needs through the useful information on the page can increase the chances of building and earning backlinks from highly relevant sites.

For local content creation, here are topics that are frequently searched (FSQ or frequently search queries) by a local audience and linked to by local publishers:

• Street occupancy and moving permits
• [city] neighborhoods
• Helpful moving tips or things to do before you move
• Resources for landlords & tenants
• Homeowner resources
• Voter registration
• Address change

The main key to success in creating local content is to be succinct while being so much helpful in providing the details that the local audience needs.

Coming up with a guide that sums up all of the items mentioned above for people looking for direct information is an extremely useful content asset with a high chance of earning links from local content creators.

 

6. Seed Answers For Long Tail Online Discussions

Conversation marketing is a highly effective brand-building tool for local business owners, marketers, and an agency that markets local clients who don’t have a huge budget to spend building a strong brand presence online.

While it’s time-consuming, the amount of effort put into value-added conversations can invaluably bring momentum and exponential growth of links and drive referral traffic and potential leads for the business.

One of the best ways to start this approach is by joining online communities where your local target audience participates and looking for direct information.

For example, if you’re promoting a local attraction site, answering questions on StreetAdvisor can be an initial jump to your conversation marketing efforts.

 

Below are some ways that you can do to leverage and scale conversation marketing for your local business:

• Do Google searches for direct questions that people are seeking to find local businesses and attractions (e.g. best [product/service] in [city/area]) and spot-on local and niche-specific forums that are currently ranking in the first two or three pages in search results  - these online pages still receive a few tens/hundreds of organic traffic and may bring valuable traffic to your website.
• Choose an in-house team member with a strong knowledge of the product/service you’re offering and let him/her spend 20 to 30 minutes daily participating in local online discussions.

 

7. Promote Your Local Content Using Reddit

Reddit is a community news aggregator site that has its own ranking algorithm to decide which referring link deserves to be placed on the front page for a specific subreddit.

If you’re launching local content that contains a compelling story/data and design-driven images, such as infographics, then Reddit is a place that you can utilize to put more eyeballs on your content (increasing the amount of traffic you’re getting).

You can start by identifying specific subreddits relevant to your local brand. Do a Google search for site:reddit.com “keyword” OR “city,” manually check each subreddit and see if they cater to the audience with the same demographics you’re targeting.

Create a list of relevant subreddits and their current number of subscribers and online users (photo credit: Siegemedia).

 

It is best to take a few minutes to check referring links placed on the front page of each subreddit to assess content types (images/videos/data) that best resonate with the subreddit audience. You can add a column for Notes or Remarks in your spreadsheet to mark content formats/types.

Once you have the Reddit data to base your content upon, you can produce niche-specific content pieces that are context fit to those local subreddits.

You may want to check out this comprehensive post on creating content by building traffic sources backward from Reddit.

The next step is to customize social buttons on your content by adding a Reddit button, for example, to make it easier for Reddit users to upvote your content.

Another approach that you can make to increase the likelihood of ranking your story on the front Reddit pages is by reaching out to like-minded individuals in your industry or sharing your subreddit link with an online group of marketers to get more upvotes for your client’s content piece.

 

8. Use Affinity Categories For Local Sponsorships 

Sponsorships are big in local SEO.

It's nothing new.

But what makes local sponsorships successful?

Answer: proper targeting of audience.

I'm not referring to types of entities: car clubs, event organizers, town clubs, charities, and forums.

But I'm referring to your:

Potential customers.

Most local sponsorships target any local audience but not those who purchase their offerings — products/ or services.

One way to know the right market segment for local sponsorships is:

By identifying affinity categories.

Affinity categories are users likely to be ready to purchase your products or services in the specified categories.

You can find these categories in Google Analytics:

Audience > Interests > Affinity Categories

 

These are specified categories your potential customers are also interested in.

You're not just getting any sponsorship link from a local website.

But you benefit from directly putting your local sponsorship to potential customers.

Pro Tip: Zipsprout has reliable link building services that directly target local sponsorships.

 

9. Publish Review-Type Guest Posts For Local Vendors

 

Guest posts are everywhere.

But instead of doing it the traditional way for local link building.

Why not try this one?

Modified shoulder guest post.

You may not be familiar with this, but it's so simple.

Here's the process:

Identify local vendors.

 

You may partner with these brands as part of your operations and marketing.

In other words, you've used their products or services to grow your business.

Pitch to them, not guest posts.

But a case study or a review.

The first section of the article shares about your brand — a topic, and you include the link back to your website.

Then in the second part, you showcase how that local vendor has helped grow your business.

Simple.

 

10. Build Vendor Partner Links

Your vendor partners are the best sources of links.

Why?

Because they know you, they're likely to make your requests. And that includes — links.

So think about who is your vendor partners.

If you run a restaurant, you may source bread from a local bakery, or your ice cream could come from a homemade mom-and-pop shop.

 

Have a list of all products you sell as a brand. Then check your vendor partners for each food (for example).

Then see if they have local stores.

Do eCommerce link building by going through their "vendors list" pages.

Reach out to them and ask for links.

 

11. Get Low Hanging Fruits From Competitors 

 

Competitor link analysis is nothing new.

You check who links to your competitors. Make a list of them and try to get backlinks from those pages.

In local link building, you start your search with your target keywords in Google Maps and organic search.

Then, it's time to discover some low-hanging fruits.

Use Ahrefs' Link Intersect.

 

Put in your competitors' domains. And include your website as well — but it doesn't link to you.

You'll now see a list of websites that link to your competitor but not your site.

 

Another good thing here:

You'll find link opportunities that are linked to a 404 page.

What you could do here is to create a better piece of content.

And reach out to all websites that linked to the broken page.

One more creative thing to do:

Get information on what link building tactics your competitors are doing.

This opens up new ideas and backlink opportunities for your local business.

 

12. Offer Free Content To Local Business Groups 

Guest posting is nothing new in SEO.

The typical approach to prospecting industry blogs is through Google search.

Use advanced search operators (i.g. inurl) plus topic. Then you'll see possible websites for content.

But what if you almost run out of guest post targets?

What is an alternative way to find new niche blogs?

A NEW guest post prospecting strategy:

Facebook groups.

Not just generic Facebook groups that explicitly buy/sell or accept guest posts.

But I'm referring to local Facebook groups.

 

One way to get guest post prospects is to offer an exclusive service to any content writer or SEO person of a local business.

By posting on specific local business groups, you open an opportunity for anyone interested in free content in their niche.

You can start with specific niche local businesses to make your content offer appeal to members of the group.

Then once you get comments and personal messages from local business content creators, you can check the quality of the blogs.

See if it passes your blog standards. Then, write and publish an article to their blogs with editorial links.

 

13. Pitch Statistics Content To Local and Regional Publishers 

Getting attention from local media isn't that difficult.

Create content with a story appealing to local publishers, and you pick up great backlinks.

How can you do that?

Think of statistics content.

 

Local publishers often cite this type of content as they have information not usually found elsewhere.

Especially if points and stories are interesting or unique.

One angle you can look at is state-by-state local data.

For example, "During Covid, Rental Rates in X States were % more expensive than in Y States".

While you can pitch this content directly to national publishers, pack some data points for local media attention.

 

14. Get Strategy Inspiration From Other Markets

Running out of link prospects is normal.

It often happens for local link-building campaigns where only a few websites are discovered in a specific city.

How do you come up with new targets for links?

The answer:

Outside your market, take the time to look at any other markets.

Maybe, you've been thinking:

What sense would it make to see your websites from different marketers when they don't work directly with your website?

The answer is pretty simple:

You get inspiration for new link building ideas.

So if you're in a smaller metro area, try to find other similar businesses from a large metro — to see what's working for them.

If you're in a large metro area, analyze backlink profiles from other larger metro areas.

You can also explore other niches, not just local businesses from other metro areas.

Let's say you're building backlinks for attorneys. Maybe you can see what's working for other industries like pest control.

 

One tactic in a niche can be used differently in your local business niche.

If everyone in the legal market is doing scholarship link building, you won't see it being effective if it's adopted by many, including your competition.

When you discover a link building technique that's not being abused yet by many…

You stay ahead of the competition.

Different markets have different search landscapes, so every backlink profile from ranking websites opens up other link building techniques.

 

15. Build Backlinks From Alumni Directories 

One common type of local backlink is alumni links.

They are easy to spot and acquire for your local business.

How?

You start by looking for local schools.

Then see if they have alumni directory pages with links.

 

From there, you use either two of these creative ways:

Provide discounts to community members to get links from their sites' member benefits page.

 

 

Or offer a free event space for org meetings.

If you're an eCommerce, the first one perfectly works.

If you have extra office space (or an events hall), the second idea gives you links.

 

16. Acquire Gov Links Using the "Bait and Switch Strategy" 

 

Gov links aren't easy to acquire.

Especially for local businesses, you’ll have a competitive advantage if you can get those authority links.

Bait and switch strategy.

This is a budgeted local link building campaign to land gov links.

Here is a seven-step process to execute this creative link building strategy.

Step 1: Find 30 to 50 local councils.

 

Step 2: Think about what to offer to council members. It could be a yoga class or giving away gym equipment.

Step 3: Purchase and create a .org domain. Then create a website based on your offer. For example, make a community yoga class website with a council finder if it’s a yoga class. It has no commercial intent but purely includes community information.

Step 4: Create a landing page related to the value offer (e.g., a yoga class landing page on your website).

Step 5: Reach out to all local councils and other websites to promote your new .org site.

Step 6: Create a landing page related to the value offer (e.g., a yoga class landing page on your website).

Step 7: Redirect the .org to your landing page with links to your money pages.

Win.

 

17. Find Local Businesses That Feature Non-Competing Brands

A strategic partnership is an excellent way to think about local link building.

There are great link opportunities when two or more non-competing brands collaborate.

For example, if you're doing SEO for a photography website, you can find ways to get featured on wedding and event organizer sites.

 

It may be from their blog section or their page listing local partner brands.

If you're a wedding organizer, one of the best links you might get is from wedding photography sites. They might feature weddings shot at their venue.

Think of your brand.

Identify your non-competing brands.

Reach out and ask to get featured on specific pages or articles.

 

18. Find Local Government Programs For Certifications 

Certifications help build up the credibility of an individual or business.

But did you know it's also an excellent way to earn good local links?

Here is how to get started with this:

Find resources or programs your business needs to enroll in or get certified in.

If you've been certified in a few places, check those certification websites and see if they linked to people or businesses they are certified in.

Invest your resources in these certification programs for additional credibility or brand exposure, especially if your local business needs them.

 

19. Offer Unique Testimonials To Local Businesses

One of the best social proofs is testimonials.

If a customer gives you a testimonial in written or video format, it increases the perceived value of your products/services.

Potential customers will likely see the results from using your offer.

Think testimonials not only for conversions but also for local backlinks.

Local businesses won't ignore an honest testimonial from a customer.

Significantly if it adds proof of results for potential customers.

So, how can you use testimonials for link building?

Step 1: Find local vendors your local business/client uses, likes, and shares.

Step 2: Offer a long-form testimonial on their website. It includes how the local vendor helped your local business.

 

Pro tip: You can format the testimonial in a basic block of HTML, so your contact person can forward it straight to the web developer to implement the changes.

Testimonial link building is helping other local businesses grow through your words.

Then links become a by-product.

 

20. Publish Relevant Top X City Posts With Lead Generation In Mind 

You see local content in most local business blogs.

It's for traffic — they say.

So, for example, publishing a "Top X city" article helps drive people from your target location.

Nothing bad here.

But what if you want, as a local business, not just traffic but also potential customers?

Here's the thing:

You can get both.

Traffic and leads.

So whenever you publish local content, think of lead generation.

Will this content I will create drive traffic and potential customers to my local business?

So instead of just creating content like:

• Top 10 things you should know about in [city]
• Best [cuisine] spots in [city]
• 5 things to do in [city]

 

You create content that ties into your products or services.

Let's use local vets as our example.

People interested in pet care services would usually read content like:

• 10 pet-friendly restaurants in [city]
• Pet laws in [city] you don't know, but you should
• Dog-friendly hikes in [city] rated by a veterinarian

 

Did you get the idea?

So regardless of whether you publish it on your blog or distribute it elsewhere (i.e., guest posts), you're also thinking about how that local content can drive conversions to your local business.

 

21. Discover Local HOAs & Neighborhoods Using This One Search Operator 

HOA - Homeowner's Association.

And neighborhoods.

You won't find much of this in every city.

But consider this as one of your link building techniques.

If your local business engages physically with local town members of associations, you can benefit from this.

How can you find link opportunities from HOAs and neighborhoods?

You need to use a search function that gives you the results of a specific page.

Take a look at this search query.

"homeowners association" "florida" inurl:links.html

 

At the time of this writing, it will show links pages (in other terms, resource pages) for homeowners in New York.

You’ll have to look for links/resource pages and not just any type of page because you want to know if they have a history of linking to external resources or businesses.

So try it out for your target location.

See if there are any HOAs and neighborhood sites you can discover.

Then check if they have links/resources pages you can get listed in. Or better yet, start the search using "[city]" "homeowners" links.html

 

22. Build A Useful Tool For Local and Niche-Targeted Entities 

One way to drive high authority links is by creating a helpful tool for your audience.

For example, Shopify created a business name generator that generated 1.9K+ in referring domains and $500K+ in traffic value.

 

The cost of creating tools depends on the complexity of the functions.

But what about local businesses?

Brainstorm an idea where a tool is needed.

It doesn't have to be specific to the niche you're in.

We are looking at the relevance of local links for this matter — as this is what we're aiming for.

Are there any tasks or projects other businesses in your location need that you can create and generate links from it?

 

23. Approach Journalists With a Local Angle Of Content 

Could you get journalists to cover your local business story?

The answer is yes.

But what makes journalists tick when accepting stories from businesses?

It's the angle and hook of your stories.

If you've published a content piece (news, story, data, etc..) that has worked for the national press, start thinking about how you can tweak it for local media attention.

Perhaps, you can add rankings (top 5 cities or any location thereof) to your interactive world map to get that local business angle.

So if you're looking for excellent links from local publications, always think about how to pitch local journalists with a local angle of your story, data, or any content piece.

 

24. Acquire Donation Links From Decent Authoritative Local Organizations 

Donation isn't a new thing in local link building.

Most local businesses with enough resources invest in donations to scale links quickly in the first months of a link building campaign.

How to start with donation link building?

Check your resources and determine your estimated budget for this link building project.

Typically, a decent donation link can cost around $500~. Some links from organizations can have lower pricing for the $200 range — but you'd have to check if it's worth the site’s quality.

Find local organizations using two metrics:

Relevance.

The sites should be locally relevant and potentially drive potential customers to your website.

So if you're a veterinarian in Philadelphia, try to find local pet clubs, health organizations, etc.

 

You can also go far from niche targeting and check from just a local standpoint.

From a recent vet example, donating to small software projects isn't bad (as long as it's still in Philadelphia).

The second metric is decent authority.

You can use Ahrefs' DR (Domain Rating) to measure the website’s authority.

Try to look for sites with DR40+.

If you don't have time for this type of link building strategy, you can hire agencies that do solely — local sponsorship marketing.

One good example is Zipsprout, founded by Garett French.

So, you can get sponsor links DIY or hire a sponsorship service like Zipsprout.

 

25. Use Local Linkbait Strategy To Get More Targeted Traffic 

Linkbait is a type of content that gets natural links.

It benefits your local business as you create a 'flywheel' effect.

Where you publish a few comprehensive linkbait contents, and these handfuls of posts repeatedly hand you new backlinks over time, it becomes a natural link acquisition system for your brand.

In local link building:

There is one local linkbait strategy that you can use.

Here is how it works:

Step 1: Think of a topic that will bait local businesses to be featured on a list.

For example, if you pitch "Best 15 Coffee Shops in Philadelphia" to an owner of a local coffee shop, it's a no-brainer the person would help with the content promotion.

Step 2: List all potential local businesses you'll partner with for the blog post.

Step 3: Reach out to these people and let them know you are about to publish an article.

The pitch value here is that they'll be featured in an article that will attract new leads for their local business.

Plus, it would also have more visibility for their brand and possible website links.

Pro tip: If you've got a solid base of social media followers, include it as part of your value pitch, "We could share the blog article across XXX followers.”

Step 4: Publish your "Top/Best X in [City]" post.

Step 5: Send the link to the blog post to your partner local businesses.

Expect local backlinks from those business blogs and other websites.

 

26. Write New Segment For Link Insertions 

Outreach is one of the crucial phases of a link building campaign.

You connect to your target linkers with your email pitch.

That's the reason why:

If you write an email that speaks to your linkers' needs, you can persuade them to link to you.

How will that happen?

You encourage the outcome that you want in your initial email.

For example:

In most link insertions and outreach campaigns, you contact bloggers or publishers to include a link to your content from one of their existing articles.

This is commonly known as "niche edits.”

The way to encourage the outcome here is to write the passage with the link in the same format, existing voice, and style as the article.

This offloads the work on the part of the blogger.

The good thing here:

You help these publishers to copy-paste the new segment out of your email simply.

What's the added value?

The easier for them to place your link somewhere on their articles, the more likely you'll get the link.

 

27. Create Your Own Link Building Playbook 

Here's one thing about scaling backlinks:

You need processes to do that.

One tip here is to create your link building playbook.

This is where you'll input all the necessary details about your link building campaign.

The playbook includes:

Backlink profile data:

Questionnaire:

Order of priorities (for link building strategies):

Procedure documents:

Reports:

Link building playbook helps you scale your link building team.

Got a new hire?

You hand it over to the playbook. Let them learn what's inside.

The more you develop your playbook, the more you increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your campaign.

 

Here’s The Next Step…

Which of the 27 local link building tactics will you execute for your campaign?

Will you build backlinks from alumni directories? How about publishing relevant top X city posts to generate leads for local businesses in local link building?

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below right now.

 

FAQs: Learn More About Link Building for Local SEO

1. What is link building for local SEO?

Link building for local SEO involves acquiring backlinks from websites, directories, and online platforms within a specific geographic area. These links connect your website to other trusted local sources, signaling relevance and authority to search engines. The goal is to improve your visibility in local search results and attract customers from your community or target location.

2. Why is link building important for local SEO?

Link building is crucial for local SEO because it strengthens your website’s credibility and relevance for local search terms. Search engines view backlinks from local sources as endorsements, making your website more likely to appear in searches conducted by nearby users. For example, a restaurant with backlinks from local food blogs and directories will rank higher for “best restaurants near me” searches.

3. How do local links differ from regular backlinks?

Local links come from geographically relevant sources to your business, such as local news outlets, business directories, or community websites. These links have a direct impact on your rankings in location-specific search results. Regular backlinks, while valuable, do not provide the same localized relevance and may not help improve your visibility in searches targeting your specific area.

4. What types of websites are good sources for local links?

Ideal sources for local links include:

• Local News Websites: Articles or mentions on local news platforms increase credibility and visibility.
• Business Directories: Listings on platforms like Yelp, TripAdvisor, or local directories help boost rankings.
• Community Blogs: Collaborations with bloggers focusing on your city or region can generate valuable backlinks.
• Chambers of Commerce: Membership listings and links from local business organizations establish authority.
• Nonprofits and Events: Sponsoring local charities, events, or fundraisers can lead to mentions and backlinks from their websites.

5. How do you build links for local SEO?

We use proven strategies to build high-quality local links, such as:

• Directory Submissions: Listing your business on reputable local and industry-specific directories.
• Sponsorships: Partnering with local events or organizations to earn mentions and backlinks.
• Content Marketing: Creating locally-focused content, such as guides, blogs, or videos, to attract backlinks from regional sources.
• Press Releases: Distributing press releases to local news outlets to gain coverage and links.
• Outreach: Building relationships with local bloggers, influencers, and businesses to secure partnerships or guest posts.

6. Are citations considered a part of link building?

Yes, citations are an essential aspect of link building for local SEO. Citations include your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) on other websites, such as directories or review platforms. When these citations include backlinks, they become even more valuable by driving traffic and increasing your local search authority.

7. How does link building help my Google Business Profile?

Link building enhances your Google Business Profile by boosting your website’s authority, which helps your business appear more prominently in Google’s local 3-pack (top three map results). Backlinks from trusted local sources strengthen your overall SEO and drive more traffic to both your website and Google Business listing.

8. How do backlinks improve rankings in Google Maps?

Backlinks improve Google Maps rankings by signaling to Google that your website is trustworthy and relevant for local searches. When combined with other factors, such as accurate NAP information and positive reviews, backlinks from local websites increase your chances of ranking higher in Google Maps for searches like “plumber near me” or “coffee shop in [city].”

9. How long does it take to see results from local link building?

Results from local link building typically appear within 3 to 6 months, depending on factors such as competition, the number of links built, and the strength of your current SEO. The process requires consistency and quality-focused efforts. While some improvements may be visible sooner, achieving sustained success takes time and continuous optimization.

10. What are some examples of content that attract local backlinks?

Creating localized content is a powerful way to earn backlinks from nearby sources. Examples include:

• Local Guides: Write about “Top Attractions in [City]” or “Best Restaurants in [Neighborhood].”
• Event Coverage: Create content about local festivals, fairs, or charity events.
• Customer Success Stories: Share case studies or testimonials from local customers.
• Resource Lists: Publish lists like “Top Resources for Homebuyers in [City].”
• Community Spotlights: Highlight partnerships with local businesses or nonprofits.

This type of content engages local audiences and naturally attracts backlinks from community websites and organizations.

11. Are all local backlinks beneficial for SEO?

Not all backlinks are beneficial. High-quality backlinks from trusted local sources improve your SEO and drive relevant traffic to your website. However, backlinks from spammy or low-authority sites can harm your rankings. We prioritize earning backlinks from reputable sources, ensuring that they positively impact your local SEO performance.

12. Can local link building work for service-based businesses?

Yes, local link building is especially effective for service-based businesses like plumbers, electricians, real estate agents, and healthcare providers. By earning backlinks from local directories, community blogs, and industry associations, service-based businesses can increase their visibility among nearby customers actively searching for their services.

13. Do reviews count as part of local link building?

While reviews are not backlinks, they are a critical part of local SEO. Reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, and industry-specific sites improve local visibility and establish trust with potential customers. Positive reviews also increase the likelihood of earning backlinks when bloggers or websites mention your business.

14. Is link building for local SEO different from traditional link building?

Yes, link building for local SEO focuses on geographic relevance. The goal is to earn backlinks from sources that are local to your area or connected to your community. Traditional link building may target high-authority domains without regard for location, which may not help improve rankings for location-specific searches. Local link building ensures your business stands out in regional searches.

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by Venchito Tampon Jr