How to Improve Your Local SEO with Link Building

In the past, to find a good restaurant, you relied on what your friend told you. Now the first thing you do is ask Google, "best restaurants near me". That's why if you have a restaurant or any other type of business, working on local SEO is so important. Specifically, in this article, we will see how applying link building strategies can improve your business's local SEO. Because if you don't appear, you don't exist, and you lose business opportunities; this is important for you. Let's take a look!

Table of Contents

How does Google determine local ranking?

Before we see how to improve your local SEO with link building and get into the details, we will clarify some relevant points. Local SEO can be defined as the process of optimizing a business for local search results. We must know that local results are primarily based on three factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. A combination of these factors helps us find the best match for any search. For example, if you search for “hair salons in Granada with keratin treatments,” Google's algorithm will show you the best hair salon it sees for you based on your search, even if it’s not the closest. It can happen that a business, even if it is farther from your location, has a higher chance of having what you're looking for, and therefore, Google gives it a better ranking in local results. Let's take a look:

Relevance

Relevance refers to how well a local business profile matches what someone is searching for. Complete all the information as detailed as possible so that Google shows your business in searches. Use geolocalized keywords with which you can improve local SEO. For example: "web design Granada"

Distance

Distance is calculated based on the location of the user making the search and the location of the business. If the user does not have location enabled, then Google will calculate based on the nearest location. Proximity is key when working on your business's SEO. This factor affects differently depending on the sector. For example, in restaurants, this proximity factor is so important that, no matter how optimized your listing is, the closest business will always appear in the query. However, for an administrative office, having everything optimized can be the difference in standing out from the competition, even if it is not the closest office. Because in this case, the customer making the search is willing to wait, unlike in the previous case of "restaurants" where urgency is immediate. They would also be willing to travel a bit more if the rating is better.

Prominence

Prominence refers to the recognition of the business and is based on the information Google has about it. That's why keeping the website updated with articles, gaining inbound links to the website (link building), and earning reviews and citations are key for local SEO, and we explain why:

Google Business Profile

Use Google Business Profile (Google My Business), as it functions as a local directory, which can promote visits to your physical establishment. An optimized Google listing is one of the most effective tools for local SEO. You can put information about your business, website, add photos and videos, contact phone number, hours, locations on Maps, posts with links to your products or services. Update your business information frequently for better visibility and ensure that the information is complete and concise. Google reviews are also factors considered for local SEO; more reviews and more positive ratings will improve the score of a local business. Remember that when someone searches for a business or a product, they receive the answer in the first result. That's why you should become their best option.

Links to Social Media

To build prominence, you can use links to social media. Having accounts on social media and keeping them fully updated is an important factor of prominence. Don’t forget that they should be updated and not be on all social media, only on those specific to the sector in which your business operates.

Hyperlocal Articles

Creating hyperlocal content aimed at local is very important to document the area where your business provides services. For example, we present this real case of a blog that provides its services throughout Spain, but due to its location, its goal is to have clients from its area. Using the keyword "marketing agencies Granada" in a blog article, they have managed to localize the content and rank for that search to attract potential clients.

Citations

Another way to gain prominence is to build a network of citations. These links are generated in local directories related to your sector. Citations should contain essential NAP contact details that must always match (name, address, phone). In addition to useful information to briefly describe the activity. Look for local directories in your area, such as Chambers of Commerce. They have a specific program for local businesses, where you can create the citation for your business, including social links, website link, business description, images, videos, geolocation on the map…

What is a local SEO link?

If we define a link or backlink as a link in the text to guide the reader and Google to another page of your blog where relevant content awaits with the goal of generating authority. A local SEO link can be said to be a geolocalized backlink that confirms the relevance of a business in a specific area and sector. For links to be relevant, several conditions must be met. – They must come from authority sites, such as local media. – It is advisable that the "linked" pages share theme and language. – It is important that there is a correspondence between the "anchor text" of the referring page and the content of the receiving page. That said, let's see how we can improve our local SEO with links.

Link Building to Improve Your Local Ranking

Link building is very important when positioning local businesses, as we have seen, it consists of mentions, citations, or links made to you from other websites. Local link building helps us build a reputation and attract geolocalized traffic. In local SEO, it is more important to obtain links from companies and organizations that have influence in your business area, as the traffic from people living near the business is more valuable. A person from the north is not going to come to get a haircut at a business in the south, as you can understand! That said, let's look at these useful tips that will help you make the most of your local link-building efforts.

Correct NAP Information (name, address, phone number)

NAP (Name, Address, Phone) refers to the basic data by which a user can locate your company. This data that appears on blogs, local directories, social media… must have consistency so that Google does not detect any errors and displays them in the top results. Try to write the data the same way on all platforms; for example, if you write the address as "Antonio Machado street number 2," do it this way on all the platforms where you register your business.

EEAT

As we know, the term EEAT is a set of Google criteria that determines the quality of content in its search results. EEAT stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Let's see… why is EEAT important for local SEO? Experience: If you have an updated and complete Google Business profile with photos, it enhances the user experience who is looking for opinions to hire your services. Something that also helps is sharing photos that represent the customer experience after hiring your services, for example: in a construction company, posting photos of a renovation of an apartment with before and after. Expert: If you publish articles on your business blog, name the author and link it to their LinkedIn profile where the reader can verify all the information about them and their biography. Authority: This point is basically… why are you known? Through local links, you will gain that authority around your business's keyword. We can also enhance our EEAT through link building. And how? For example, by searching for websites to obtain relevant links from a sector. If these websites are ranking in a theme, it is because they are relevant and passing Google's filters. For this purpose, you can use the affinity tool we apply at Unancor. Where you can see the most suitable media according to the degree of affinity with your website. Additionally, you can apply the Local Filter to find media by Autonomous Community, Province, or city. The Unancor Affinity Tool will help you gain visibility by publishing your link in the most suitable media.   Trustworthiness: Why are you the best? Described by Google as the most important factor in EEAT, trust is backed and maintained through local reviews. For example, in a psychology clinic, if the reviews are good, it will have a better chance of gaining clients due to the trust generated. And regarding Google, it will give your business the best score.

Opportunities to Obtain Local Links

There are several ways to obtain relevant links for Local SEO. If you have not yet established relationships with other businesses or organizations in your area, do so to create local links to your business.

Research Competitor Links

– You should analyze your competition if you want to improve your business's local SEO, as it will allow you to see the number of links their website has, and you can compare it with what yours currently has to try to match them. You can use an SEO tool, but keep in mind that you will have to pay for the data it provides. This analysis allows us to extract data and decide our own link-building strategy, – Remember that the idea is not to copy your competitors' links; it is a research task to match the quantity and quality of them to obtain the same or more authority. – You have a free option, which is: "Google search". Search for the main keywords for which you want to appear in the top positions. If you search for example: "Hardware stores in Granada," you will see which companies are positioned for those keywords. And you will also see your business's position compared to the competition.

Links in Local Media

Obtaining a link in a local media outlet is a good option for getting a quality backlink directly to your business. A local link will be very beneficial for geolocating your business.

Build Links from Blogs in Your Local Area

Another important signal we send to Google to boost Local SEO is getting other websites in our locality to talk about our business and link to our website. This will give us relevance, in addition to attracting potential customers.

Local Directories

All cities have business directories in the area. So take a little time to search according to your theme which of these directories are most relevant and register your business. For example, in the case of hospitality, there are organizations of local tourism and restaurant businesses that even create synergies and offer discounts and promotions among themselves. Another interesting platform is Yelp, where you can register your business. It is used for users to find businesses in any city and rate their experience through reviews. Additionally, through it, you can also find competing businesses. There are more general directories with similar characteristics such as Foursquare, Yellow Pages, QDQ, EInforma, Bing Places for Business, among others. Yes, you have local directories, but to “differentiate yourself” from your competition and seek that thematic and semantic affinity, use custom links to your website. Custom Links When you write on your blog, you know that to rank, in addition to content, you need some links to increase your domain authority. Improve your SEO and branding with sponsored posts in the best media and blogs. For this purpose, we have media relevant to your business at Unancor where you can choose the media that interests you most to publish your quality links. And if you prefer, an SEO specialist will take care of everything, saving you time.

Conclusions

In short, take advantage of links for the benefit of your business. We hope this article on how to improve your local SEO with Link Building serves you well. And as a suggestion, we propose that once you have your links on social media, in the Google Business profile, in themed directories, and in media, you interlink between all of them to your main website or sales link of interest. This will help them talk about you and in Google's eyes as well. You can see Google's recommendations on this topic here: "How to Improve Your Local Ranking