Link building
Link building for a small business is less about volume and more about earning a few mentions from sites that genuinely know you: suppliers, trade associations, local organizations, partners and press. I find those opportunities, prepare what's needed to get them and steer clear of the link packages that can get a site penalized.
Free: a 30-minute call, an action plan and a price range in writing.
Six sources
that work for
small businesses
Suppliers and manufacturers
Many brands list approved installers or stockists. Being on that list is a relevant link and a lead source.
Trade and business associations
Member directories of trade groups, your chamber of commerce and professional bodies.
Local sponsorships
Youth sports teams, school events, charity runs. The link is a bonus; the goodwill is real.
Partners
Businesses that send each other work, like a realtor and a home inspector, mentioning each other where it helps customers.
Local media and blogs
A useful story or expert comment for a local news site or a neighborhood blog.
Content worth citing
A cost guide, a calculator or a checklist others link to because it is the best answer around.
Your website
climbs the rankings
SEO is step-by-step work: content, technical fixes and links. Your website brings in traffic without paying for clicks.
- The phrases customers actually type
- Content for specific services
- Rankings checked every month
How I approach
link building
Link building
inside ongoing SEO
Prices in US dollars. I don't sell link building as a standalone package, because links without good pages to point to rarely help.
Links as one part of a monthly SEO plan that also covers pages and local listings.
- Link audit and competitor gap
- Opportunity list
- Outreach and drafts
- New links in the monthly report
- No minimum term
What link building means for a small business
Links from other websites act like recommendations. When a respected site links to yours, it tells search engines your business is real and worth showing. For national brands, link building can mean large outreach campaigns. For a plumber, a dental practice or a cabinet shop, it means something much more modest and much more effective: being mentioned in the places that already know and trust you.
Most small businesses already have link opportunities they've never used. The supplier whose products you install, the association you pay dues to, the youth soccer team you sponsor, the realtor who sends you referrals. Each could be a link, and each link is relevant, which is what Google cares about.
Quality beats quantity
A link from your state's trade association or a local news story is worth more than a hundred links from random blogs nobody reads. Google's systems have gotten good at ignoring links that exist only to manipulate rankings, and its spam policies explicitly cover buying and selling links. A simple test: would this link send you a real visitor? If yes, it is probably a good link. If the site exists only to sell links, it isn't.
That is why I don't sell link packages and don't buy links for clients. Anyone offering fifty links for a flat fee is selling exactly what Google is trying to filter out.
Realistic link ideas for local businesses
Here are sources I look into for almost every local client:
- chamber of commerce and local business association member pages;
- trade associations for your industry, nationally and in your state;
- suppliers and manufacturers with installer, dealer or stockist directories;
- partners who serve the same customers: a wedding venue and a photographer, a roofer and a gutter company;
- sponsorships and community events, where the sponsor page includes a link;
- local news and neighborhood blogs, through a useful comment or story, not a press release about nothing;
- Yelp, the BBB, Nextdoor and industry directories like Angi, Houzz or Healthgrades, mainly for consistency and visibility.
The article on backlinks for a local business lists more ideas with examples.
Content that earns links on its own
The easiest links to get are ones people give without being asked. That happens when a page on your site is the best answer to a common question. A clear cost guide for your service in your region, a calculator, a seasonal checklist or a comparison table can attract links from local blogs, forums and journalists for years. The Adela Strycharz case is an example: seven calculators gave people a reason to visit and share the site. That kind of page connects link building with SEO content writing.
How I report on links
The monthly report lists new links and mentions earned, the source, and whether the link is followed by search engines. More importantly, it shows whether rankings and leads are moving, because links are a means, not a goal. Links also support your Map rankings, so this work goes hand in hand with local SEO.
What I won't do
No private blog networks, no guest posts on sites that exist only to sell them, no comment spam, no link swaps arranged in bulk and no hidden links in website footers you build for others. Each of these has burned small businesses that trusted the wrong vendor, and cleaning up after them takes longer than doing it right.
A word on timing
Links take time to have an effect: weeks for Google to find them, months for their weight to show in rankings. They also compound. A site that gains a few strong, relevant mentions every quarter builds an advantage that competitors relying on ads alone don't have, and that advantage doesn't stop when the budget does.
Links work best
with these
Link building
questions
Why not just buy links?
Google's spam policies treat bought links meant to manipulate rankings as a violation. Sites that rely on them can lose rankings overnight after an update or a manual action. Cheap packages also tend to come from networks of low-quality sites that customers would never visit. The risk usually outweighs any short-term gain.
How many links do I need?
There's no magic number. A local service business often does well with a few dozen relevant mentions: directories, associations, suppliers and local organizations. What matters is whether competitors on page one have more relevant ones. The link audit shows that gap.
Are directory listings still worth it?
The ones customers actually use are: Google, Apple, Bing, Yelp, the BBB, Nextdoor and the main directories in your industry. Hundreds of obscure directories submitted in bulk are not. I focus on the first group and keep the details consistent.
Can bad links hurt my site?
Google mostly ignores spammy links pointing at you rather than punishing you for them. If you or a previous agency built links in bulk, I check them during the audit. The disavow tool is only for rare cases with a clear manual action or obvious paid schemes.
Do I have to do anything myself?
Usually a little. Some links come from your existing relationships, and a request from the owner works better than one from an outsider. I prepare the message, the details and the follow-up, so it takes minutes of your time.
See who links
to your competitors
Send your website and two competitors who rank above you. I'll reply within one business day with what I'd look at, or we can start with a free 30-minute call.