Local Linking – What Is It & Why Care?

By now, most webmasters understand that to achieve high rankings in the search engines, ones website needs, among other things, appropriate inbound links. In fact, according to Google; “webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.”

Inbound link building should be a top priority for all web sites that are going to prove to be fruitful and there are many ways and methods to build links to one's website; manually, professionally, or "automatically." In general, nothing beats having links done manually, for search engine safety reasons and ultimate positive results, by a professional link building service or SEO.

Just having a group of links pointing towards ones website is simply not good enough. Links need to be connected to content relevant and potentially high traffic websites that also know the value of proper link exchanging. Quality and relevance, combined with a fair link exchange, outweigh quantity any day!

So, first and foremost when building link relationships; look for web sites that compliment your website theme/content that your visitors would find useful or resourceful and that take linking seriously themselves offering a fair link placement exchange. Good quality links can and generally will produce traffic and sales.

Local searching is growing rapidly. Studies show that about 8% of searchers will end up making an online purchase. The other 92% are researching the products that they are going to buy locally offline (I should know as I’m in that 92%!).

Since this is the case, local businesses need to get themselves in front of local searchers online that are looking for what they have to offer. The first step is to create an online business profile via the local search engines and directories. The second step is to optimize their website for the local search market and the final step, one item rarely mentioned is link building.

Local linking should take the same approach that link building for the major search engines do, except now you add a geographic aspect to your link requirements. Local linking focuses on finding links to quality, relevant web sites for businesses in your local area. Local linking does not replace your standard link building campaign; it should augment it.

For example, say you own a wedding catering business, so some types of sites that you would want to exchange links with, or get one way links from if possible, would be: florists, photographers, entertainers, limousine services or any other local website that would compliment your business. Addition type of local links would be links to local airports, landmarks, historic locations, etc.

Now when local linking, you focus on these same types of website but look for businesses in your local market that have a website. When you organize these links on your website, it might be good to have a separate section for these local links, making it easier for visitors to see them and increase the likelihood of their wanting to exchange links with you.

Local linking will make it very easy for your website to become an important local resource as well as increase the word of mouth business that can be driven to your site or establishment.

By adding local linking to your link building campaign, you can "kill two birds with one stone". You are building quality links to help with your overall search engine rankings, which is critical, but you are also improving your local search visibility. Local searching is just beginning to take off, so by spending the time now on adding local linking to your website, you will be well ahead of the competition.

About the author:

Larry Sullivan, of LRSxpress Web Services (http://www.lrsxpress.com), provides local search marketing to small business (http://local.lrsxpress.com). With over 6 years online web experience, LRSxpress provides numerous other web related services (design, hosting, search engine optimization, link building, online promotions) for small businesses to help them get online quickly and affordably.

Check out his new blog Local Biz Bits (http://www.localbizbits.com).