Link building is offsite SEO. What Quality link building does is get votes or endorsements for your website. I like to think of link building in terms of running for office. You need to get more votes than your competitors to win the race. When it comes to SEO it is not just the quantity of votes, but more importantly the quality. Luckily for you it does not take a lot of links or a major endorsement to win in the local search results.
There are many options on where to get links for a local business. Some ways to get votes for your site include:
- Write Some Articles
- Submit to Directories
- Put Out a Press Release
- Get Some Social Bookmarks from Friends
There are endless places to get links, votes, or endorsements. The main thing to remember is quality counts! Think of links as the arteries of search engines and their job is to pump votes to your site. When it comes to link building there are many options but some general rules are:
- Stay On Topic
- Avoid Bad Neighborhoods
- Quality Is All That Matters
Staying on topic almost always keeps you in the right neighborhood. Think of it this way; who would you trust more giving you advice on your high blood pressure? Your electrician or your doctor? I would hope that you choose the doctor! Well, the search engines like to use authority sites in your category to get endorsements from to reinforce your expertise!
Bad neighborhoods are places where spammers and really bad websites get links. If you associate your site to that neighborhood, the presumption is usually that you are in the same business too. The analogy would be that of a parent who thinks their child is an angel, even when all of their kids' friends are hoodlums. Guess what, the parents are probable wrong! Good websites are always associated with other good websites!
Quality sites are the most important factor. If you want the most powerful links, quality matters! It's like getting an endorsement from a President of the United States! So as a local business where can you get a high quality link from? Your local chamber of commerce is your best bet! Why? Government sites can't be bought and that means you are trusted by association!