Key Findings
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25% of local SEO experts believe links are more important to local business search rankings than they were a year ago
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Experts say the most effective strategies for getting local business backlinks: 1. sponsoring charities, 2. requesting existing links, 3. creating local resources
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35% of local SEO experts think it'll become more difficult to acquire links for local businesses in 2018
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Local SEO experts say the most valuable link sources for boosting local business search rankings: 1. community websites, 2. local news & content sites, 3. high domain authority sites
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Email is the most effective outreach method for acquiring backlinks for local businesses, according to top local SEO experts - but social outreach is far less valued
Welcome to the Expert Local Business Link Building Survey
Over the last few years, we’ve seen lots of questions from businesses around local link building, and SEO professionals who wanted to prove to customers the importance of links in local rankings. We could never find a resource that we felt answered all of these questions – so we set out to make one!
We reached out to twenty of the biggest experts in the local search industry to uncover their experiences and opinions on the impact of local business link building and businesses’ search visibility.
Our expert panel shares their thoughts on topics including:
- The effectiveness of local link building in 2018
- What a successful local business link building strategy looks like
- The most powerful types of links
- Link building for single-location vs multi-location businesses
- Which outreach processes are most effective
The experts answered 13 survey questions which we have aggregated to provide collective answers and charts – combined with their insights on link building in the local SEO industry. The full list of contributors is available to see in the report.
A huge thank you to the twenty SEO experts for sharing their brilliant local link building insights. If you have any ideas and suggestions on link building for local businesses, please comment below.
Q1. Is link building a task you prioritize for your local business clients?
Link building for local businesses remains critical for the SEO industry, with our panel of experts clearly prioritizing it as a key task for their clients. For 11%, link building is the most important task they perform. A further 72% told us that it’s a very important task.
None of our panel think that local link building is less important than other optimization tasks.
Expert Insights
"Dan Leibson"
Local SEO Guide at Local SEO Guide
"Marcus Miller"
Bowler Hat at Bowler Hat
"Joy Hawkins"
Sterling Sky at Sterling Sky
Q2. How effective is link building for boosting local businesses’ search rankings?
Link building is indisputably effective for local businesses looking to rank highly in SERPs. Every member of the panel told us that link building is effective for local businesses – with 55% of these saying it’s very effective.
Expert Insights
"Andrew Shotland"
Local SEO Guide at Local SEO Guide
"Marcus Miller"
Bowler Hat at Bowler Hat
"Gyi Tsakalakis"
AttorneySync at AttorneySync
"Max Minzer"
ReEngage Consulting at ReEngage Consulting
"Adam Dorfman"
SIM Partners at SIM Partners
Q3. What is the biggest problem or misconception about the value of links to local SEO?
Experts were asked to share their thoughts.
Expert Insights
"Susan Hallam"
Hallam Internet at Hallam Internet
"Mary Bowling"
Ignitor Digital at Ignitor Digital
"Andrew Shotland"
Local SEO Guide at Local SEO Guide
"Phil Rozek"
Local Visibility System at Local Visibility System
"David Mihm"
Tidings at Tidings
"Kevin Rowe"
Rowe Digital at Rowe Digital
"Casey Meraz"
Juris Digital at Juris Digital
Q4. Are links more or less important now to local business search rankings than 12 months ago?
75% of our experts think links are equally as important to local search rankings as they were a year ago. The remaining 25% believe links are more important now. No one thinks they’re less important – and it’s no wonder.
Possum shook up local search rankings with a massive algorithm update in 2016 – making the physical location of the searcher even more important, and cutting out spam and duplicates. In comparison, 2017 was a relatively quiet year for local Google algorithm changes. Hawk had some impact in tackling some of Possum’s problems in filtering out similar businesses. Together, these updates opened the door for links to become more important to search rankings.
The so-called Fred update that was reported in March 2017 appeared to target low-quality spam links – meaning quality links could have a greater influence to local business rankings than before. The Local Search Ranking Factors Survey found that link signals grew in importance from 2016-2017 – with Google increasingly looking at businesses’ links to help decide rankings.
Q5. Will acquiring links become easier or more difficult this year?
There’s not much hope among the experts on the ease of acquiring links – with 35% predicting link building will be harder this year. While the majority think it’ll be about the same level of difficulty, not one of the experts think it will become easier to get links in 2018.
It’s hard to build links at scale for the long-term. Earning links for local businesses is relatively easy in the beginning, as you can utilize existing business relationships and networks for easy wins.
But beyond this initial flush, technical link building takes time, resources, and experience to achieve ongoing results. This is where SEO professionals can really sell their specialist knowledge beyond what local businesses can do themselves. After all, while you might be able to fix a dripping faucet yourself, you’d need a real expert to replace a broken water main!
Expert Insights
"Marcus Miller"
Bowler Hat at Bowler Hat
"Mary Bowling"
Ignitor Digital at Ignitor Digital
"Mike Ramsey"
Nifty Marketing at Nifty Marketing
Q6. How many local links should local businesses aim to acquire, as a minimum, each month?
We asked our panel of experts how many links a business needs each month – but of course, there is no simple answer.
While around 5-20 good quality and relevant links would be excellent each month, this is subjective based on the type of business, and what their competition is doing.
Acquiring links is an ongoing process that delivers over a sustained period of time. It isn’t as simple as ‘one and done’ in local link building.
Expert Insights
"Will Scott"
Search Influence at Search Influence
"Tom Waddington"
Wachae at Wachae
"Joy Hawkins"
Sterling Sky at Sterling Sky
Q7. Is link building for multi-location businesses easier or harder than for single-location businesses?
There’s no definitive answer among our experts on what’s more difficult: link building for single locations or link building for multiple locations. 55% think it’s easier for multi-location, while 35% say it’s more difficult.
Half of the SEO professionals in our recent Local Search Industry Survey told us they did link building each week – but just 26% said they enjoyed it as a task. Link building requires a significant budget, and with no guaranteed results, this can get quickly eaten up with little to show at the end. It’s a time-intensive process, and SEOs need to be able to prove its impact if they are to target multi-location businesses with bigger budgets.
There are positives and negatives in link building for both single and multi-businesses – but with great budgets come great expectations.
Expert Insights
"Susan Hallam"
Hallam Internet at Hallam Internet
"Greg Gifford"
DealerOn at DealerOn
"Phil Rozek"
Local Visibility System at Local Visibility System
"Matthew Hunt"
Powered By Search at Powered By Search
"Mike Ramsey"
Nifty Marketing at Nifty Marketing
"Adam Dorfman"
SIM Partners at SIM Partners
Q8. Which are the most valuable link sources for boosting search rankings for local businesses?
Respondents were able to choose three options.
- Local community websites (75%)
- Local news / content sites (70%)
- High domain authority sites (60%)
- Industry news / content sites (45%)
- Websites of other local businesses (45%)
While there are a lot of valuable link sources out there, local relevance trumps everything else: including industry sites, authority, and citations.
Relevance is more granular at the industry and local level – and building links in these niches can be easier. Smaller industry influencers will receive fewer requests than the bigger players, so it’s far easier to build a real relationship.
Expert Insights
"Joel Headley"
PatientPop at Expert Insights
"Casey Meraz"
Juris Digital at Expert Insights
"Kevin Rowe"
Rowe Digital at Expert Insights
"Colan Nielsen"
Sterling Sky at Expert Insights
"Greg Gifford"
DealerOn at Expert Insights
Q9. How valuable are the following link traits to boosting local businesses’ search rankings?
All four link traits were valued by our panel for boosting local search rankings, but to varying degrees.
- Quality/authority of links is the most important trait in search rankings – with 90% calling this highly valuable, and the remaining experts as “valuable”
- 90% of experts believe the diversity of link sources is valuable – with half of these believing it to be highly valuable
- 90% also believe that diversity of link anchor text of value- but fewer of these believe it’s highly valuable (20%)
- Quantity of links was seen as the least valuable – with 65% naming it as valuable or highly valuable – and 5% saying this isn’t valuable at all
Expert Insights
"Tom Waddington"
Wachae at Expert Insights
"Joy Hawkins"
Sterling Sky at Expert Insights
Q10. How valuable are the following in link anchor text?
Our experts value city name, business name, and product/service keywords in the link anchor text, with most calling these valuable or highly valuable.
State name/abbreviation was least valued – with 45% saying this wasn’t very valuable, and a further 5% saying it wasn’t valuable at all.
Expert Insights
"Casey Meraz"
Juris Digital at Expert Insights
Q11. How valuable are the following strategies when building new backlinks to local business sites?
Click this image to view it in a larger format. 
Most valued local link building strategies
- Sponsoring local charities/organizations
- Requesting links from existing brand mentions
- Creating resources with a local focus
- Relationships with local businesses/influencers
- Creating research-based content
Least valued local link building strategies
- Commenting (blogs, Q&A websites, forums)
- Including links in social media profiles
- Creating infographics
- Holding webinars
- Sharing on social media
100% of experts believe sponsoring or donating to local charities, clubs or organizations is valuable – with 75% of these calling it highly valuable. 100% also rate creating resources with a local focus as valuable – with 70% calling this highly valuable.
Blogging sits in the middle of the list, with 30% believing it to be not very valuable for local businesses. Building backlinks to blogs can be difficult and time-consuming – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The best local business blogs focus on providing local value. Promote these through local relationships to maximize the chances of receiving a backlink – but it has to be relevant to their audiences’ interests.
The task the experts were least sure of, in terms of value, was running competitions (15%).
Expert Insights
"David Mihm"
Tidings at Expert Insights
"Greg Gifford"
DealerOn at Expert Insights
"Phil Rozek"
Local Visibility System at Expert Insights
Q12. Which link building outreach processes do you find most effective?
Respondents were able to choose three options.
Best local link building outreach processes
- Short personal email (65%)
- Detailed personal email (60%)
- Slow-burn relationship-building (55%)
- Building relationships through attending events (45%)
- Phone outreach (35%)
Email is the most effective link building tactic in local SEO, followed by relationship building. A personalized approach to local link building involves understanding what your target wants from a link, and what they might need from you to make this happen. Outreach should be focused on quality, not quantity.
Outreach on social media is far less important to our experts. Asking for links over social media can feel less personal and private – and put targets under pressure to respond in a public domain.
Expert Insights
"Susan Hallam"
Hallam Internet at Expert Insights
"Matthew Hunt"
Powered By Search at Expert Insights
"Dan Leibson"
Local SEO Guide at Expert Insights
Q13. In your opinion, what does a successful local business link building strategy look like?
"Andrew Shotland"
Local SEO Guide at Expert Insights
"Will Scott"
Search Influence at Expert Insights
"Joel Headley"
PatientPop at Expert Insights
"Adam Dorfman"
SIM Partners at Expert Insights
"Matthew Hunt"
Powered By Search at Expert Insights
"Colan Nielsen"
Sterling Sky at Expert Insights
"Mary Bowling"
Ignitor Digital at Expert Insights
Link building remains a critical tool for local businesses in the battle for search prominence. While there is no simple formula for the number of links, it’s clear that local relevancy should be front-of-mind in any local link building strategy. For local businesses, building local and industry relationships is necessary for success.
Local SEO professionals should be the key to unlocking these relationships, identifying others that could benefit their clients, and conducting personal outreach to acquire a useful backlink.
Relevance and regularity = results.
