Link Building for Small Businesses - 3 Ways to Rank Better on SERPs

Link building is a term almost every business has heard of, implemented, and maybe even been a little apprehensive about.

However, if you ask companies about their backlink strategies, they’ll all tell you one thing - link building is hard.

While this technique may sound easy for SEO beginners, if you don’t know the right strategies to implement, the whole game may become something difficult to keep up with.

When it comes to small businesses, boosting visibility and making people aware of your brand is a big focus. Since not all small businesses have a dedicated in-house SEO team or an agency that provides SEO in Northampton, ranking on SERPs on your own might not be possible. This can be because of many things ranging from lack of resources to a lack of knowledge and understanding.

While an article may tell you of ‘x’ number of ways to score a link from one of the top 5 companies, it might not be as simple as you think.

As a small business, you might have several things to think about, leaving you with no time to do research and experiment to find link-building strategies that work for you. However, you need not stress about this, we’ve got you covered.

We’ve put together a list of techniques for link building for small businesses (that actually work!) so that every small business can rank better on SERPs.

Let’s get started!

1. On The Content Front

Creating valuable, high-quality content is the basis of a successful link-building strategy.

Think about it, in our countless hours spent online, we come across several well-written articles that immediately grab our attention. We immediately share or forward these because they provide us with insights and values that help us in some way or the other.

With more people sharing such articles, you’re guaranteed a boost in your business’ visibility.

Another advantage that comes with this is the opportunity to establish yourself as a thought leader in the field. The first step here is to start blogging. Providing articles that deliver valuable insights about your field or industry that aren’t limited to technical jargon can create a favorable impression on any visitor that stumbles onto your site.

Since we all know how powerful content can be, leverage this and your creative skills to put together articles that are related to your business.

Another excellent content strategy that helps build links for your small business is to guest post. One of the most effective and popular link-building strategies is guest posting and here’s why - because it actually works.

You’ll see this suggestion everywhere, on almost every SEO article or blog and that’s because it’s probably one of the most effective ways to score a backlink. Since this strategy takes time and effort, you need to understand the basics to make the process efficient for your business.

For this, here’s what you need to do -

• Put together a list of sites that accept guest posts. To do this, simply do a quick Google search on keywords like - “industry + guest post” or “industry +  write for me” and variations of the same.
• Look up the site owners' contact options and go through the guest post guidelines if there are any.
• Put together compelling article titles with information relevant to their site in a mail and write a really good pitch for them.
• Once they get back to you, you can finally go ahead and write the article.

The best part about this link-building technique is that it’s so much more than a simple backlink. A well-written guest post also provides you with the traffic that the host gets which is directed to your website. More traffic means better chances of increasing your customers.

Additionally, with multiple sites linking back to your website, it builds authority for your business.

However, as a small business owner, one thing you need to keep in mind is that instead of targeting big sites that are out of your budget, go for more relevant ones that belong to your industry. This also helps you build new relations that can help you in the long run.

2. On The Networking Front

Charities, non-profit organizations, and many similar places offer local sponsorship opportunities with multiple chances that let you build backlinks for your business.

Targeting your local community first is a great way to boost local SEO and by attaching your name to such organizations and helping them out, you improve your chances of gaining visibility. Since you have several possibilities to build a backlink to the sponsors' site which is perceived as reliable, your business also has the chance to be perceived as the same if it is not already.

Additionally, one thing you need to keep in mind is that the sponsorship should feel organic and not random. While you don’t necessarily have to stick to specific organizations, you need to find one that is relevant to your location or industry.

To further strengthen this tactic, sponsor something that your target audience would actually care about instead of something completely unrelated or random. The reason behind this is that your goal should be gaining traffic not just building links.

It requires money so it might make sense that one would hesitate before considering this. However, it can take less effort and can guarantee results.

Another idea to consider for link building for small businesses is collaborating with niche bloggers.

With social media and several online platforms becoming immensely popular, several niche and local bloggers have become famous, with tons of followers paying close attention to the content they create.

Since they’re expected to constantly create new content and provide their followers with insights and valuable information, they might run out of ideas from time to time - we’re all humans at the end of the day.

This is where you can help by providing a win-win situation for them.

Collaborating with them helps not only you but also gives them newer ideas for content creation. However, there are ways to approach them.

You can either follow them, comment and like their posts, and build an organic relationship over time or you can get in touch with them directly and pitch your ideas. What you need to keep in mind is that the point of your approaching them is to provide genuine ideas with real value over something generic that anyone could find anywhere.

Additionally, as a small business owner looking to rank better on SERPs, try not to go for the famous bloggers straight off. Instead, approach local bloggers and collaborate with them. These micro-influencers might not have thousands of followers but since they belong to your niche, you get a relevant and high-quality backlink opportunity.

Moreover, depending on your business/products, you could also offer them a discount or a free service to maintain good relationships with them.

3. On The Technical Front

When it comes to link building for small businesses, to rank higher on SERPs, another thing you need to consider is the technicalities. While this may not exactly be something you understand or like for that matter, it has the potential to boost your business’ rankings on search engines.

The first technique that you need to consider is to reclaim unlinked brand mentions. Recognized as one of the easiest link-building strategies of all time, this is definitely something that you can include in your list of ways to rank better on search engines.

For this, all you need to do is set up a Google alert for your brand name and domain along with the name of your founder or any other prominent member of your team. This helps you keep a track of any time your name or your business is mentioned.

When you get an alert for this, all you need to do is reach out to the source. Since the site already considers you as a good business worth mentioning, there should be no problem in including a link for your website.

However, this requires you to monitor and read the post before reaching out - you wouldn’t want a link to a source that speaks badly about your business.

Fixing broken links is another strategy for your small business. It’s common for host websites that had links belonging to yours to move or for the links to simply break. For identifying this, keep a track of your backlinks profile to see which ones are live and which ones are broken.

Spotting them helps you fix the broken links easily and improve your SEO game to rank better on SERPs.

Another thing you could do is to research your competitors' backlinks profiles to see which sites they’re getting links from. If you spot any broken links that mention their business, you can provide them with relevant content and ask them to link back to your website instead.

Lastly, register your business on several local and online directories to get quality backlinks from trusted places.

To Sum Up…

Link building for small businesses can work greatly in your favor as long as you know the right techniques and the way to use these. While the nature of businesses changes every day, they all rely on SEO in some capacity with link building being one of the most effective ways.

Put your efforts in the right place with tactics that will bring you definite goals to boost your small business’ visibility, conversions, and brand awareness.

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