Speaking of positioning on search engines, we have repeated it several times. And Google itself makes no secret of it: links are still today one of the most relevant factors in determining the ranking of a site. If once it was enough to have a good number of incoming links, today more than ever it is not just the quantity of links that is fundamental, but their quality : in short, it is better to have 10 links instead of 30, if those 10 links come from authoritative sites and blogs , otherwise you risk running into some Google penalties. But that’s another story: today we want to talk to you about link building strategies for small businesses
. If you are the most famous restaurant in Turin it is likely that without doing anything you will get links from blogs and forums, review sites and so on. But if you have a small herbalist’s shop on the corner, how do you get links without going into spam?
- Collaborate with bloggers / social media “influencers”
Obviously with reference to your market niche, you should identify which are the most popular blogs / Facebook pages / etc. And ask to start a collaboration, for example by periodically writing an article that is really useful to readers (not mere self-advertising, so to speak) and with links to your site; in addition to the benefit of the inbound link, you could also gain visits and maybe real contacts, since the “influencers” usually have good credibility and a link suggested by them is not seen as spam, but as advice. - Create a partnership with other local activities / organizations / associations
If your target market is well geo-localized (for example we are returning to Turin) enter into partnerships with local associations, for example by sponsoring some event: there is a charity marathon to raise funds or a conference on the theme x? Try to get interest in the sponsorship; in addition to visibility in terms of brands, you will probably have a link back from the event website (Sponsored by…).
Or, you could simply ask an activity similar to yours. But not a competitor, to insert a link to your site and you will do the same: in the case of the herbalist’s shop, you could ask the beauty center in your neighborhood, etc … - Using the “skyscraper” technique
Invented by Brian Dean of Backlinko, is a valid support for those who want to create new quality content for their site (in order to gain links), but ideas are scarce.
He basically suggests seeing what worked well for your key topic / product and trying to do better!
First you need to understand what were the most popular topics in your niche: to understand what they are, there are tools (for example Buzzsumo.com) which analyze how many links point to article x. And how many times it has been share on social networks; for example, let’s say that in our case it is a new herbal product for the treatment of wrinkles; at this point part of the game is done: create an article that says something more about the product / topic x (an in-depth study, a novelty …). And promote it around (suggest it to blogger / social media influencer, etc …) - Finding where you have been mention
Always using tools like Brandmentions.com you can find out where you have been talks about on the web (perhaps in some forum). And if there is no link to your site ask the administrators to insert it (this method can also be use in reverse: if there is an unwant link we can ask for it to be remove). - Create a page of useful resources / sites
Always returning to our herbalist’s shop, you could create a page with useful information (from sites on well-being and keeping fit, to links to companies producing the products you treat, etc…); in short, any resource that could be useful to your target market. If your page is really full of information and outbound links, it could also attract links from the web and contribute to your site’s ranking. - Create quality content
This point may sound redundant, but creating new, frequent, quality content is the best strategy for getting natural links.
You can become a sort of “authority” in your sector, for example by sharing not only in-depth articles, but also case studies, infographics, podcasts, etc …
One caveat: be careful not to create too many links to your site in a very short time! Link building speed is also an important factor: if many links appear out of nowhere within a month, Google could see it as a “forcing”, a sort of spamming and penalize you.
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