I'm interested in knowing link building strategies for regional businesses.
-
I'm not just interested in sites to target, but also how to manage anchor text when you are targeting phrases that include a keyword + a geo modifier. Thanks!
-
I agree with Dignan99's initial thoughts about the ability of SE's to connect the dots.
I've also found the on-page targeting of the geographic terms to be crucial. I've found a lot of value in getting a link for, say, "IT Services" and pointing it deeper into the site to a page that targets "IT Services Boston".
In terms of actual places to get links, I've always felt that getting links that are not only topically relevant, but also geographically relevant is important in that sort of campaign. I tend to go for good quality regional or local sites.
-
I would most likely focus attempt to utilize the geo modifier as often as possible, but may not do so EVERY time. There are enough variations as well so they don't become redundant.
IT services in Boston, MA
Boston IT Services
Information technology services Boston
Just a few examples of how they can change, and they should be built with each targeted area. You may consider doing IT services occasionally, but you have to figure out if you have the means of defeating the large budgets of IT Service companies you may be competing with. Their size and budget towards SEO may be insurmountable.
Analyze your competition too, and try to dissect what they have done, and try to catch up. Follow that up with solid networking, SEO, and back links from reputable sources.
Sounds like a big job, and one that is hopefully lucrative and successful for you.
-
thanks. so how would you handle an instance where an organization provides services to multiple geographies, such as "IT services" for Boston MA, Portland ME and Burlington VT. Would you create a really large link encompassing the entire phrases? Or just link "IT services"?
-
The strategy I feel works best is to make sure the anchor text is variable, and targets not only the homepage but deep linking which will bring value to other pages in the site. I am of the opinion that repeated anchor text to the same page could actually be harmful if misused, and that the variances of anchortext with appropriate geo modifier will be just as if not more beneficial in the long run. Google is quite dynamic and its ability to connect the dots in the future will only increase.
Keyword research is also important when deciding which keywords and keyword phrases to target.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
GWT Lists URLs with links to my site, but those URLs don't have links to my site
There are a number of URLs that show up for my website in Webmaster Tools as having links to my site when in fact they don't. I know this to be a fact because I actually wrote some of the sites that Google is saying are linking to my site and I know there isn't any links on the specific pages to that site. For example, the site in question is: https://www.liftproducts.com/ As an example, Google is saying that about 100 URLs from https://www.lift-tables.net/ are linking to it when, I'm fairly confident that there is only 1 link to it found here: https://www.lift-tables.net/info.php?countrytabs=3 Yet Google says links exist on this (and many more) page: https://www.lift-tables.net/liftproducts/max-lift/lpt4w-030-48.php I thought at first it might have been due to linking to a image file directly instead of locally hosting it, but after checking the source, that's not the case. I am also seeing this type of non-linking being reported on sites I have no clue what they are. For example, some Spanish site about tandem bicycles is being listed as linking to liftproducts.com: http://206-225-85-34.dedicated.abac.net/tandem/inc Yet I can find no evidence of an actual link existing. Am I missing something here? Any insight of why this is happening and how I can clean up my link signature would be appreciated.
Link Building | | Nivik231 -
Link building for a new site... where do I start?
Hi all, I'm new and have just launched my website. I need to start building my backlinks and I need to know how I can go about getting started? I read the beginners guide but still stuck on where to start? Any advice Thanks
Link Building | | edward-may0 -
When pitching a whitepaper as Push Content for Link Building, is it ok to give the person I'm pitching a link to a landing page with a form on it?
When pitching a whitepaper as Push Content for Link Building (i.e. pushing out content that my client has created), is it ok to give the person I'm pitching a link to a landing page with a form on it? Or should I create a landing page with the whitepaper included on it? I’m not sure if the client will be ok with this b/c I know they use the whitepaper for sales purposes to gain leads. For example, my pitch email would include a line such as this, "the whitepaper can be found at LINK and I'd love if you could share it with your readers." I think it may be weird/a little wrong to ask a webmaster to include a link on his site to a landing page with a form to get the whitepaper. Does this make sense? What have others done with whitepapers as Push Content for link building?
Link Building | | ArketiGroup1 -
Link Building for extremely niche industry
I understand that when getting links into your site, they need to be good authority but, importantly, also relevant to the information on your own website. I've seen examples for people to find guest posting opportunities on many sites, but these have been for popular industries with mass amounts of people discussing it (travel blogs, fashion blogs), making guest post opportunities more readily available. The company I work for provide doc storage, scanning and paperless solutions. As you can guess, when following these guides to find blogs on our industry, I have come up short with places to ask to guest post on! So, how would SEOmozzers approach building quality, relevant links for a very niche industry such as ours? Also, we'll be building pages for extremely specific types of files (e.g. Microfiche Scanning, A0 Scanning....). For these pages, how will I be able to find relevant pages on these topics to get a link to, because these will obviously be even more niche than doc scanning? Thank you!
Link Building | | janc0 -
New website, small business, niche market --- what's my best link building strategy?
Hi everyone, We are a small company manufacturing a niche product (indoor playground equipment), our new English website (www.funlandiaplaygrounds.com) has just been launched 2 months ago, before that we didn't even have a website in English. As the international sales manager of such a small company, I have to do all the international marketing jobs including SEO, but before this I'm almost a noob on SEO. I've just started the linking building work for our website, after a research on the links of our highest ranked competitors, I have found out that almost ALL of the external links of them come from directories and purchased links, many links are very dubious, please see the open explorer results below: http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?page=1&site=www.spiplay.co.uk&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=&target=page&group=1 http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=www.softplay.com%2F http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links.html?page=1&site=www.china-cheer.com&sort=page_authority&filter=&source=&target=page&group=1 http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aileplay.com%2F http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/links?site=internationalplayco.com%2F The search keywords is: indoor playground equipment. According to the latest SEO theory and numerous posts I've read here, links from these directories carry very low value, and solely relying on these links may even cause penalty to the website, but the reality is, all these competitors rank on the top as a result of these "spammy" links. For example this website www.aileplay.com that has the highest PA of 64 and rank on the first page on the search result of indoor playground equipment, has tons of spammy links. That is the situation we are facing now, then my questions is: As a small business in such a niche market, what is our best strategy to rank well in a reasonable time, say 3 months to 6 months? I do not think our competitors are very strong and hard to beat, I believe we will beat them in content creation for sure, but what should we do in link building? should we start to get directory links now, as it obviously works for them? Or should we first create more attractive content, then use these content to get natural links BEFORE we submit for directory, as recommended by most link experts here? If so should we just sit back doing nothing before the link worthy content is created and natural links starts to come in? I highly appreciate any comments! DSG_clan
Link Building | | DSG_clan0 -
Which link should I use for link building?
I have an article which have high rank on Google. But recent, I use mod rewrite url so this article have new url. old: mywebsite.com/c1/p-1 new: mywebsite.com/c-e/p-1 Now, google is indexing old url. I want to ask when I build linking to my site, which link should I use for link building? I should build linking for new url or old url. Thanks
Link Building | | sonzin13040 -
Great idea to get back links in short order; however the links would be unrelated. . Is it worth the effort . BTW, it's a white hat method. Should I proceed?
I have come up with a very creative way to get some great back links using white hat methods. The problem is that the back links to the site would be to an interior page or external promotional website which then have links back to the main website. What kind of value for the main domain would this potentially achieve. What are peopLes thoughts on this idea?
Link Building | | FidelityOne0 -
Link Building - Goals and Expectations
I'm trying to set concrete goals around link building and I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on what is reasonable to expect. If we are reaching out to 10 sites a day in a non-spammy, relevant way, is it reasonable to think that we'll get 5 links back, 2 links? I just don't know. Tips and tricks are welcome too!!
Link Building | | ehorndahl0