Link Building for Small Business Owners
I recently had a client who couldn’t figure out why his competitor ranked higher than him on Google. The competing website wasn’t optimized, it didn’t have a blog, and there was no social media integration at all.
One word: links.
I know, my infographic is sweet.
Anyway, having a great, optimized website with carefully selected keywords in the right places is a must, but it can only take you so far. For local search, content is important, but links are crucial. This means that the crappy website with the most links will come up high on the Google search. But the great website with the best links will win, every time.
What is Link Building?
Link building is the process of creating external links from various places on the internet that point to your website. A good link building strategy isn’t finding every free directory on the web and submitting your website. Instead, it’s finding resources with a decent Google Page Rank and/or high amounts of traffic and adding your business to those resources.
Why Does Link Building Matter?
It matters because the more links you have pointing to your website, the higher your Google ranking. There are exceptions, of course. If all of your links are on sleezy directories (known as ‘link farms’) this will likely not affect your rankings- and could even hurt you in the long run. See the JC Penny fiasco. Generally, you want links from respectable online directories, social media networks, and local online resources, the more diverse, the better. To give you an idea, consider this: 2 links coming from website.org and website.edu will always help more than 10 crappy website.com links.
How to Do It
1. Get organized. We recommend that you start a spreadsheet with columns containing the name of the website, the URL, the date you started, a username, and password. (Most of the directories will require you to sign up- we created a separate email address that we use only for this process to keep our inbox clean.)
2. Go to getlisted.org. This is a great place to start with the biggest, most important directories like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
3. Make sure you’ve claimed your business on these directories: AOL Local, White Pages, Yellow Pages, Yellowbook, Local.com, Merchant Circle, Yelp, InsiderPages, SuperPages, Localeze, YellowBot, Kudzu, SuperMedia.com, DexKnows.com, Wikibusiness.org, and Mojopages, to start.
4. For social networks, definitely create business profiles in LinkedIn and Facebook. Twitter is optional- Twitter links can be very useful, but it’s not worth it if you won’t tweet. Ditto with many of the other social networks like Quora, Foursquare, SlideShare, etc. But if you think you can get into the social networking scene, then this is a great free way to boost your rankings. Check out other social media sites for small businesses.
5. Look for industry specific links. For example, if you are a veterinarian, Google “veterinarian directory” “veterinarian listings” etc and make sure you aren’t missing any free places online to include your business.
6. Look for geography specific links. For example, if you live in White Plains, you’ll definitely want to check out WhitePlains.patch.com. For more ideas, use Google with terms like “White Plains Business Directory” “New York Small Businesses” “White Plains Small Business Directory” etc.
7. Go to whitespark.ca. This is a great free resource that will find other places you may have missed for your industry and location links.
8. Keep track of your listings, adding more whenever you get the opportunity. The best link building strategies are an ongoing process. Guest blogging, your college alumni websites, Better Business Bureau profiles, any organizations or affiliations that might allow you to create a listing online- these are all opportunities that will help your website rank better.
Need help formulating a link building strategy? Don’t have the time to do it all yourself? Contact Ad Astra eMarketing today!
POSTED: Wednesday, July 27, 2011.
