Earning links locally

What a link does

A link from another site is read by search engines as a vote that the linked page is worth showing, weighted by how relevant and trusted the linking site is. Google's guidance on local ranking counts links among the inputs to prominence, and its general ranking counts them for the whole site. A local business does not need many; it needs the right ones, from sites a Dublin customer would recognise.

Where a local business earns them

People who already mention you. Search for the business name. Every mention without a link is a link one polite email away: a supplier's client list, a client's “our partners” page, a venue that lists its contractors. Ask; most say yes.

The trade or professional body. Membership directories usually link. The citations chapter listed them as citations; the link is the second half of the value.

Sponsorship. The under-12s football team, the community festival, the charity run. Sponsorship pages link to sponsors. The link is real because the sponsorship is.

Local press and community sites. A local paper or a district news site writes about local businesses that do something worth writing about: an award actually won, a milestone, a community contribution, an unusual job. Send them the story with a photograph. This is slow and uncertain and is the most valuable link a local business can get.

Chambers, associations, business networks. Member directories, event pages, speaker lists.

Being worth linking to. A page on the site that people want to point at: a genuinely useful guide, a piece of local data, a tool. The reference property of this network has entries on why this works; the handbook only notes that it is the only kind of link that arrives without being asked for.

What is prohibited

Google's spam policies name link schemes: buying or selling links that pass ranking weight, exchanging links at scale, using automated programmes, and placing links on networks of sites built for the purpose. Proposals that offer a number of links per month from unnamed sites are describing a scheme. The consequence is a ranking penalty across the site, which for a local business can mean disappearing. The direct-answer property lists this among its red flags.

Keeping a record

A spreadsheet: the site, the contact, the date asked, the outcome, the link's address if earned. Reviewed in the monthly routine. Links are lost as well as gained; a page that linked to you can be edited or deleted, and the record is how you notice.

Illustrative example. A joinery firm lists eleven organisations it already deals with, finds four mention it without linking, asks all four and gets three; its trade body already links; it sponsors a school's sports day and is linked from the school's site. Five links in a quarter, all from sites in its own city. That describes the method, not a measured result.

Output

The opportunities list, the asks made, the links earned, dated. The website part of the handbook is complete. Now measure: local pack visibility.