Local Link Building

Local link building is all about getting backlinks from websites that are relevant to your geographical area whether that be an Austin, Texas subreddit, or the local sports sponsorship page. These links tell search engines like Google that your business is a legitimate and valuable part of the local community. Local link building can include citation management, however citations don't always include links and can often be managed by business owners of through listing management software. 

The new landscape with AI in search and Large Language Models (LLMs) changes how content is consumed. AI Overviews and AI Mode aims to provide direct, summarized answers, often pulling information from various sources and citing them. While they can reduce direct clicks to websites for some queries, being cited in an AI Overview still boosts visibility and credibility. For local businesses, this means that having high-quality, relevant information on your website, backed by strong local links, is more important than ever to be considered a trustworthy source.

Yes, links still matter significantly for SEO in 2025. For local businesses, their impact varies by algorithm. Joy Hawkins' study for Sterling Sky demonstrated that even a single, high-quality backlink can cause a substantial increase in traditional organic rankings, while having a much smaller impact on local pack rankings. Therefore, link building is crucial, especially if your business relies heavily on organic search results.

Citations and backlinks are different but they are deeply connected in local SEO tactics. The primary difference lies in their fundamental nature:

• Citations: Primarily exist to verify your business's existence, location, and contact information for search engines and users. Their main purpose is to establish trust and relevance in local search results. A citation does not have to include a link the company website, but it might. 
• Backlinks: Are hyperlinks from one website to another. Backlinks signal trust, showing that one site values another’s content and pass "link equity" from one site to another and drive referral traffic.

A complete local SEO strategy considers both citations and backlinks as both contribute to your overall online presence and can influence search ranking. If you are looking to grow your business precence outside the table stakes of accurate structured citations on major platforms like Facebook, Yelp, Infogroup, Acxiom, and YP, then you're specifically looking to build linked unstructured citations.  

1. Traditional Backlinks (Local Focus)

These are the core of what SEOs often call "links." A backlink is simply a hyperlink from one website to another, and they remain a primary way search engines gauge a site's value and authority.

• How they work: Think of them as votes of confidence. When a reputable local website links to your business, it signals to search engines that your site is a trusted and relevant resource in the area. These links also drive valuable referral traffic directly to your website.
• Where they appear: Backlinks can appear as text within an article (like a mention of your business in a local news story) or even within images (such as an advertising banner on a local community website that points to your site).
• Example: A local food blog writes a review of your restaurant and includes a clickable link to your menu page.

2. Unstructured Citations

Unlike the standardized fields in online directories, unstructured citations are mentions of your business on websites where there isn't a pre-set form or dedicated listing. They're more organic and often found in natural content.

• How they work: These mentions, even without a direct link, help search engines confirm your business's existence and relevance within its local context. Consistency of your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) across these varied sources strengthens your local footprint.
• Where they appear: You might find your business mentioned in a local online newspaper article, a local blogger's review, a community forum, an industry publication, or virtually any other type of website. The key is that your business's complete or partial information (NAP) is mentioned.
• Example: A local charity's website lists your business as a proud sponsor, including your name and address, but no clickable link.

3. Linked Unstructured Citations

This type of citation is the best of both worlds! A linked unstructured citation is a mention of your business (complete or partial NAP) that also includes a clickable link to your website.

• How they work: These carry the dual benefit of verifying your business's local details (like an unstructured citation) while simultaneously passing valuable link equity (like a traditional backlink). They reinforce your authority and drive direct traffic.
• Where they appear: Similar to unstructured citations, these can be found in editorial content, blog posts, news articles, or resource pages, where the author naturally mentions your business and decides to include a link.
• Example: A local lifestyle magazine features a "Best of [Your City]" list and includes a write-up about your business with a direct link to your website. 

Say you’re from Idaho. Let's say we have a divorce lawyer in Boise. So they're in Idaho; how good is it for them to get a link in Austin, Texas, from another divorce attorney? Of course, it's industry-specific and it's going to pass a certain amount of link equity. But the question is: Are you going to get business from Austin all the way up into Boise, Idaho, from people reading a site based in Austin, if it's a local audience? And the answer is no.

The most important thing to realize is that when you're doing outreach, when you're trying to create content for a given market, keep it in your local market. That's something that we haven't seen enough of in the local search link acquisition space.

Let’s move on to finding different types of opportunities in a local market. There are a few good ways to do this.

Custom Searches

The first thing that you can do is look for custom opportunities on Google using custom searches. The best way to do that would be to put in "location +." Let's say you're looking for blogs in your market, you put "blogs."

By doing this, you're getting a returned list of results that could have a potential opportunity for you on a local blog that you could outreach to for an opportunity to either guest post, or if you've created great content that you think fits with them, then maybe they can do a follow-up post about something that you've done.

Your Link Profile

What are some ways to understand where you're currently at and what your link profile is already, especially to your local landing pages? The best thing that you can do is go into Google Search Console and download your entire link history (that they're at least willing to show you). Then, start sifting through those links and find out which ones are from your market compared to which ones are spread outside of your market, which isn’t generating too much relevant traffic.

If you can't get Google Search Console, you can put your link into Link Explorer and pull out that information according to the index that they have. It's a great way to at least understand where you currently are at with your link building efforts and where you need to put your focus on.

So that's just a few ideas of opportunities that you can use to outreach in the local market. But when it comes to the outreach itself, I want to talk about different ways to be effective.

In Person

This might not be possible for all situations, but if you can outreach in person, you're definitely going to get a lot farther and have a much higher conversion rate. If you know folks from a chamber event, then talking to him or her in person about your idea, you'll probably have a better chance to get either a blog post on the site or get them to mention you in a potential news article.

Phone

Next would be on the phone. This is something that we do a lot. If you're calling from a local number to a local business or a local organization and talking to them about an idea, first, you're going to get to the right person in a lot of cases that you do need to talk to, and second, you can build a relationship that's just going to come off a lot better than an email that's sent to a spam folder.

Email

Then last, but not least, is still email. While it might not be as effective as meeting with people, either in person or talking to them on the phone for these different outreach opportunities, you can still have great success through email. But I would definitely try to go either in person or talk to somebody on the phone first for these opportunities.

From a long-term perspective, with the updates that Google's made such as the Venice update that started rewarding localized content more and more as they understood localized content more and more, we don't think they're far away from understanding the localization of links. As that trend continues to progress we as an industry need to be much more willing to go after the local link building opportunities. We still need to take advantage of good industry opportunities, by just switching and having a priority on building links in the market that you care about.

These are often the first steps for any local business looking to build an online presence. It's worth saying up front that as with any link building strategy it's important to approach these with the intention of providing value, giving back and not just to generate links. Anything that looks spammy and low quality won't be worth your time. 

• Local Business Directories (Citations):
  • Examples: Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), Yelp, Bing Places for Business, Apple Maps, Foursquare, Yellow Pages, industry-specific directories (e.g., Angi for home services, Healthgrades for medical).
  • Benefit: Primarily Relevancy. Crucial for local pack rankings and establishing foundational local signals. Some direct traffic from users Browse directories. AI Overviews often pull information directly from these structured data sources.
  • How: Claim and optimize your profiles with accurate Name, Address, Phone (NAP) information, website links, hours, photos, and descriptions.
• Build your businesses social profiles and add them to your Google Business Profile (GBP.) 
  • Examples: Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, all the usual suspects can be added here. 
  • Benefit: for a very light lift your can get links added to these profiles back to your site. It creates interlinking that makes it easy for anyone viewing your business on social to access your domain. 
  • How: Set up your social profiles and complete the bios., entering a website where you can. then add that social link to yur Google Business Profile under the Contact section.  
• Chamber of Commerce Membership:
  • Examples: Your local Chamber of Commerce website.
  • Benefit: Primarily Relevancy, some Traffic. A highly credible local link. Shows community involvement. Many Chambers have member directories with links.
  • How: Join your local Chamber of Commerce. They almost always have a member directory where you can get a link.
• Local Review Websites (with Profiles):
  • Examples: TripAdvisor (for hospitality/tourism), Zomato/OpenTable (for restaurants), specific industry review sites.
  • Benefit: Primarily Relevancy, significant Traffic if reviews are positive. While the link might be a nofollow, the strong citation and brand mention are incredibly valuable. AI Overviews often summarize reviews.
  • How: Encourage customers to leave reviews on these platforms. Ensure your business profile is complete and accurate.
• Sponsorships of Local Events/Teams (Acknowledgment Links):
  • Examples: Your business name and logo on a local sports team's website, a charity event's sponsor page, a school play program.
  • Benefit: Primarily Relevancy, some Traffic (from event attendees). Great for community goodwill and brand visibility. Many organizations will link back to their sponsors.
  • How: Identify local events, sports teams, or non-profits that align with your business values and offer sponsorship. Politely request a link on their website's sponsor page.
• Local Meetup Groups / Associations (as a venue or participant):
  • Examples: A local business networking group, a hobby club (e.g., local photography club, book club) if you offer a relevant space.
  • Benefit: Primarily Relevancy, potential for Traffic. If you host a group, they'll often link to your business as the venue. Active participation in relevant local associations can lead to member directories or "partners" pages.
  • How: Find relevant local groups on platforms like Meetup.com or through local community boards. Offer your space (if applicable) or become an active member.

These require a bit more proactive effort and relationship building.

• Local Bloggers/Influencers:
  • Examples: Lifestyle bloggers, food bloggers, local news and event bloggers who write about your area.
  • Benefit: Both Traffic and Relevancy. A link from a respected local voice can send highly targeted traffic and strong relevancy signals.
  • How: Identify local bloggers who cover topics related to your business or community. Offer to provide unique content, a product/service for review, or invite them to an event. Build a genuine relationship before asking for a link.
• Local News Websites/Publications:
  • Examples: Your town's newspaper website, local online news portals, community magazines with online presences.
  • Benefit: Strong Relevancy, significant Traffic if the story is compelling. These are highly authoritative local sources. AI Overviews are likely to pull from established news sources.
  • How:
    • Press Releases: Announce new products/services, community involvement, awards, or significant business milestones.
    • Guest Articles/Op-eds: Offer to write an article on a topic relevant to your business and the local community (e.g., "5 Tips for Saving Energy in [Town Name]" if you're an HVAC company).l
• Partnerships with Complementary Local Businesses:
  • Examples: A local gym linking to a nearby healthy cafe, a wedding planner linking to a local florist, a car mechanic linking to a local tire shop.
  • Benefit: Both Traffic and Relevancy. Mutually beneficial relationships.
  • How: Identify non-competing businesses that serve a similar customer base. Propose cross-promotional opportunities, joint events, or simply a "recommended partners" page with links.
• Local Resource Pages / "Best Of" Lists:
  • Examples: City or county government websites with local business resources, local university resource pages for students/faculty, "Best [Your Niche] in [City Name]" articles.
  • Benefit: Strong Relevancy, good Traffic. These are often curated lists that people actively seek out.
  • How: Search for existing resource pages in your area. If your business fits, reach out to the website owner and politely suggest adding your business. For "Best Of" lists, ensure your business has a strong reputation and reviews.
• Local Educational Institutions (Alumni, Programs):
  • Examples: Your alma mater's alumni directory or business section, local community colleges or universities that have business partnership programs.
  • Benefit: Strong Relevancy, some Traffic. High-authority links that can boost overall domain authority.
  • How: If you or your employees are alumni, check their website for business directories. If you offer internships or participate in career fairs, see if they link to participating businesses.
• Perform A Competitor Backlink Analysis:
  • Examples: Say you're in the cupcake business, search for your term + Geo location, "vegan cupcakes north london" and note who is currently ranking in the top positions, now look at their backlink profgile to revese engineer the reslts. 
  • Benefit: With better intel on how is linking to your direct competirors
  • How: Use Moz Backlink checker for free, and if you want to supercharge the results sign up for a paid subscription and give True Competitor a try. 

These require significant investment in content creation, relationship building, or unique initiatives.

• Original Local Research/Data:
  • Examples: A study on local consumer habits, a report on real estate trends in your neighborhood, an infographic about the local economy.
  • Benefit: Both Relevancy and Traffic. Highly shareable content that can attract links from other local businesses, news outlets, and even national publications reporting on local trends. Positions you as an authority.
  • How: Conduct unique research specific to your local area. Present the findings in an engaging way (blog post, infographic, video). Promote it to local media and relevant organizations.
• Create great content (this basic but hard to get right):
  • Repurpoe your awesome blog that really took off and build out a guide, or adapt it for another topic or season. 
  • Benefit: Content Marketing has long been the best way to draw in links from other sites, it helps to provie value, unique perspective and data (using and repurposing the research you did above) 
  • How: Create a rocust local content mareting strategy, this will help keep you on track as you build out your on-site and social assets.
• Hosting/Sponsoring a Major Local Event:
  • Examples: Hosting a large charity run, a community festival, a major industry conference in your town.
  • Benefit: Massive Relevancy and Traffic. Generates significant local media coverage, social buzz, and links from event partners, attendees, and news sites.
  • How: This is a substantial undertaking, but the PR and link-building opportunities are immense. Partner with local organizations, secure venues, and promote heavily.
• Creating a Definitive Local Resource (Linkable Asset):
  • Examples: An ultimate guide to local attractions, a comprehensive list of all non-profits in your area, a searchable map of local walking trails.
  • Benefit: Both Relevancy and Traffic. These resources are inherently valuable and tend to attract links naturally over time as other websites reference them.
  • How: Identify a gap in local information. Create a high-quality, regularly updated, and visually appealing resource on your website. Promote it to local organizations and individuals who might link to it.
• Local Scholarship or Grant Program:
  • Examples: Offering a scholarship to a local high school student, providing a small business grant to a local startup.
  • Benefit: Strong Relevancy, some Traffic. Attracts links from educational institutions, news sites (announcing recipients), and potentially other local organizations.
  • How: Establish clear criteria and promote the program through local schools, community centers, and news outlets.
• Local Government/Council Websites:
  • Examples: Being listed as a local service provider or partner on a city, county, or borough council website.
  • Benefit: Extremely high Relevancy, some Traffic. These are highly authoritative and trustworthy domains.
  • How: This is usually challenging and depends on your business type. Look for programs that partner with local businesses, or opportunities to be listed as a vetted vendor for certain services (e.g., if you're a contractor, a list of approved local builders).

Reddit is a collection of communities called subreddits, each focused on a specific topic, interest, or, in your case, a geographic location. People on Reddit are often looking for genuine, helpful information and recommendations. They tend to be wary of overt self-promotion.

The goal isn't to blast your link everywhere, but to become a helpful, respected member of relevant local subreddits. When you provide value, people will naturally be interested in what you do, and that's where opportunities for visibility and indirect link building arise.

Simple Strategy for Local Businesses on Reddit

Here's a straightforward strategy for local businesses to leverage Reddit for visibility and potential "links" (or at least strong mentions/referrals):

1. Find Your Local Subreddits:
   • Search for subreddits related to your city, town, or neighborhood. For example, r/london, r/ealing, r/londonfood, r/london_homes.
   • Look for subreddits related to local events, news, or specific interests that might align with your business (e.g., r/londoneats if you're a restaurant).
2. Lurk and Learn the Culture:
   • This is crucial. Before you post anything, spend time just reading posts and comments in these subreddits.
   • Understand the tone, what people talk about, what kind of questions they ask, and what kind of content gets positive engagement.
   • Notice how people react to self-promotion. Most subreddits have strict rules against it. Read the sidebar rules for each subreddit you join.
3. Become a Helpful Community Member First:
   • Contribute genuinely: Answer questions, share helpful tips (unrelated to your business at first), engage in discussions.
   • Be a local expert: If someone asks for recommendations for something you know about, provide a helpful answer without immediately pushing your business. For example, if you own a coffee shop and someone asks for "best study spots," you might say, "I really like [Another Cafe Name] for their quiet atmosphere, but if you're looking for strong Wi-Fi and good background music, [Your Coffee Shop Name] is also a solid option." This is subtle and offers choice.
   • Build Karma: This is Reddit's reputation system. The more upvotes your helpful comments and posts get, the more "karma" you earn, which signals to others that you're a valuable member.
4. Look for Opportunities to Share Value (and potentially your link):
   • Direct Questions: If someone directly asks for a recommendation for the specific service or product you offer, you can mention your business. Still, provide a brief, helpful description rather than just dropping a link. "If you're looking for a reliable plumber in [Neighborhood], we at [Your Business Name] specialize in emergency repairs and have transparent pricing. You can find more info on our website."
   • Answer FAQs: If you notice common questions that your business can genuinely answer, create a valuable post (or even a blog post on your site) that addresses it, and then link to it from Reddit if it directly answers the question. For example, a roofer could write "5 Things to Check After a Storm in [City Name]" and share it when people ask about storm damage.
   • Offer Discounts/Specials (if allowed): Some local subreddits have specific threads or days for local business promotions. If so, participate in those. Check the rules!
   • Original Local Content: If you create a highly valuable, locally relevant piece of content on your website (e.g., "The Ultimate Guide to Dog Parks in [City Name]" if you're a pet supply store), you can share it in a relevant local subreddit. Frame it as "Hey, I put together this resource that might be helpful for fellow [City Name] dog owners!" not "Buy my stuff!"
5. Understand "Links" on Reddit:
   • Direct Links: When you post a link, it's often a "nofollow" link, meaning it doesn't pass traditional link equity for SEO purposes directly. However, it still drives Traffic if people click it.
   • Brand Mentions & Referrals: The real power of Reddit for local businesses isn't just direct links; it's the brand mentions and referrals. If your business is consistently recommended in local subreddits due to your helpfulness, that's incredibly valuable for Relevancy and can lead to significant Traffic. People will search for your business after seeing it recommended.
   • AI Overview Influence: AI Overviews and LLMs can crawl and analyze Reddit content. If your business is frequently mentioned positively or cited as a solution within relevant local discussions on Reddit, it contributes to the AI's understanding of your business's reputation and local relevance, indirectly boosting your visibility in AI-generated answers.

Key Point: Don't use Reddit solely as a place to drop links. Use it to genuinely engage with your local community. If you do this consistently and with integrity, the visibility, brand awareness, and indirect "link" value (through mentions and direct visits) will follow.

• Paid links (we're not talking about citations here) any purchased links are in violation of Google's guidelines and won't be an effective use of your efforts.
• Press releases are created purely to generate links. We mentioned press releases as a viable strategy above, provided it doesn't make up the majority of your backlink profile. If you are pushing press releases purely for links, then, again, it's diminishing returns for many businesses. 
• Anything overly spammy that attempts to game the system to artificially inflate your search rankings. 

• You have a tremendous variety of options for earning links, but you should avoid: 

• Irrelevant links: Seeking links from websites that have no sensible relationship to the business you're marketing

• Cloaking: Showing different content to search engines compared to what is shown to users. This is an attempt to deceive search engines about the true nature of a page.
• Injecting Hidden Links: Exploiting security flaws to inject links into websites you do not own, making those links invisible or nearly invisible to regular users.
• Hidden Text: Placing text on a page that is only visible to search engines (e.g., using white text on a white background), typically stuffed with keywords for ranking manipulation.
• Buying Links: Exchanging money, goods, or services for links or posts containing links. This includes giving "free" products in exchange for a linked review. Google explicitly penalizes this practice as it manipulates search results by allowing sites to "buy" PageRank rather than earning it through merit.
• Excessive Link Exchanging (Reciprocal Links): Engaging in widespread "link to me and I'll link to you" schemes, especially with irrelevant or low-quality websites. While natural reciprocal linking between relevant sites is fine, excessive exchanges purely for link acquisition are penalized.

Why these tactics are discouraged

• Risk of Penalties: Websites found using these techniques have faced automated or manual penalties from search engines in the past. While penalties aren't known to be actioned based on backlinks, the tactics are less effective and often now worth your time.
• Unsustainability: Black-hat tactics often work only in the short term, as search engines constantly evolve their algorithms to detect and counter them. This creates a volatile situation where traffic and rankings can disappear overnight.
• Lack of Genuine Value: These methods don't focus on adding true value to users or the internet. They prioritize manipulation over creating a great user experience or building a loyal customer base.
• All the tactics that became outdated around the time of the Google Panda update.

Do a quick analysis of your backlink profile to see if the majority of your links are noticeably generated from these sorts of tactics.

Focus on being the most comprehensive, trustworthy, and locally relevant source of information for your niche. This means not just getting links, but creating valuable content that other local entities want to link to. There are 3 key ways AI search and LLMs are affecting the local search landscape: 

• Content Consumption: AI Overviews summarize information directly in the search results. This means they are looking for clear, concise answers to common questions.
• Trust and Authority: LLMs are trained on vast amounts of data and aim to provide factual, authoritative information. They rely heavily on the signals that traditional SEO has always emphasized: high-quality content, strong domain authority, and credible backlinks.
• Local Nuance: While LLMs are powerful, they can struggle with hyper-local nuances. This makes accurate NAP information, strong local citations, and geographically specific content even more critical.