The importance of link building for small businesses

importance of SEO backlinks
11
Oct

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a crucial factor for any small business looking to succeed online. One part of this is link building. But what is link building, how can it improve your website’s visibility online, and what is the importance of link building for small businesses?

So what is link building?

First of all, what exactly is link building? Well, this is the process of forming connections with other businesses and websites, to acquire a link back to your website, from theirs. There are different types of link that may be used, including sponsored links, dofollow links, and nofollow links. For any website, a combination of link types is important, as each serves different purposes. However, a dofollow link is the most useful to aim for. This type of link can indicate to search engines like Google that your website is a trustworthy and genuine source, while also driving traffic to your website.

For small businesses, link building can be a complicated and time consuming process, but it can also bring a number of benefits and advantages. But what are these benefits and how can you create a successful link building strategy?

What is the importance of link building for small businesses?

There are a number of reasons why an effective and professional link building strategy is so important for small businesses. These include:

Improving search engine rankings- One of the most important ways that link building can improve your website performance is by increasing your ranking on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This is because backlinks provide a signal of trust to your website, and add to your website authority. This increases the chances of your business being ranked highly by search engines, especially Google, as these prioritise websites that have a strong backlink profile. As a result, for small businesses, developing an effective backlink strategy can be an effective way to rise up the rankings and boost the visibility of your company.

Increasing organic traffic- Following the increase in SERP position, your small business is likely to see a rise in organic traffic. This is because people are more likely to click on the higher links, which you are now occupying. This rise in traffic is long lasting and cost effective, especially when compared with paid advertising strategies. As such, link building can drive more people to your website, and allow you to make more sales or sign ups.

Building trust and authority- Establishing your small business as one that can be trusted, has authority, and knows the industry, can be essential for long lasting success online. Link building can help you do just that. Through links directed from well established companies and business, website users and search engines alike, will view your website as a reliable source of information, products or services. In that sense, good link building is akin to word of mouth, with links endorsing your company or business. This can be crucial for building a great reputation.

Gaining referral traffic- It’s not just organic traffic from the SERP that you can expect to generate through a good link building strategy, as this can also lead to referral traffic. This is from website users who have clicked through to your business from the link on the other website. As long as your link building is relevant and useful to users, they will click through to find more information, driving targeted traffic to your website. For small businesses in niche areas this can be highly effective.

How to successfully build links for your small business

So how can you build links successfully, to allow your small business to grow online? Well, there are a number of different factors for this, including:

  • Creating high quality content
  • Contact local publications and blogs
  • List with online business directories
  • Repairing broken links

Creating high quality content

For your business to generate links, there needs to be content to link to. As such, one of the fundamental aspects of link building is to create original, valuable, relevant and high quality content. This should offer deep insight into your business area, products or services, providing solutions to common questions and problems, and informing website users in line with the user intent. Some effective content options include:

  • How to guides- In depth, informative guides that help readers solve specific problems.
  • Industry reports- Comprehensive reports or research studies that provide data and trends related to your industry.
  • Infographics- Visually engaging infographics that present complex information in an easily digestible format.
  • Case studies- Detailed case studies that showcase successful projects or customer testimonials.

Reaching out to local publications and blogs

Another effective option is to reach out and form connections with local publications and blogs. These can be an excellent source of backlinks for small businesses in any industry area. This may include:

  • Local media- PR content can be a fantastic way to generate backlinks to your website from reputable local news and media coverage. These backlinks tend to have a high value.
  • Local businesses- Businesses in your local area may be willing to work with yours, as long as you are not in direct competition. However, it’s important to remember that the links need to be relevant, and make sense for website users as well as search engines.
  • Local blogs- You could also offer to write guest posts for local blogs, in exchange for a backlink to your website. When reaching out to local bloggers or publications, make sure the content you provide is relevant to their audience and adds value.

Listing with online business directories

One thing you may have already done is to ensure that your business is listed on online business directories like Yell, and Thomson Local, as well as review sites like TrustPilot. While these links are almost always nofollow, they do come from reputable, high authority websites, which can improve your overall backlink profile, as well as adding value to your local SEO. These links also drive traffic to your website, leading to more potential customers or clients

Repairing broken links

Finally, you could consider repairing broken links. This strategy works in two different ways:

Repairing your own backlinks- If your website already has some backlinks, these can be damaged by changing URLs or other issues. Make sure you scan them regularly, and if broken, reach out to get these resolved.

Finding broken competitor backlinks- You can use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find the broken backlinks on your competitor websites. If you think you have better content than your competitor, or you can offer more value, reach out to the site owner of the broken link, and suggest your content as a replacement.

For professional SEO support and top quality digital marketing, why not get in touch with Preston’s leading experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design?

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Pumpkin Web Design Ltd is a small and highly results driven digital agency working for like minded clients in Preston, Chorley, Southport, Blackburn, Burnley, Morecambe,Wigan, Manchester, London, Warrington, Blackpool, Lancaster, Leyland, Lytham St Annes, Bolton, Chester and the UK. Our services include web design, SEO, content marketing, video production, brand design and much more.