Building links remains one of the most effective ways for small businesses to improve their search engine rankings and SEO rankings. However, with Google’s algorithms becoming more advanced, link building tactics and strategies must evolve too. This ultimate guide provides an in-depth look at advanced link building techniques for digital marketing. The guide covers topics such as:
- Leveraging local SEO
- Technical integrations
- Measuring success
- Scaling efforts
Why is Link Building Vital for Small Businesses?
Backlinks signal trust and authority to search engines. Simply put – the more high-quality backlinks you have per linked page, the higher you rank in SERPs. For small businesses struggling for visibility, link building provides an affordable way to:
- Increase organic traffic – Backlinks direct referral traffic while improving rankings.
- Enhance brand visibility – Links allow you to showcase niche authority and credibility.
- Outperform competitors – Sophisticated link building strategies set you apart.
This is especially crucial when 78% of local searches result in offline purchases. By ranking higher locally, small businesses can drive more sales.
With the right strategies from a skilled Link Building firm, your link building efforts can pay dividends.
As the below data highlights, critical marketing activities for small businesses include
I. Advanced Link Building Strategies for Small Businesses
Let’s break down tactics with proven success for more backlinks and earning powerful backlinks.
A. Leverage Local SEO for Link Building
| Strategy | Impact | Difficulty |
| Local SEO | High | Low |
| Content Marketing | Medium | Medium |
| Guest Posts | Medium | Medium |
Local SEO optimizes your online presence to rank for searches in a geographic area. For small businesses, prioritizing local link building brings immense value.
1. Optimizing Google My Business
Google My Business (GMB) listings appear prominently in local SERPs. When optimized fully with images, descriptions, and contact info, they act as mini-sites to showcase your authority.
The more complete and engaging your GMB profile, the higher it may rank locally. As it links back to your site, this boosts the linking page and local visibility.
Pro Tip: Encourage customer reviews and local citations to strengthen your GMB presence for local link building.
2. Local Directories and Citations
Citations in online directories validate and reinforce your local SEO efforts. Each directory listing links back to websites that link to your site, exponentially increasing local authority.
The key is diversifying citations across niche-relevant and local directories, from general ones like Yelp to industry-specific sites.
Pro Tip: Align business name, address, and contact info precisely across citations and GMB. Inconsistency negatively impacts local rankings.
B. Content Marketing Tactics That Earn Links
Original, creative content that solves problems for your audience inevitably attracts links.
1. Creating Share-Worthy Content
According to recent surveys, 12.5% of digital marketers say awesome content was most effective for a link-building campaign.
That is why optimizing content for shareability is key. Analyze influencers and identify information gaps only your small business can fill. Combine data-driven insights with actionable advice presented through compelling narratives.
2. Strategic Guest Blogging
Find other websites still accepting contributor posts within your niche and craft value-driven guest posts with embedded, contextual links. Since guest blogging was the second highest rated tactic for link building at 11.7%, it remains a staple.
The key is adding unique angles to played-out topics so your posts capture attention. Reach out to site owners professionally and pitch your ideas.
3. Visual Content and Infographics
Information presented through infographics, images, graphs, and videos keeps readers engaged. Visually share obscure industry data or general trends in new formats.
Graphics and multimedia connect better and tend to get shared extensively due to inherent click appeal. This expands potential referral traffic.
C. Relationship Building for Links
Links derived from genuine connections stay stronger long-term versus one-off outreach.
1. Networking with Niche Influencers
Identify power players creating waves within your industry. Follow them on social media, interact meaningfully over time, and become part of their community. When relevant opportunities arise, influencers are likely to link back to specialists they trust and engage with.
2. Strategic Collaborations
Collaborations with complementary businesses can unlock amazing link building and traffic benefits. Co-create content or campaigns pooling target audiences and domains.
For example, an accounting firm can team up with a financial advisor to conduct a joint webinar. Such creative co-promotions build influence and expand reach.
3. Community Engagement
Engaging frequently in niche forums, groups, and publications positions you as an approachable industry expert. Be helpful, and share advice and insights without self-promotion. Giving back to your community in this manner builds goodwill that earns links.
What is the most effective link building strategy for small businesses on a budget?
Local SEO and content marketing are affordable yet high-impact strategies ideal for resource-constrained small businesses. Optimizing your Google My Business profile is free and one of the quickest ways to increase local visibility and backlinks. Similarly, producing awesome blogs, guides, and visuals to fill information gaps takes more effort than money. Over time, this content can generate referral traffic and links organically from influencers and readers who find it valuable.
Focus your limited bandwidth on these organic tactics rather than low-quality directory submissions or paid guest posts which offer less ROI. Slowly but surely, you can build domain authority leveraging nothing but expertise.
II. Technical SEO and Link Building Integration
When advanced tactics bring in coveted backlinks, ensure your site technically supports and enhances its value.
Optimized site structure distributes link equity widely across pages
A. Site Structure Optimization
Ideally, your website should have:
- A silo structure with topics linked thematically
- High-quality pillars and landing pages
- Clear navigation pathways
- Descriptive URL formats
Such optimization ensures link equity flows across connected pages via internal links. Support your content and relationship-building efforts by structuring sites for search engine optimization and crawler accessibility.
B. Anchor Text Optimization
Anchor text refers to the hyperlinked text within the content pointing search results back to your page. Varied, relevant, and natural anchor text signals context to search engines.
For example, if you have a blog post called “Monthly Tax Checklist for Small Business Owners,” the incoming anchor text could say “useful tax checklist for SMBs.” This keeps the anchor text natural and relevant rather than trying to match the exact blog title.
Such optimization relays relevance versus looking manipulative.
C. Prevent Technical Pitfalls
Little technical hiccups on-site can obstruct your website’s ability to pass on link equity to external websites.
- Avoid broken links leading to 404 errors
- Enable HTTPS encryption for security
- Make the site mobile-responsive
- Enable crawling in robots.txt file
With the technical site audit checklist covered, shift focus to tracking link building effectiveness.
III. Measuring the Impact of Link Building Efforts
Metrics aligned to goals keep link building campaigns on track.
A. Key Link Building Performance Indicators
38% of digital marketers rely on page rankings as the top KPI. Additional parameters include:
- Domain Authority or MozRank
- Organic traffic growth
- Referring domain trends
- Links acquired per month
- Visibility in related keyword searches
A few other key indicators to track link building effectiveness include:
- Increase in referral traffic from organic search, social, and direct channels
- Lower website bounce rates stemming from more relevant links driving visitors deeply
- Rise in topic-specific keyword rankings related to attracting links to link anchor text themes
Based on business objectives, identify quantifiable metrics, set realistic targets, and track them. Reviews identify new opportunities.
B. Link Tracking Platforms and Tools
Familiarize yourself with link data platforms:
- Google Search Console provides links, clicks, and query data
- SEMrush offers full link profiles and competitor analysis
- Ahrefs focuses on tracking referring domains
- Buzzstream specializes in outreach and tracking influenced links
- Moz condenses DA, PA and links metrics into one dashboard
Get insight by tracking your site against benchmarks, not just in isolation.
How can small businesses measure the ROI of link building campaigns?
Progress in organic rankings, traffic, and conversions attributable to link building efforts directly translates into ROI.
Set up analytics goals to monitor website conversions from organic traffic. Capture traffic spike timelines and target keyword improvements post link building activities. Factor in the expenses of any outsourced efforts as well.
These quantified outcomes help determine campaign profitability over the short and long terms.
Is it worth purchasing backlinks to speed up results?
The risks of buying backlinks outweigh potential faster gains which rarely sustain long-term. As 78% of Google penalties in 2019 were due to unethical link building, stay far away from shady practices. Focus on building organic, high-quality links that stand the test of ever-evolving algorithms.
IV. Scaling Link Building Strategies
A successful link-building foundation opens doors for bigger outcomes through scaling.
A. Automating Link Prospecting
Repetitive link outreach and tracking tasks can be automated by tools like Buzzstream, and Ahrefs. Based on the parameters set, these platforms identify contextual and broken link building opportunities within your niche and speed up personalized outreach. Their analytics provide bird’s eye tracking too once links get placed.
B. Outsourcing Link Building
With 35% of businesses already relying on outsourcing for backlink campaigns, it makes smart business sense. Rather than struggling with internal bandwidth constraints, consider delegating these specialized efforts.
Benefits of Outsourcing Link Building:
- Access to Expertise: SEO agencies dedicate extensive resources towards link prospecting, outreach, and stewarding relationships over time. They bring proven link building knowledge.
- Time and Money Savings: Eliminates the need for in-house training and tools investment. Frees up internal teams to focus on core operations.
- Risk Mitigation: Experienced agencies are well-versed in ethical tactics and risks associated with different link building techniques.
- Scalability: Agencies have the capacity and manpower to scale link efforts faster across channels.
Approaches to Outsource Link Building:
- SEO Agencies: For exponential yet strategic growth, SEO agencies provide end-to-end strategy and execution. Expect thorough audits, opportunity analysis, and tailored roadmaps to demonstrate ROI.
- Link Building Firms: Specialized link building firms offer streamlined services focused solely on securing tiered links and tracking metrics tied to monthly goals.
- Freelance Marketplaces: If budgets are tight, explore affordable freelance link builders on sites like Upwork to offload a portion of work. Provide guardrails on types and volumes of links sought.
Before outsourcing link building efforts, define targets for quality benchmarks, link growth, and measurable business impact expected. Establish periodic reviews to refine strategies as needed.
C. Building an In-house Link Building Team
For established companies with advanced and complex link needs, investing in dedicated in-house SEO talent makes strategic sense long term.
Consider building an internal link building team if your business has:
- Complex technical SEO needs to be tied closely to proprietary products/services
- Massive enterprise-scale websites that require custom optimization
- High focus on link velocity and acquisition across global niche markets
- Requirements for complete data privacy and control
Approaches to Building In-House Link Building Capabilities:
- Train Existing Employees: Convert interested employees from content teams through formal SEO and link building certifications to align efforts.
- New SEO Hires: Hire specialists with 5+ years of expertise exclusively focused on executing layered link building initiatives aligned to business goals across channels.
- Develop an SEO Team: Build a team encompassing site architecture roles, content creators, link builders, data analysts, and outreach associates for end-to-end optimization.
Building a good in-house link team pays off. It can:
- Boost long-term rankings
- Drive more web traffic
- Lower ad costs
- Spread brand awareness
Hiring and training link builders require an upfront investment. But it brings lasting rewards like better search placement, more site visits, cheaper customer acquisition, and wider brand reach. The effort leads to sustainable success.
Define key roles and responsibilities to ensure coordination across wider marketing and tech teams when pursuing in-house team development for link building. Ongoing education and updates are also crucial to staying on top of algorithm changes.
V. Link Building Challenges and Solutions
A. Toxic Links Impact and Identification
Google flags suspicious backlinks from low-quality sites as toxic links and may manually penalize other sites associated with them through algorithmic updates like Penguin.
What constitutes a toxic link?
- Links from spammy sites were just created to pass on link equity
- Comments spam links trying to manipulate PageRank flow
- Links embedded without context to unrelated content
- Affiliate links solely for financial incentives
- Links from decades-old, abandoned sites (relic links)
Having a few toxic links is not catastrophic. However, a trend of manipulating backlinks or networks of poor-quality links triggers penalties.
Impact of toxic links:
- Traffic Declines – Google restricts traffic to sites with toxic links via demotions
- Lower Rankings – Associated sites get fewer rankings for competitive keywords
- Manual Actions – Google can manually flag sites for “Unnatural Links” leading to intensive clean-ups
How to detect toxic links pointing to your site:
The best approach is being proactively aware through periodic reviews and monitoring the latest flags.
- Use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to scan all backlinks sorted by URL Rating from lowest to highest. Flag shady sites.
- Check Moz’s Spam Score for your domain. Anything above 7+ needs evaluation.
- If flagged by the Google Disavow Tool, pay attention and take action.
- Monitor positions lost for key rankings after algorithm updates.
By identifying and swiftly disavowing identified toxic links, their negative impact can be contained over the long run.
B. Navigating Algorithm Updates
From Penguin to Panda, Core Updates significantly influence how Google perceives links. Monitor ranking fluctuations after each update. Identify new toxic links causing issues. Double down on building organic links that align with updated quality guidelines.
C. Unethical Link Building Traps
Stay far away from shady tactics like:
- ArticleSpinning: Automatically rewriting others’ content
- Keyword Stuffing: Overloading anchor text with keywords
- Link Schemes: Link exchange programs solely to manipulate PageRank
- Private Blog Networks (PBNs): Interlinked sites existing just pass on link equity
Focus solely on links arising naturally from true expertise rooted in your brand. While growth may seem slow initially, lasting success depends on playing the long game.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the best link building strategies for small businesses?
Effective yet affordable link building strategies exist for small businesses. Some top options include:
- Optimizing Google My Business listings
- Guest blogging on relevant sites
- Creating visual assets and infographics
- Obtaining local citations
- Networking with influencers in your industry
Encouraging and sharing user-generated content These build organic links over time through expertise and relationships.
2. How many links should a small business aim for monthly?
Rather than getting fixated on a specific link volume, focus on sustainability. Aim to acquire 5-10 relevant, high-authority links from different root domains monthly through content, outreach, and partnerships. Quality over quantity remains key.
3. Should my small business hire an SEO agency for link building?
If you have some foundation link building knowledge and want to stretch limited budgets, explore trained freelancers first. For exponential yet strategic growth, SEO agencies provide end-to-end strategy and execution with proven results across clients. Evaluate needs, budgets, and growth goals before deciding.
4. What’s better – old links or new links?
Search algorithms trust websites that have built links slowly over time rather than overnight spikes from low-quality links. For small businesses, a balance of legacy links from long-term content and new links from recent efforts is ideal for natural growth.
5. How do I get .edu or .gov links?
Due to stringent link building policies, .edu and .gov sites seldom link out. Still, explore guest contribution opportunities in university publications or industry web pages relevant to your niche. Sponsoring local events also earns brand visibility. Focus efforts broken link out on root domains with strong domain authority versus fixating on TLDs.
Link Build for the Future
By leveraging advanced link building strategies covered in this guide, small businesses can drive targeted visitors, boost conversions, and build sustainable authority. Scale efforts slowly by mastering the basics first. Measure using the right metrics and milestones. Most importantly, build links you feel proud to showcase versus chasing quantity blindly. May the insights you’ve gained lead to measurable success and growth for your brand.
