Look for links from organisations physically near you: your chamber, trade associations, suppliers, clubs you sponsor, and local press. Most come from relationships you already have and nobody has asked about.

Why local links are different

A link from an organisation in your own town does something a link from a general directory does not.

It associates your business with a place, from a source that is itself associated with that place, and that association is one of the things underpinning local prominence.

It also tends to be genuine, since a chamber of commerce or a sports club links to you because there is a real relationship rather than because somebody paid for a listing.

Which means a small number of these is worth more than a large number of anything acquired in bulk, and the small number is achievable for any business willing to ask.

You already have most of them

The reason this is cheaper than it sounds.

Every established business has relationships that involve a website somewhere: a supplier, a trade body, an accreditation, a club it sponsors, a charity it has helped, a training provider it uses.

A good proportion of those organisations have a members page, a partners page, a suppliers list, or a sponsors section, and your business is not on it because nobody has ever asked.

The work is not building relationships. It is going through the ones you have and asking a question that takes one email.

Where they actually come from

The third is the most overlooked and often the strongest. Manufacturers frequently maintain a find an installer page and will add you on request.

The supplier list is the easiest win

Worth singling out because it takes one email and is rarely done.

If you install, stock, service, or specify somebody's product, they usually have a page listing businesses that do.

Being on it produces a link from an established site in your industry, and it also produces enquiries directly, because customers use those pages to find local suppliers.

The email is short: name the products you work with, say roughly how long you have been doing so, ask to be added to their installer or stockist listing, and give the details you want shown.

Most say yes. A few require a minimum volume or an accreditation, which is worth knowing anyway.

Sponsorship, done for the right reason

A legitimate route with a caveat worth stating plainly.

Sponsoring a local team or event usually produces a link from the club's site, and it also produces the thing sponsorship is actually for: visibility in your community, goodwill, and occasionally direct work.

Choose it because the second set of benefits is worth the money to you. The link is a by-product rather than the purchase.

Paying for sponsorships purely to acquire links, particularly through schemes that exist to sell them, is a different activity, and it is one search engines have been explicit about disliking.

A modest sponsorship of a club your staff are actually involved with is unambiguous. A payment to an unrelated organisation in another town for a listing is not.

A worked example

A heating engineer listed every organisation the business had a relationship with, which took twenty minutes and produced eleven.

Two manufacturers whose equipment they installed, both with installer directories they were not on.

A trade association they had belonged to for six years, with a member listing showing only their town and no link.

A junior football team they had sponsored for two seasons, with a sponsors page listing them as text.

A local charity they had done work for at cost, which had never mentioned them.

Eleven emails produced seven additions over about six weeks.

Two of the seven began sending enquiries directly, which the owner considered the more valuable outcome, and the local visibility improved gradually over the following months.

Ask properly

These requests succeed or fail on how they are made.

Write to a person rather than a general address, briefly, saying who you are and what the relationship is.

Make it easy: give the exact business name, the address you want shown, and the web address, so adding you is a copy and paste rather than a task.

Ask for a link specifically, since organisations often list businesses as plain text without one and will add it if asked.

And where you can offer something in return, offer it: a photograph they can use, a quote for their newsletter, or a mention of them on your own site.

Local press without a stunt

Harder and worth one attempt a year.

Community news outlets need local content and are usually short of it, and a genuine story is more welcome than most businesses assume.

What counts as a story is narrower than a press release: taking on apprentices, a genuine expansion, a long service milestone, work on a building people recognise, or supporting something during a local event.

What does not is a new website, a new logo, or an award nobody has heard of.

Send it as a short note with a photograph attached, to a named person, and accept that most will not run.

The counter-case

Link building of any kind is easy to overweight, and for a local business it is not the first thing to fix.

A complete listing, a steady flow of reviews, and pages that say clearly what you do and where will move local visibility more than six links will, and they are faster.

There is also a category of local link that is worth nothing: paid placements on low-quality regional directories, reciprocal link arrangements between unrelated businesses, and anything sold as a package by volume.

Those are the things search engines have spent two decades discounting, and buying them is a cost with no return.

The useful test is whether the link would exist if search engines did not. A supplier listing you because you install their product would. A directory listing you because you paid ninety dollars would not.

The exercise

  1. List every organisation you have a relationship with.
  2. Check which have a members, partners, or stockists page.
  3. Check whether you are on it, and whether it links.
  4. Email a person, with the details ready to paste.
  5. Ask suppliers about installer directories first.
  6. Sponsor only what you would sponsor anyway.
  7. Try local press once a year, with a real story.

Step one takes twenty minutes and most businesses find between eight and fifteen organisations they are already entitled to appear on.

Sites that rank for nothing locally are covered in a local site that ranks for nothing.

Frequently asked questions

Why do local links matter more?

They associate your business with a place, from a source associated with that place, and they tend to be genuine relationships rather than purchased listings.

Where do local links come from?

Your chamber of commerce, trade bodies and accreditations, supplier installer or stockist lists, clubs you sponsor, charities you have helped, and local press.

What is the easiest one to get?

A supplier's installer or stockist directory. One short email, a link from an established industry site, and those pages frequently send enquiries directly.

Is sponsorship a legitimate way to get links?

Yes, where you would sponsor it anyway for visibility and goodwill. Paying unrelated organisations purely to acquire links is a different activity and one search engines dislike.

How should I ask?

Write to a named person, keep it short, give the exact name, address, and web address ready to paste, and ask for a link specifically, since many list businesses as plain text.

Should links be my first priority?

No. A complete listing, steady reviews, and clear pages will move local visibility more and faster. Links are worth doing after those, not instead.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Never asked your suppliers?

List every organisation you deal with and check their members or stockists page. Most businesses find eight to fifteen they should already be on.

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