Backlinks and Local SEO

You will be familiar with copywriting. You will also be familiar with the term search engine optimisation. This simply means translating written copy into code that Google rewards with traffic.

What makes a good backlink for local SEO? In the sense of local SEO, you would assume that if you are based in Dorset and have a link from DorsetJournal.com, this would be perfect, and in that sense, you would be correct. However, a much better link would be from the BBC, Channel 4, or other high-authority websites.

What is a backlink?

Backlinks are crucial for SEO

Two-thirds of the optimisation success is within the written page, its code and how that code relates to the rest of the websites.

However, the remaining third is how many web pages have a link to this page and in what way and in what words this occurs. This hypertext creates a link signal that Google can use to improve your rankings.

The first links within the website are called internal links. If a page like a blog, for example, has very few pages linking to it, then Google rightly might understand that although this page is of interest, it is mission-critical to the website and what it is trying to achieve.

Backlinks in the context of local SEO are defined as links from external websites to a page within your website.

For example, if you are talking about something that is not related Dorset or the West Country when you place a link at the end of a sentence with the word Dorset linking to your website then Google would not understand the context.

If however, an entire paragraph was devoted to gaining a product which you sell and also talks about where this product can be bought and how it is available across Dorset, and the anchor text linking to your website is either across Dorset or simply a for more information click here type of anchor text at the end of a sentence.

Also, it is important which webpage is linked to. If on your website you have a section domain.co.uk/Dorset/buy our products here, this would be an appropriate page to link to regarding Dorset.

However, it could be more beneficial to actually link to the domain.co.uk/Dorset as then the link strength would be passed to all the pages within that folder.

What makes a bad local SEO link?

There isn’t really any such thing as a backlink; there is only actually toxic anchor text.

However, a bad link in this context is one that you have paid an agency to build but has no positive impact on your Google rankings.

This would include citation links or NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) backlinks. Here, the content is poor. It is often only the name of your company and your address.

Also, the anchor text context is poor; invariably, click here for more websites. Either way, I don’t think anyone could describe these pages as high quality.

Don’t rely on citation links

The belief that endlessly repeating your address and your phone number on web directories to prove your business is located there, is false. This is because it is so simple to add citation links, which anyone could create using fake addresses.

Don't waste your money

A far better low-cost backlink strategy could be using social media local tax for example #Guildford #Surrey or #Kent. Although we haven't tested the results of these it would seem likely that these are improvement on citation links.

Backlinks seem complicated?

Google success as a search engine is all about its ability to understand how different websites link to each other and how this makes some websites more trustworthy than others. But Google is a machine. How they define where a website is not necessarily just in the name. For example, DorsetJournal.com may well be hosted in America. Does this mean it isn't in the UK? You can see how nothing is clear-cut.

We're the linking experts

Vanilla Circus is expert at backlink and have 17 years of success. We have tried and tested the very best methods of ringing the most link juice from a link we have outsourced. We have databases of websites that we can contact to try and source a link for our clients that is both contextual in location and appropriate for what they sell. What is important in all back linking is to follow Google's direction and clear list of rules.

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