How Local Backlinks Help Boost Lead Generation Fast

What are Backlinks and how can they help you get more leads to grow your construction company

Intro: Why Local Backlinks Matter

What are backlinks?

Let’s talk about Backlinks or inbound links and why you want them pointing to your website. This is a high-level overview of a technical aspect of modern digital marketing practices.

Backlinks are links from another website that point to your website. For instance, if you have a Facebook Business page, you should have your website URL listed so that your page visitors can click and check out your site. Same for your local Google, Bing, and other business listings sites.

An important distinction about these links…Local Backlinks are different from General Backlinks. Links from your Facebook business page, Yelp, Reddit, and similar media sources are considered general backlinks. They help with your Search Engine Optimization – SEO – efforts but do not carry the same weight as local backlinks.

This is especially true for location-based businesses like contractors and home service companies.

Building Local Backlinks to Boost Lead Generation

Backlink Relevance

I need to first mention backlink relevance. If you’re a contractor and you get an inbound link to your website from an outdoor camping gear retailer, it won’t make sense to the search engine robots. It could actually hurt your search ranking and placement on a results page. It’s not relevant to your business and keywords you want to be ranked on.

Keywords like “Saint Louis Bathroom Remodeling Expert” have nothing to do with Bass Pro shop.

This has to do with something called Search Relevance. Search engines like Google and Bing are all about providing answers to the user searching for something. It’s a bit complex how this works so for now, just think of the search engines a huge phone book of terms that they then have to match to the search intent of the user.

The terms are part of a websites content that they have Crawled i.e. read the content and classified it, and put into an index of terms. Lets leave how search engines work at this for now.

If your website, landing page, or blog article is about plumbing, bathroom remodel, or the best toilets to buy then things about those topics are very relevant.

So, if you’re a Plumbing Contracting company that specializes as a kitchen/bath remodeling plumbing upgrades, then a link from a plumbing supply house makes more sense. This works the same for any home service type of business. Local links back to your website from relevant websites are gold.

For instance, a general contractor talking about the best boat to buy for bass fishing is out of the context of your business. And the search engines will rate you lower for this activity.

So Search Relevance is a important concept to keep in mind.

Building Local Backlinks to Boost Lead Generation

How to get local backlinks

And this makes more sense to Google’s crawlers – the virtual agents that look at websites all over the web – than links from a Ecom retailer. Google Bots (or Bing Bots, Yahoo Bots, etc.) read and classify your website. So, a plumber’s website should talk about fixing homeowners pressing plumbing problems. Or key kitchen/bath remodeling features that you smoothly handle.

Having backlinks to your website from local businesses, trade groups, and others can help with your Google/Bing/Yahoo ranking. Having a good ranking means better organic search engine results.
Your goal is to rank on page one for the keywords that people are using to find businesses like yours.

Here’s another example. A landscaper that specializes in home landscape renewals might want some backlinks from local plant nurseries. You can return the favor and link to your vendor’s website with plant specials. It is all about reaching out to and expanding your local network.

What problems do you solve for your target audience?

This means you do a little research by listening closely to your prospects. They usually have problems or desires that you can help solve. By paying attention to these concerns and having this info in your website copy that gets read by the bots.

So, to recap, we have mentioned backlinks that are relevant to your business and how the keywords that people are using for search intent are important to have in your business website.

That is it in a nutshell. Easy as pie when you think about it, but it will take some effort to establish relevant local backlinks and keywords that work for your home services contracting business.

Read Tips for Marketing Your Home Service Business-Part One

To learn more about backlinks, keywords, and Search Engine Optimization – SEO – give CharleyBlue Designs a call and let’s talk about ways to improve your marketing efforts. Click to call