Backlinking for small service oriented websites
-
I am a newby to the SEO world. We are a graphic/web design/development company that has been pulled into the SEO world. We work for a lot of clients that are sensing the need for websites but they don't have the capital to invest in a large website. So after building simple sites for them they come to us wanting to be ranked better in the SERPS. I can go through and do the basics of meta tag info but with small sites, there isn't a lot you can do. I feel I need to learn to do backlinking but am completely lost. When I read about backlinks a lot of people talk about blogging websites, not service industry websites. Does anyone have tips to learn backlinking for small service companies that want to target their local area? loggers, woodworking shops, landscape companies, cabinet shops, home cleaners, bulk food stores, etc. I'm interested in maybe blogposts, or tutorials to read/watch, or software to help me out, etc. Thanks in advance for your help!
-
One more thing...
That you may also find helpful the leaked Google Qualaity Rater Guidelines - it was leaked to us SEO practitioners last July or so...
Google for that term - but here's my own blog posting on it - http://www.canuckseo.com/index.php/2014/07/shhhh-google-quality-rater-guidelines-2014-leaked/ - and there's a link there too to download the 11 mb .pdf....
-
When it comes to backlinking, I can offer a suggestion. Get a list of competitors and use opensiteexplorer. You will be able to see what websites your competitors have content on and are generating backlinks from.
Now go through that list and identify the top level domains and see if you can also produce a high quality content they would link to. A great inforgraphic, or top tip article, something users will find relevant and useful.
I would suggest that as a start, It's something I've started doing but the key in my mind is not to spam but build reputable links that resonate with your company.
-
Hi
Here is some additional resources that may of help for Local SEO!
Good luck and hope these help!
-
Mindlink has it nailed. Concentrate on your on-site SEO firstly. An important foundation is critical. Once your foundation is solid you can then look at building inbound links. MOZ has some excellent articles on these topics.
-
It is always good to start with the basic first. Start with your on page seo and then you can move to off page seo.
If you are targeting local then have a uniform local citation for the websites. Target quality local directory and submit your business there. Have a uniform NAP. Be consistent. Add business to google local etc.
If you want to start learning SEO i hope these links may help you up.
http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
http://neilpatel.com/2014/12/30/how-to-build-high-quality-backlinks-in-a-scalable-way/
http://www.quicksprout.com/the-advanced-guide-to-link-building/
SEO is dynamic. Those methods which ranked website in the last few years may not rank your website this year. SEO is not a fast process. It takes time though.
Before starting with SEO .. learn how to discover the right keywords to target. How to create backlinks and how to diversify your anchor texts. Because you are not just going to build backlinks based on your money keywords only.
Good Luck
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Transitioning to from Brick and Mortar to Service Area Best Practices
Hi. I am a solo practitioner in a healthcare field. I have had a traditional office for 4 years but have been working virtually since March 2020 . I have decided to give up my office space completely and make an attempt at running my practice virtually. Can anyone share the best practices for making this transition from an SEO perspective? I currently rank between 2nd to 4th for most of my local keywords (so, in the GMB 3-pack). I will be competing against brick and mortar businesses. Is it even realistic to think I can hang onto my current rankings? I have researched virtual addresses and ruled them out. I have considered searching for someone in my industry and/or a landlord who will accept a small fee in exchange for allowing me to use their address on my website and in GMB, but I'm unsure about this as it seems like a rather unstable arrangement and the shared office space aspect may present a problem with google As of now my plan is to change my address in GMB to my home address, which I will hide, and remove the street address from my website, but maintain the rest of the NAP. I will then create targeted pages for the three primary counties I serve. I have also decided to advertise a limited number of home visit options for clients in my home county in order to maintain an in-person component to the business. Does anyone have any suggestions to improve upon this course of action? As for my current local citations, should I just leave them as is (with outdated address), attempt to remove the street address but retain the rest of the NAP, or something else? Any feedback is appreciated.
Local SEO | | custardextract0 -
2 Websites Targeting Similar Keywords
One of my clients is set on setting up another website targeting some of the keywords/services on the main site. One of the services they offer gets traffic from natural search and also Adwords but doesn't convert well for this service. For other services (which are often utilized at the same time by the customers) the site converts well. My client feels that... "people are not converting on the main site because they click on the page and realise that we are a wider company. From this they probably work out that we don’t actually produce Green Widgets and we just buy them in. Therefore we will be more expensive than a company who does manufacture Green Widgets (although there are only a few in the country who actually make them)." The new site "...will have more of a manufacturer and specialist feel. There will be a small mention of other services. People visiting will think we are specialists and that we make them, whereas at the moment they may feel that they are just being cross sold a product. We have also noticed that we are not being found earlier enough and we are contacted to do other work only to find that another company is providing the Green Widgets." I did something similar back in the day, but here we ran a local website and a national website covering the same products. We tried hard not to duplicate the keywords we targeted minimising this as much as possible. I don't think we cared much about the local site as the national one went crazy busy. In essence, my client wants to do the following: Main Site...
Local SEO | | GrouchyKids
Blue Widgets Bristol
Red Widgets Bristol
Green Widgets Bristol (This would be retained) New Site...
The new site would focus on Green Widgets In time the new site would include content for...
Green Widgets
Green Widgets Bristol (As per the main site)
Green Widgets Cardiff It would also make mention of Blue Widgets and Red Widgets as possible addons. The new site would be at the same address but have its own companies house registration, emails and phone numbers. My feeling is that we should take an above-board, risk-free approach and remove the Green Widgets service from the main site to ensure it doesn't upset Google. In other words go out of our way to minimise targeting of similar/same keywords across the 2 sites. My client strongly disagrees showing evidence of others using similar tactics (we have had the EMD debate as well). I am also concerned about Google Places and how this might be viewed here. Opinions please, also any idea of what if any action Google would take if we push forwards?0 -
Is there a way to get a list of urls on the website?
For example, www.laskeimages.com Outside of Google Search Console, is there another way?
Local SEO | | SeobyKP0 -
Company with multiple services | multiple locations/states
I have a company that rents, repairs, and sells product both new and used. They also have 3 locations in 3 states and service multiple cities out of the locations (ie... los angeles and orange county). Having a hard time redesigning the website so that it fits for customers to look around and for the best of Organic SEO. The issue seems to be fitting the locations in the mix in order to get the customer to the right area without being too confusing. In the end, I'm thinking well maybe the homepage should just be some content to get them to choose the location first then they can go into silos where they pretty much remain in the location for rentals, repairs, and sales but I'm not sure how having the locations on the home page would affect the site. Obviously, we would be trying to rank the silo locations more but they would be 2-3 pages in on clicks to get to the right section 'if' they started from the home page. We need to do this right from the beginning though because we are working on expanding nationwide one day. Thanks for any help on this manner. (PS> Thought about doing subdomains like locations.example.com or state.example.com and rentals.example.some and shop.example.com but I think that will dilute the rankings)
Local SEO | | Ryan_Marshall1 -
Should you set an hreflang if the website is only in one language
We have a website, which is written in British English. There are no other versions of the site in different languages and the website only serves a UK audience. We have not set an hreflang tag up. Is this something we would still need to do and what would the benefits (if any) be?
Local SEO | | HubMDP0 -
The best link building tactics for small business' which don't include asking for links or guest blogging?
M clients are two estate agents, a photography studio, and a drainage company if that helps!
Local SEO | | sophiecrosby971 -
Feedback to what to offer to my clients on my SEO website - local to Boise ID
Hi, I'm targeting Boise, Idaho and building an SEO consulting website. Right now I only offer 3 things because that's what I have experience in: 1. On-site SEO 2. Content Audit 3. Start a company from scratch. Ecommerce, Service, or Informational I know #3 involves all SEO, so it will be challenging, but 1-3 is what I've been doing for 10 years. What feedback do you have as far as 1-3 being my 3 offers, and is $200/hour fair? I work off quotes by estimating my time at $200/hour. Thanks.
Local SEO | | BobGW1 -
Suggestion "How can I improve my website"
Hi Folks , I'm trying to help my friend , I need your suggestion. I gathered all the data , Please find the attachment , our spam score is 5 as compared with competitors 0 root domain 0 total links 1.)How can we increase the page authority ? 2.)Should i buy more backlinks ? Which website you will recommend me ? 3.) How can i reduce my spam score to 0 or 1 ? I'm not sure about the links which are attached to my website? However, I read in moz article it could be because large domain and few links. It doesn't show any thing on open site explorer. It looks like we haven't discovered link data for this site or URL. We are running google ads , Facebooks ads and twitter. MpYq1
Local SEO | | hemantt0