How a local business gets links from other websites.

Why links matter for a local business

Google's help on local ranking names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. On prominence, it says the factor rests partly on how many websites link to your business, alongside your reviews. Links also help your website in ordinary results, and they are one of the ways Google finds new pages at all. Why your business is not showing on Google Maps covers the other two factors.

The links that help a local business are rarely clever. They come from organisations that would mention you anyway: the manufacturer whose boilers you fit, the association you belong to, the newspaper that covered your opening, the junior football club whose shirts carry your name.

A useful test for any link: would it be worth having if Google did not exist? A link that brings customers, referrals or trust passes. A link that exists only to move rankings is the kind Google's spam policies are written against.

See who links to you now

Before you look for new links, see what you have. Search Console's Links report lists the sites that link to yours and the pages they link to. Google Search Console for business owners covers setting it up.

Expect a handful of real links, from the chamber, a supplier or an old news story, and a scattering of odd sites nobody chose. Leave the odd ones alone; the section on spammy links below explains why.

Then check the real ones. An old link to a page you deleted, or to a domain you no longer use, sends visitors to an error page. Ask the site to update it, or redirect the old address to the right page on your site.

Suppliers and manufacturers

Many manufacturers and wholesalers keep a page of approved installers, stockists or salons that use their products. For a heating engineer, that is the boiler manufacturer's installer finder. For a bike shop, it is the brands it stocks. For a salon, it is the haircare brand's salon locator.

These links sit on sites people use when they have already chosen a product and need someone to supply or fit it, which makes them some of the most useful a local business can have. Ask your rep or account manager what it takes to be listed: often a training course, an accreditation or a minimum order. Then check the listing names the business as your sign does, shows the right phone number and links to the right page.

Trade bodies, schemes and the chamber

Membership directories are links you earned by joining. Go through every organisation you belong to, or could:

• Your trade association or professional body, such as the institute an accountant is a member of.
• Certification and accreditation schemes whose logo you show.
• The local chamber of commerce and any business improvement district.
• Local business networks that list their members.
• Your regulator's public register, where one exists.

Each should show your name, address and phone number, with a link to your website. Many list members without a link until someone asks for one. Keeping those details consistent is a job of its own, covered in business directory listings: which ones matter.

Local news that is really news

Local papers, news sites and radio stations need stories, and a local business has more of them than it thinks. What counts:

• An opening, a move, a new branch or a milestone birthday for the business.
• An apprentice taken on, a first job for a school leaver, a team member's award.
• A fundraiser, a free clinic or a repair day for the community.
• Expert comment when something local happens: a vet on keeping dogs safe in a heatwave, an accountant on a change to local business rates.

Send a short email to the news desk with the facts, a quote and one good photo, and offer to talk. Many news sites will not link to you, or will mark the link so it passes no ranking credit. The coverage is still worth having: people read it, and some of them search for your name afterwards.

Paying for an article with links in it is a different thing. Google's spam policies name advertorials whose links pass ranking credit as link spam, and a reputable paper labels paid content anyway.

Sponsorships and local events

Sponsoring a junior team, a school fair, a charity run or a local festival usually earns your logo and a link on the organiser's website. Do it for the people at the event and the goodwill. The link is a bonus, with a catch.

Google treats a link given in return for money, goods or services as a paid link. It says paid links should carry a sponsored or nofollow label, which tells Google not to count them for ranking. A club that labels your link that way is doing nothing wrong, and neither are you. A sponsorship sold to you as "a backlink for your SEO" is the version to avoid.

So judge a sponsorship by the event, not the link: who will see your name, and whether they are your customers.

Businesses you genuinely work with

Businesses that refer customers to each other often list each other: a wedding venue's recommended suppliers, an estate agent's list of local solicitors, a physiotherapy clinic and the gym whose members it treats.

These are fine when the recommendation is real. Google's spam policies list excessive link exchanges, and partner pages made only for cross-linking, as link spam. The difference is easy to see. A short list of suppliers you have worked with, each with a line on why, is a page for couples planning a wedding. A page of fifty links swapped with strangers is not.

Ask the businesses you already send work to whether they would list you, and offer the same on your site where it truly helps your customers.

Schools, colleges and charities

Real community work earns real mentions. A trade business that takes work experience students, gives a talk at a college careers day or fixes up a community centre often appears on that organisation's website, in a news item or a thank-you page.

Do the work because it is worth doing, and ask afterwards whether they would mention you, with a link. What to avoid is the version made for links: a "scholarship" set up mainly to collect links from university pages is money exchanged for links, which is the first thing Google's spam policies list.

Pages on your site worth linking to

Other sites link to pages that help their readers, and a local business can write a few that nobody else can:

• A cleaning company's checklist for tenants moving out, which letting agents can send to every tenant.
• A garage's list of what a pre-purchase inspection covers, for local used car buyers and the groups they ask in.
• A venue's guide to local accommodation and transport for wedding guests.
• A clinic's page on what happens at a first appointment, for GPs and coaches to send people to.

Write the page your customers already ask for, keep it current, and tell the people who would share it. One useful page does more than a blog post a week that nobody needs.

Link offers to refuse

Google's spam policies list the link schemes it acts against, and most offers that reach a small business are on the list:

• Buying or selling links that pass ranking credit, for money, goods or services, including a free product in return for a post with a link.
• Paid guest posts and advertorials whose links pass ranking credit.
• Excessive link swaps, and pages made only for cross-linking.
• Automated programs or services that create links to your site.
• Links from low-quality directories and bookmark sites.
• Links hidden in widgets, footers or templates spread across many sites, and forum comments stuffed with links.

Google says sites that break its spam policies may rank lower or not appear in results at all, and that it finds them through automated systems and, where needed, human review. The offers usually arrive by email with promises of high-authority links; how to spot SEO spam emails shows how to check them.

If an offer promises a set number of links for a fee, decline it. Real links come from relationships, and nobody honest can promise how many you will get.

What the link should say, and where it should point

When a site asks how to link to you, give them your business name and the page address. Your name is the natural link text, and it is what a reader expects to click. Asking for keyword text, such as "best emergency plumber Leeds", looks like what it is.

Point the link at the page that matches the reason for it: the home page for a membership directory, the boiler servicing page for a manufacturer's installer finder, the event page for a sponsorship. Check that the links still work after any redesign.

Spammy links you did not ask for

Every website collects links from scraper sites and directories nobody chose. Google says most sites will not need its disavow tool, which asks Google to ignore links. It suggests using it only when you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links and they have caused a manual action, or are likely to.

So ignore emails that warn about "toxic backlinks" and offer to clean them up. If Search Console's Manual actions report shows no issues, there is usually nothing to do.

One business, worked through

Take a two-van electrical firm that wants more work in its town. Over a few months it works through what it already has:

• The EV charger brand it installs lists approved installers. The firm completes the brand's training and appears on its installer map, with a link to its EV charging page.
• The safety scheme it belongs to lists members by postcode. Its entry had no website, so it adds one.
• The chamber of commerce lists members with links. It already paid the membership and never filled in the profile.
• Its first apprentice finishes his course, and the local paper runs a short piece with a photo. The online version links to the firm's site.
• It sponsors the under-twelves football team. The club's sponsor page links to it, labelled as sponsored, and parents see the name every Saturday.
• A kitchen fitter it works with lists it as the electrician it recommends, and the firm lists the fitter in return, because it really does send them work.

None of those links was bought, each one would be worth having without Google, and the firm can explain every one of them.

A plan you can keep up

• List every supplier, manufacturer and brand you work with, and ask each about a listing.
• List every body you belong to, and check that each listing links to your website.
• Fix old links that lead to error pages.
• Pitch one real local story each quarter.
• Choose sponsorships for the audience, not the link.
• Write one page a referrer would want to send people to.
• Look at the Links report every few months to see what arrived.

Judge links by people as well as by rankings. Your website analytics shows visits by the site they came from, often called referrals: a manufacturer's installer finder that sends ten visitors a month is doing its job, whatever it does for search.

Ask new customers how they found you, on the enquiry form and on the phone. "The boiler company's website" and "I saw you sponsor the football club" are answers worth counting, and they tell you which relationships to keep up.

None of this needs an agency, and none of it is quick. Most of it is better done by the owner, who has the relationships. Ongoing content and search work can be agreed separately from a website build, as our websites page says, and nobody can promise where it will put you.