What local links do
Why links from your community move rankings.
Local link building is earning links to your website from other websites in and around your community, such as suppliers, trade associations, partners, sponsors and local news, so Google sees your business as established and trusted where you work. It is one of the slowest parts of SEO and one of the hardest for a competitor to copy.
Google’s local ranking guidance names prominence as one of three factors, and describes it as how well known a business is, drawing on information from across the web such as links, articles and directories. Links also help the website itself rank in the organic results below the map.
Two things make a local link worth having. It comes from a site about your trade or your area, and real people read that site. A link from the county homebuilders association beats fifty links from directories nobody visits.
Start by checking what you already have. Search your business name in quotes and look for pages that mention you. Some will link to an old page or a dead URL from a past website. Some will mention you with no link at all. Those are your easiest wins.
Where service businesses find links
12 ways to earn local links.
Manufacturer dealer finders
Brands you install, such as water heaters, roofing systems, fence lines or HVAC equipment, often list certified installers. Get on every list you qualify for.
Supplier recommendations
Your supply house, lumber yard or nursery may keep a page of contractors it recommends. Ask the counter manager.
Trade associations
State and regional trade groups list members, and many publish member news and project spotlights.
Chamber of commerce
Membership usually includes a directory listing with a link, plus events that lead to more mentions.
Local sponsorships
Youth teams, school fundraisers and community events thank sponsors on their websites. Expect the link to be marked as sponsored.
Referral partners
Builders, realtors, property managers and other trades you work with can link to you as a trusted partner, and you can return the favor where it is honest.
Unlinked mentions
Articles and pages that name your business without linking. A short, polite email asking for a link is often all it takes.
Outdated links
Pages that link to an old URL or an old domain. Fix it with a redirect on your side or a quick request to the site owner.
Local news and expert quotes
Reporters need trades to explain frozen pipes, storm damage or wildfire smoke. Offer to be a source.
Community work
Volunteer projects, donated services and nonprofit partnerships often earn a thank-you page or a news story.
Local resources
A permit guide for your county, a seasonal maintenance checklist or a cost guide gives other sites a reason to link.
Commercial clients
Property managers, schools and businesses you serve may list vendors or share project stories. Ask with their permission.
Give people something to link to
Build one local resource worth linking to.
Links come easier when you have a page other sites want to send their readers to. Pick a question your team answers every week and answer it better than anyone in your area. Some ideas by trade:
- A roofer’s guide to storm damage and insurance claims in your state.
- A plumber’s winter checklist for preventing frozen pipes in local homes.
- A fence company’s guide to fence permits and height rules by town.
- A landscaper’s planting calendar for your climate zone.
- An HVAC company’s guide to local utility rebates, kept up to date.
Write it from experience, cite your sources for any outside facts and keep it current. Make sure it reads well on a phone and loads fast. Then tell the people who would use it: the neighborhood association, the local paper’s home section, the realtor who hands out a new-homeowner packet.
A good resource also helps you rank for the question itself, and it brings the kind of visitor who calls a contractor later.
How to ask
An outreach email that gets answered.
Most link requests fail because they read like spam. Read the page first, find a real person’s name and keep the email short. Tell them what you found, what you suggest and why their readers would care.
For an unlinked mention: “Hi [name], thanks for including [business name] in your [article or list]. Would you be willing to link our name to [your website]? It would help your readers reach us directly. Thanks, [your name], [business name], [phone]”
For a resource: “Hi [name], I saw your page on [topic] for [town] homeowners. We put together a [resource] that covers [specific detail their page doesn’t]. If you think it would help your readers, here it is: [link]. Either way, thanks for the work you put into that page. [Your name], [business name]”
Follow up once after a week or so, then let it go. Track every request in a simple spreadsheet: the site, the contact, the date, the answer and the link once it goes live. Check live links every few months; pages get redesigned and links disappear.
Ask for corrections at the same time. If a listing shows your old phone number, fixing it helps customers as much as any new link. Our local citations guide covers listing cleanup.
Stay out of trouble
Link schemes to avoid, and how to label paid links.
Google’s link-spam policy covers links made mainly to manipulate rankings: buying links for ranking credit, large-scale link swaps, automated link building and networks of sites built to link to each other. Read the link-spam policy before you sign up for any link package. If someone promises a set number of links a month for a flat fee, ask exactly where they come from.
Paid links are allowed when they are labeled. Sponsorships and ads can link to you as long as the link carries rel="sponsored", which Google prefers, or nofollow. Google’s outbound-link guidance explains both. Sponsor for the visibility and the goodwill, not for ranking credit.
Measure links by what they do: referral visits, movement for the pages they point to and, in the end, calls and booked jobs. A report that only counts links doesn’t tell you much. Link building is part of Lithium’s SEO service , alongside content and your Google Business Profile . For the full picture, start with our local SEO checklist .
