Link building for local businesses

E-commerce is continually growing and developing, at an increase of around 10% every single year. This means that competition is also increasing, and companies need to work harder to outperform their competitors. Here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing experts. We work with companies and businesses across Lancashire, from Wigan to Southport, to help their online businesses grow and succeed. One such way is through intelligent link building. But what is link building and how can it improve performance?

What is link building?

Link building is the practice of working with other companies and people to gain more exposure for your website. After all, if your website is linked to more places, then there is more chance of people clicking through and choosing to purchase your products.

In the past, link building practices have involved some black hat SEO practices, including buying links from disreputable and irrelevant sources. This is not the way that link building should ever take place, and if you do resort to this, you can count on a range of consequences from Google.

Here are some ethical and legal ways for local businesses to build links.

Review Sites

Impartial review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Trust Pilot, Which and ProductHunt are all good sites on which to link your website. This will generate referral traffic. People can then leave good or bad reviews regarding your service or products and you should keep on top of the reviews you receive. But dont be tempted just to hide or delete the negative ones, instead you should professional comment on the review showing that you are offering to resolve the problem or issue. When reviews do come in, you also have something to share on social media.

Partnerships

In the modern world of e-commerce, people often overlook local businesses. But getting your local business online is only the first hurdle. To improve your visibility and encourage people to shop with you, you could consider partnering with other local businesses, as long as you are not in direct competition. For example, say you sell fitted kitchens, but not tiles, you could easily partner with a local business that does sell tiles. The two go hand in hand and such a partnership will be beneficial for the customer. In this case, each website will advertise the other business generating traffic for each other.

For more information or advice, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design.