Expert Tip: How to Gain Local Links from Community Involvement

Anyone who's been in the search game for a while probably has a somewhat twisted mind when it comes to link building. Over the years we got hooked on getting cheap, easily-obtained links that helped us to rank quickly. Then Penguin's penalties scared us silly. In fact, in many cases, it's scared people into completely giving up on trying to gain any new links.

However, links still matter a lot for Google rankings and that probably isn't going to change any time soon. Luckily for local businesses, it's fairly easy to get some nice links and to build your brand within your market area at the same time by supporting local groups and events in a way that helps you, too.

We recently realized that some people are making gaining links from community involvement way too hard. So, we created this simple flow chart as to how it can work for you or your clients.

The first step is to discover what the business is already doing within the community, so ask. Then look to see if those efforts may have already earned them recognition that is not yet being shown online. In some cases, it may take additional effort on your part to put that online recognition into place.

If the business isn't yet contributing to their community as a supporter or sponsor, then it's up to you to research the possibilities and present them for consideration. It's great if the causes the business wishes to support are somehow related to the business — such as a physical therapist sponsoring a sports team or a charity run — but that isn't really necessary. If a physical therapist wants to sponsor a community concert series or support the local animal shelter with volunteer work or funding, that'll work just fine, too!

It's going to be easiest for you and the business if a group or event it wishes to help out already recognizes supporters on its website. Then it's simply a matter of making your contribution and providing the necessary information. However, education and/or volunteering some web work might sometimes be worthwhile.

So talk to the business owner about a brand-building budget, the community causes they prefer to support and the local link opportunities that presents. Then, get moving on it!