A Winning Backlinks Campaign

[Chubbard]

Hi All,

I'm struggling right now to generate quality backlinks for my site, and wondered if any one in the group has struggled as well, and how he/she overcame their challenges. Here's what I've tried that's so far that's not working:

--(Via management) reach out to 20 group members to initiate a guest blogging campaign. <--I know there's mixed information out there about the usefulness of GBCs, but in our 20 group's case, I feel like it could be valuable

--Reach out to local businesses that we work with to see if they'd like to do a similar campaign, or just be flat our featured on our blog (i.e., virtually free advertising for them).

--Just now starting to use online forums like Quora

**Try as I might, I can't seem to get a local event (or charity partnership) off the ground, though I'll keep advocating for this.**

Obviously, I'm drawn to the power of quality inbound links, but I also think that in many ways, the future of the industry is leaning heavily toward being authorities in our space--whether that's answering questions about car features, maintenance, insurance, or financing. So, I'm interested in hearing from people who are leading the way in terms of quality content with the end user and local community folks (and Google) in mind.

Thanks!

 

[Troy Hartenstine]

Linkbuilding is the loneliest job on earth, (you can tell by the silence) so I thought you could use a (hug) response. I'll skip the obvious, which is to try for links in directories like DMOZ, and instead go local. From my experience, a dealer's best bet for getting good, enduring backlinks is community involvement - Little League sponsor? Nashville has a lot of music related events, right? etc. Putting the backlink on their website is not a trivial task for most, but if you participate in, or sponsor some event/group, they have an incentive to give something back.

 

[Chubbard]

Hey Troy--thanks for the hug! It is awfully lonely out there for a quality link builder.

I'm challenging staff to sponsor events or organizations, but it can be tricky. That said, your feedback has convinced me even more that this is the route to go, so I'll keep on it until the final decision makers agree!

(P.S. In speaking with potential community organizers / partners, I've started noticing that many of them are offering links up front, as a perk of sponsorship, so I think the trend in this direction is strong.)

 

[Troy Hartenstine]

Perhaps you have detected the beginning of a trend ( or its a Nashville thing because of the vibrant music scene there). Good to know that some astute organizers understand the value of linkbuilding - another type of "currency".

As a PS to the above; Google is almost exclusively focused on mobile/local these days. I believe links from other local businesses will eventually (if not currently with the recent possum algo) be more important as a competitive advantage for dealers. 1) Most established dealer websites are already in the big directories, so no advantage there. 2) Google's business model is at odds with big directories in the long-run (re. YellowPages)

 

[Chubbard]

@Troy Hartenstine Ha! I'm not sure if it's a Nashville thing or not, but it's certainly a welcome development.

When you say "more established dealer websites are already in the big directories" would you caution using something, then, like Moz local or a local citation company? I've been considering it, but this gives me pause...

Thanks for all your feedback--it's been really helpful!

 

[Troy Hartenstine]

You are going to have to tell me what a "Local Citation Company" is.

Since Im old-fashioned and still think of Local Citations as just another unnecessary term for an online LISTING with no backlink. I refer to all those generally as "Big Directories". Most of them are IYPs (Internet Yellow Pages). DMOZ is one exception (owned by Google) you must do!

Here is a list of the "Big Directories" I compiled a long time ago https://www.hartenstine.com/1652/where-do-i-get-the-best-backlinks/
but I only throw that out for reference. I do not recommend working to get into those 1) they serve a competitive function to search engines and therefore will never be great source of visitors (just check your analytics for proof), 2) my original comment "Most established dealer websites are already in the big directories" - meaning if you have a telephone, and you are dealer, you are already in the YellowPages.

However, it does matters very much to Google that the phone number (NAP) in those Big Directories are accurate. So Yes, for that I use MOZ Local to manage those LISTINGS where/when possible. (I've been using MOZ Local for years, since they were GetLocal. Its a good tool to have in your SEO toolbox and worth the money)

But MOZ Local is not a Link Building tool.

So to answer your original question "I'm interested in hearing from people who are leading the way in terms of quality content with the end user and local community folks (and Google) in mind."

I have a very non-cutting-edge answer. Blog local (about those local events and how they connect with your business). Blog often. If you don't believe me (because blogging is a lot of work), I've got the ROI right here https://www.hartenstine.com/2549/blog-post-worth/

And a good blog post will get backlinks!