Small businesses do not give Link Building the due importance it deserves. Link Building and SEO are considered as activities that are secondary and can be done away with. This is partly due to the fact that Link Building is viewed as an activity that is complex and can only be done by experts. Some believe that it is associated with content marketing.

The truth however is that Link Building is an activity that can be learnt with training and can be mastered with hard work and regular practice. Although content marketing is a complementary activity associated with Link Building, both activities go hand-in-hand in playing an active role in improving the visibility of SMBs in search engine results and improving ROI of SEO strategies for online businesses.

Anybody can build links and for this content creation is not a must. Below are some helpful tactics:

Image Link Building

Image Link Building starts with images that are associated with a website such as product photos, employee headshots, logos, branded graphics, and company buildings/ locations. Business owners need to first compile a list of these images that might be in use on the internet and then to contact the webmasters of those websites and ask them to provide a citation via a link back to the website of the business owners.

Local Link Building

Local Link Building strategy involves local elements that play a vital role in link building. These include:

– Local partnerships

By creating a Partners Page on their website, businesses can ask their partners to provide a link. Similarly, they can appear on the Partners Page of the website of their partner, and provide them a link.

– Testimonials
Businesses can provide a testimonial to their partners and suggest that they include a link to the website of the business as a citation.

– Local sponsorships
Businesses could sponsor local charities/events and get listed in the Sponsors pages of these special events and have their link on the website of the local charities/ events.

– Engaging within your community
Business can appear on local news or an event listing and have their link appearing on the website of these community members.

Fresh Mentions

Fresh Mentions works wonders for SMBs and runs on the same principle as image link building. The only difference is that instead of looking for images related to a brand, businesses search the web for brand names, company names, product names or names of personnel. Businesses then write to webmasters of the websites asking them to provide a link of the businesses on the websites.

Link Reclamation

Link Reclamation works for those businesses whose websites have undergone an update or a migration. It means that those pages that are not functional anymore and are returning a 404 error need to be identified and listed. A redirect needs to be put on those pages so that they point to the new web page. Then those websites on the internet that are pointing to these non-functional pages need to be identified and an email needs to be sent to the webmasters of these websites asking them to adjust the URLs of the links and point them to the URLs that are correct.

Relevant Niche Directories (RNDs)

Businesses can build links on Relevant Niche Directories that are relevant and niche from a user standpoint. Some of the RNDs include the Chambers of Commerce, Local Business Directories, Local Business Journals and Local Review Sites.

Summary
Link Building is a useful activity for improving visibility in search results and can be undertaken by anybody.