What would you do to get links?

11 years ago

I would find out if each of those towns has a blog, do they?

Where I live every little neighborhood has it's own blog, but anyway I would go to each blog and advertise with coupons.

Or I would offer to guest blog something, or just offer a really good coupon that they pretty much have to mention for free because it's such a great deal.

I would try to think of other things I could offer as content as well like photographs, or tips related to your business, or how to stuff, diagrams, people will link to that if it's good.

Thanks
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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by bleu

I would find out if each of those towns has a blog, do they?

Where I live every little neighborhood has it's own blog, but anyway I would go to each blog and advertise with coupons.

Or I would offer to guest blog something, or just offer a really good coupon that they pretty much have to mention for free because it's such a great deal.

I would try to think of other things I could offer as content as well like photographs, or tips related to your business, or how to stuff, diagrams, people will link to that if it's good.

I haven't seen a blog on any of the small town websites.

Where would you offer the coupon, tips, how to stuff, etc?

Thanks

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Marked09

11 years ago

If that was me ,these are the things that I will do

1.) I would invest on facebook ads to get initial traffic. In facebook you can target by city
2.) I will share on social media (Facebook , Twitter)
3.) I will reach out to similar website, potential people manually. (online and offline)
4.) I will collect email list so I can send free traffic every time I have a new posts.

Assuming that my content is good enough people who visited my site using these methods will naturally build links to my site.

Thanks
1 reply

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bleu

11 years ago

I haven't seen a blog on any of the small town websites.

Where would you offer the coupon, tips, how to stuff, etc?

search for "town name blog"

I would advertise my coupon code on the blogs if you can find any.

Marked09 said facebook ads I use those and you can target by zip code like he said - I've done that and works okay.

I would put the how to articles, diagrams, tips, etc, on my own site to get the links.

Thanks
2 replies

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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by bleu

search for "town name blog"

Like I said, there are none.

I would advertise my coupon code on the blogs if you can find any.

Marked09 said facebook ads I use those and you can target by zip code like he said - I've done that and works okay.

I would put the how to articles, diagrams, tips, etc, on my own site to get the links.

Articles and tips are already on my website.

Thanks

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Stocs 11 years ago

Originally Posted by bleu

search for "town name blog"

I would advertise my coupon code on the blogs if you can find any.

I have searched about 25 different towns in my area, very few have any type of blog. A few of them have a small forum with 4-8 posts (literally) and a few have blogs on blogspot.com that have about 6 articles from years ago.

I would assume that getting on these forums or blogs would do more damage than good since they are crappy and kinda look like spam...?
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jamesfreddyc

11 years ago

If he's #1 in search results, then why would Facebook ads be an option? I mean, do people really look for HVAC/Plumbing repair and installations on Facebook, let alone be tempted to click on an ad in their Timeline?

I'd think potential customers would need service NOW, not just happen upon a FB ad and say, "oh yeah that's right, my toilet is overflowing in the upstairs bathroom".

I'd start targeting the larger populated nearby locations and go for ranking those other local markets, starting from the highest avg. searches per month if SEO was my main strategy.

Thanks
2 replies

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Marked09

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc

If he's #1 in search results, then why would Facebook ads be an option? I mean, do people really look for HVAC/Plumbing repair and installations on Facebook, let alone be tempted to click on an ad in their Timeline?

I'd think potential customers would need service NOW, not just happen upon a FB ad and say, "oh yeah that's right, my toilet is overflowing in the upstairs bathroom".

I'd start targeting the larger populated nearby locations and go for ranking those other local markets, starting from the highest avg. searches per month if SEO was my main strategy.

You are correct, people who are searching on google actively wants the services or actively looking for information.

While in facebook, people who might need to get those services in the future will be tempted to click on the ads.

There are instances when people have problem but they are simply on their leisure time when they saw an ad on facebook they will suddenly realize that they need those services. It happens a lot people procrastinate.

Or maybe they suddenly realized that they know someone who has a frequent problem so you might get a referral.

People who are consistently having those problems might take note of your website for future reference. That's why I included to add a way to your website to submit their email address / phone number so you can follow up with them and get familiarized.

This is also good for branding. Since people who loved your services will go back to your page and leave a nice comment. Social Proofs is a good thing to have in business regardless if it's offline or online.

Thanks
1 reply

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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Marked09

You are correct, people who are searching on google actively wants the services or actively looking for information.

While in facebook, people who might need to get those services in the future will be tempted to click on the ads.

There are instances when people have problem but they are simply on their leisure time when they saw an ad on facebook they will suddenly realize that they need those services. It happens a lot people procrastinate.

People who are consistently having those problems might take note of your website for future reference. That's why I included to add a way to your website to submit their email address / phone number so you can follow up with them.

While you may be correct about Facebook, my question is how to get links to a website in order to help its ranking.

Thanks
1 reply

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Marked09 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

While you may be correct about Facebook, my question is how to get links to a website in order to help its ranking.

As I've said on my previous posts (post #4) assuming that your website/services/content is good enough, people will be linking to your site naturally.

But if you want to manually get a backlinks then you might want to check this thread
http://www.warriorforum.com/search-e...-backlink.html
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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc

I'd start targeting the larger populated nearby locations and go for ranking those other local markets, starting from the highest avg. searches per month if SEO was my main strategy.

Remember, you're a contractor

How would you rank in those other local markets?

Thanks
1 reply

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jamesfreddyc

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

Remember, you're a contractor

How would you rank in those other local markets?

I'd lean towards building out lead gen sites in those markets..

Thanks
1 reply

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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc

I'd lean towards building out lead gen sites in those markets..

I have no idea what you just said and neither does any other contractor

Thanks
1 reply

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jamesfreddyc

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

I have no idea what you just said and neither does any other contractor

You are in the "Search Engine Optimization" section of this forum and the discussion is usually between those with SEO experience, working on or learning about it. I assumed you were the one who either did the work or part of getting ranked #1 from your OP.

In any event, I'd look into creating really good landing pages (take a look at LeadPages.net for example), that have well done call to action elements then work to do both local-focused seo as much as possible as well as PPC campaigns. I'd probably invest more in the PPC than the seo stuff.

Thanks
1 reply

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Stocs

11 years ago

I assumed you were the one who either did the work or part of getting ranked #1 from your OP.

I did it all. It was very easy to get listed as the first contractor in the Google Local search for my town, all I did was fill in Google+ correctly and put my physical address on my website. That's it.

In any event, I'd look into creating really good landing pages (take a look at LeadPages.net for example), that have well done call to action elements then work to do both local-focused seo as much as possible as well as PPC campaigns. I'd probably invest more in the PPC than the seo stuff.

At this point I'm asking, from a very beginner standpoint, how to get backlinks to my website. Not Facebook, not PPC, not lead companies. Just links.

I've read about SEO for months and all I see is "Write good content!". So I paid good money to multiple writers, all Americans with good references, $20-50 per article. The articles are good, topical, interesting (as interesting as residential contracting could be). The articles are about safety, DIY, dealing with contractors, what to look out for, tips and tricks, etc.

But still, I get around 10-15 local people per month reading those articles, that's it.

I think my problem is the lack of good backlinks to my website, I have none, and that is what I am trying to get. But all the advice is generic... I don't know how to turn it into real links, which is why I presented the scenario in this thread asking exactly what someone would do to get links in my situation.

Thanks
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nettiapina

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

I think my problem is the lack of good backlinks to my website, I have none, and that is what I am trying to get. But all the advice is generic... I don't know how to turn it into real links, which is why I presented the scenario in this thread asking exactly what someone would do to get links in my situation.

Well, it's a bit of a problem to present a sort of hypothetical scenario, and ask for specific advice. But in any case you should just disregard all the advice that mentions "social signals", forum posting, or social sharing. That's mostly just a waste of time.

Can you think of anyone who would link to your site for any reason? Partners, employees, contractors, industry associations... You know, using the kind of natural connections that your company has.

If you've got a really compelling story to tell or juicy link-bait topic to push, that might help. Remember to market your content, perhaps even directly contact people who might be interested.

I'd also spy on competition and see what kind of backlinks they have. Majestic and Ahrefs are tools that you can use for this purpose.

There's a lot of ideas on Backlinko's list. I would not say that all of it is good, but maybe there's something that you can apply.

At the end of the day you may just have to resort to buying some links. I know it doesn't sound right, and it isn't by Google's rules, but there's not that many reasons to link to the site of another fairly uninteresting small business. I had the same domain before starting my company, and took part of some "blogosphere" crapstorms back in the day. That was pretty effective link building, but you don't want to get your company involved in something like that.

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Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

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Stocs

11 years ago

A few replies from me in bold:

Originally Posted by nettiapina

Well, it's a bit of a problem to present a sort of hypothetical scenario, and ask for specific advice. But in any case you should just disregard all the advice that mentions "social signals", forum posting, or social sharing. That's mostly just a waste of time.

Can you think of anyone who would link to your site for any reason? Partners, employees, contractors, industry associations... You know, using the kind of natural connections that your company has. Not really.

If you've got a really compelling story to tell or juicy link-bait topic to push, that might help. Remember to market your content, perhaps even directly contact people who might be interested. There's not that much compelling content when it comes to resi service work. No one really cares what the roofer or plumber has to say

I'd also spy on competition and see what kind of backlinks they have. Majestic and Ahrefs are tools that you can use for this purpose. I've done that. It's not really other contractor competition beating me in the rankings, it's big websites even though they are selling different things and IMO shouldn't be coming up for those keywords.

There's a lot of ideas on Backlinko's list. I would not say that all of it is good, but maybe there's something that you can apply.

At the end of the day you may just have to resort to buying some links. I know it doesn't sound right, and it isn't by Google's rules, but there's not that many reasons to link to the site of another fairly uninteresting small business. I had the same domain before starting my company, and took part of some "blogosphere" crapstorms back in the day. That was way more effective as link building than anything I've done since.

I have no problem resorting to buying links. The problem is finding a reliable source for decent links that will help and not hurt.

Thanks

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jamesfreddyc

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

At this point I'm asking, from a very beginner standpoint, how to get backlinks to my website. Not Facebook, not PPC, not lead companies. Just links.

Because you think not having backlinks is causing you low traffic? What is the search avg volume(s) for your the keywords in your local area? That was what I was getting at earlier -- perhaps there just isn't a whole lot of traffic on the keywords. Would having additional backlinks matter? I mean, if no one is searching on "plumbing repair cityname" then why would you think other sites would generate that traffic for you?

Hopefully someone will have a different perspective that might help.

Thanks
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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc

Because you think not having backlinks is causing you low traffic? What is the search avg volume(s) for your the keywords in your local area? That was what I was getting at earlier -- perhaps there just isn't a whole lot of traffic on the keywords. Would having additional backlinks matter? I mean, if no one is searching on "plumbing repair cityname" then why would you think other sites would generate that traffic for you?

Hopefully someone will have a different perspective that might help.

I'm just looking for some help getting decent backlinks.

Thanks

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strangebrew1961

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

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You come up first in the Google Local search in your town, but there are only 10,000 people in your town so your service area has to cover 50 other small towns.

Get a Google map listing for all the towns you want to cover. You can get a map listing with just a town name, state and zip. I'm a retired general contractor, and that's how I did it. I came up on the first page of Google for the half dozen towns that I targeted. Much easier than trying to build links.

Thanks
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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by strangebrew1961

Get a Google map listing for all the towns you want to cover. You can get a map listing with just a town name, state and zip. I'm a retired general contractor, and that's how I did it. I came up on the first page of Google for the half dozen towns that I targeted. Much easier than trying to build links.

How exactly did you do that? I thought you need a physical address in the town to get on the Local listings?

Thanks
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strangebrew1961

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

How exactly did you do that? I thought you need a physical address in the town to get on the Local listings?

You do for the anchor listing, but somewhere in the process, in one of the steps, there's a box you can check If you do business in areas outside of your physical location. Then you can choose the areas you want to be listed for by city and zip.

Thanks
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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by strangebrew1961

You do for the anchor listing, but somewhere in the process, in one of the steps, there's a box you can check If you do business in areas outside of your physical location. Then you can choose the areas you want to be listed for by city and zip.

Yes, I did that years ago.

If doing that alone got you on the first page of google searches for all of those towns, you must not have had any competition.

Thanks
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strangebrew1961 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

If doing that alone got you on the first page of google searches for all of those towns, you must not have had any competition.

True. The combined population of all the areas was small. And when I say I was ranking on the first page, it wasn't for a broad search term like. "carpenters in (insert town here)" I was ranking for very targeted, long tail keywords, like "vinyl siding installers in (insert town here)".
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PBScott

11 years ago

In a small town of 10,000 people with a truck, I would not waste any time at all on SEO, other than onsite.

Onsite I would defiantly mention the town and the services in the title tag and on the page.

I would paint my URL on the side of my truck, with an advertisement, as well as any cars I could get my advertisement on and then drop by places that might need your services and drop off business cards. (Old School) You might even want to wear a shirt with your company on it, or even sponser a soccer team.

I would open an adwords account and target only people in your town, in the age group you wanted etc, searching for the services you are offering, you should defiantly do some keyword research to find all the variations of keywords you can target, and some of those keywords would be the names of the competition.

Open up a facebook page that people can like and do not bother advertising it, just link it from your website, put it on your cards etc, but with that facebook page, go around in your town fan pages and comment and like stuff, just so people know your out there.

The cost of highly targeted keywords in a small town like that is likely pennies, and this is why SEO is a waste of time for you. The amount of people searching for your services are probably only a few a day, and might only cost you a dime a day in well targeted Adwords. your time is worth more than that, searching out back links would not be worth it in my opinion. However commenting with a backlink to drive direct traffic likely would be.

Thanks
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Stocs

11 years ago

I tried PPC with two different "pro's" and got nothing.

Also, I am not looking to advertise to only my town, that doesn't make any sense. The point was that my business only comes up for that small town and not the 50 others around it that are part of my service area. If I was in a major city it would be fine only coming up for the one city since that large city would be more than enough work. But when the towns are small you have the advertise to dozens of them.

As for the other stuff, such as painting my truck and dropping off business cards, I already have a wrap on my truck and my fliers are in many businesses. I should get a shirt with my company name? Lol... Is that what all those shirts are in my closet??
I find it amusing that I came to an SEO forum to ask for help with the most basic, effective, and important part of SEO (getting good links) and all I get are people looking to talk about everything but links...

Thanks
2 replies

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PBScott

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

I tried PPC with two different "pro's" and got nothing.

Also, I am not looking to advertise to only my town, that doesn't make any sense. The point was that my business only comes up for that small town and not the 50 others around it that are part of my service area. If I was in a major city it would be fine only coming up for the one city since that large city would be more than enough work. But when the towns are small you have the advertise to dozens of them.

Ok, I didn't quite understand, first of all though, stop hiring "Pros". Adwords is simple to learn it just takes some time. Pick up a book and learn it. Pro's don't care about your bottom line, you should not let others have access to your money like that.

Simply target all the towns you want to sell to. And keep trimming the fat off your campaign (conversion tracking, analytics (bounce rates), negative keywords).

If you don't want to take my advice that's fine, I would, but you do what you want. Just trying to help is all. Seems to me you have the wrong plan and are destined to carry through with it.

Links are simple, go to every blog, directory, newspaper etc you can find on the area you want to target and go to town... there should be one here in your signature also, you should have your links everywhere, link link link....

Thanks
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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by PBScott

Ok, I didn't quite understand, first of all though, stop hiring "Pros". Adwords is simple to learn it just takes some time. Pick up a book and learn it. Pro's don't care about your bottom line, you should not let others have access to your money like that.

Simply target all the towns you want to sell to. And keep trimming the fat off your campaign (conversion tracking, analytics (bounce rates), negative keywords).

If you don't want to take my advice that's fine, I would, but you do what you want.

I don't want to take your advice. I'd like to talk about links, as I asked about. Your advice has nothing to do with links.

Furthermore, I did try PPC myself and got nowhere, which is why I hired people to do it, and still nothing. But that's a topic for another thread.

I started this thread to ask about a particular topic.

Thanks

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Stocs

11 years ago

Originally Posted by PBScott

Links are simple, go to every blog, directory, newspaper etc you can find on the area you want to target and go to town... there should be one here in your signature also, you should have your links everywhere, link link link....

Oh that's awesome, your answer for how to get good backlinks is forum posting with a signature link. Excellent advice!

Thanks

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nettiapina

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Stocs

I find it amusing that I came to an SEO forum to ask for help with the most basic, effective, and important part of SEO (getting good links) and all I get are people looking to talk about everything but links...

To be fair, sometimes that is the best advice to give to someone. SEO might not work for every company in every industry. For some reason these "internet entrepreneurs" don't remember that they need to use the most effective venues and simply talk to people. However, I don't think that it's a problem for you from just looking at the company description.

Link selling tends to be a business that nobody wants to admit using, let alone telling which provider they use. It's probably too paranoid to expect that Google monitors these discussion, but better safe than sorry.

Thanks

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Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

What's your excuse?

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Slade556

11 years ago

It's going to be extra-difficult to get people to link to a website about plumbing. It's just not your regular popular niche!
So, you're better off investing in ads, on Facebook or Adwords, for instance, or you could find websites that target the people in your area. Ok, you say there are NO blogs whatsoever. I doubt it, surely there are at least a few people in your area who blog, maybe they write about pets or cooking or personal stuff, whatever! Try buying some ad space on their websites, people in your area who read those blogs will see your ad (banner or link, so there you have it, a backlink).

Thanks

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Orgone EMF Protection

11 years ago

Sometimes for a local business having a website isnt even necessary.

I have a local Mobile massage business. Apart from my current EMF website. Spent allot of time doing SEO for it and building a responsive attractive website that is ranked on page one of google for my local area it actually dominates google Im everywhere for the keyword in my local area. But get very few customers from my website.

Most customers comes from Yelp.

I would suggest Angies list. People don't always search for everything in google, and through websites. Unlike internet marketers think. People respond to people not always search results and websites

make a google plus page and get some reviews will probably be better. Also Thumbtack,com all for free can probably be more beneficial for you