Local SEO backlinks: how a restaurant, tour or hotel earns local links

Why do backlinks matter for local SEO?

Google's help page on local ranking says prominence, meaning how well known a business is, rests partly on how many websites link to it, next to how many reviews it has. Links help your website in the ordinary results as well: Google's How Search Works page says one quality signal is whether other prominent websites link to the content. For a restaurant or a tour operator, a link on the town's visitor guide also brings people who are already planning a visit.

How do you get local backlinks?

1. 1. Turn mentions of your name into links

   Search your business name in quotes and open every page that mentions you: the wedding venue that recommends your catering, the marina that lists your boat trips, last summer's festival line-up. Where a page names you without a link, write to whoever edits it and ask them to add your web address. These are the quickest wins because the page already chose to mention you.¹

2. 2. Ask suppliers and partner businesses

   The bakery that makes your bread, the winery you pour, the hotel whose guests book your tours: many keep a page of stockists or partners. Ask for a link to the page about the dish, trip or room they know you for. Keep it to partnerships that exist. Google's link spam rules name partner pages made only for cross-linking.²

3. 3. Pitch the local guides and roundups

   Local bloggers, the town's what's-on newsletter and the tourist office's suggested itineraries write about where to eat, stay and what to do. Send the writer one specific reason to include you, such as the only rooftop bar in town or the one boat trip that runs in winter, with a link to the page that has the details.⁴

4. 4. Sponsor or host something, and mark the link

   A youth football team, a charity run or a food festival often thanks its sponsors with a logo and a link. Because money changed hands, Google asks for that link to carry rel="sponsored". Ask the organiser to add it: the link still brings visitors and puts your name in front of the event's crowd.³

5. 5. Give the local press a page to link to

   A new tasting menu, a ferry route back after winter, a restored room, a figure from your own season: local papers and food or travel bloggers link to the page that has the details. Put the facts, prices, dates and photos on one page of your site before you send the story, so the link lands somewhere useful.⁴

6. 6. Publish one page local sites will want to cite

   A walking route through the old town, an allergen guide to your menu, how to reach your island by ferry with timetables linked: pages like these answer questions that schools, hotels and bloggers get asked. Google's starter guide says links from other sites come naturally over time and that community engagement and word of mouth speed it up.⁴

7. 7. Skip the shortcuts Google calls link spam

   Don't buy links, trade them in bulk, pay for guest posts stuffed with keyword links, or send a product or a free stay in exchange for a linked write-up. Google lists each of these as link spam, along with links built by automated programs or services.²

8. 8. Check whether the links move you

   Google's starter guide says a change can take from a few hours to several months to show in Search, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging it. Run your main searches through the free local rank checker before you start and again once a month, and keep your Google Business Profile complete, since links are only one part of how Google ranks the map. Our guide to ranking higher on Google Maps covers the rest.⁴

Checklist

• Unlinked mentions found and asked for a link
• Suppliers and partners asked for a stockist or partner link
• Local guides and roundups pitched with one specific reason
• Sponsorship links marked rel="sponsored"
• One page with the facts for each press story
• One page local sites will want to cite
• No bought, swapped or automated links
• Main searches checked once a month

Written by Joseph Jang, Co-founder, PlacePilot