Discussion: Local Link Building and Citations LLB Guide

[JustinB]

CitationLabs has a really nice local link building guide that I thought I would use as a foundation for a discussion on what others like to do for their local link building campaigns.
Considering just building citations, registering for forums, and merely building web 2.0 properties (without ongoing content maintenance) won't cut it as far as Local SEO, how does everyone supplement that work with gaining links?

Looking for local blogs, local coupon sites, donating etc., here were some great ideas from the article:

Local Prospecting
Your campaign should have some very specific targets, both in terms of the pages (resource pages, for example) and the type of site (pediatricians, say).

Before prospecting you?ve got to gather up your geographical qualifiers.

• [city, state abbreviation]
• [zip code]
• [city] ? (if a unique name)
• [neighborhood] ? (if a unique name)

Then you?ll combine these with ?qualifiers? that will help you isolate one of two things.
The first could be the type of site you?re looking for. Pediatricians. Homeless shelters. Hospitals.
Your queries would look like:
[zipcode] HOA
[city, state abbreviation] HOA
[city] HOA
[zipcode] ?home owners association?
[city, state abbreviation] ?home owners association?
[city] ?home owners association?
[zipcode] ?neighborhood association?
(etc? with variations on your targeted type of organization or website)
Alternately you could be looking for page-type qualifiers. In this case, link and resource pages. We found it helpful overall to look mostly ?on page? when searching for local links pages. Often they lack links page labeling in the title tags or URLs.
Here?s a sampling of what we like to use for finding local links pages:

• ?helpful resources?
• ?informative resources?
• ?informative websites?
• ?links for further?
• ?links for more?
• ?resource links?
• ?useful links?
• ?useful websites?
• ?websites for further?
• ?websites for more?
• ?helpful links?
• ?helpful websites?
• ?informative links?
• ?interesting links?
• ?list of links?
• ?list of websites?
• ?recommended links?
• ?recommended resources?
• ?recommended websites?
• ?suggested links?
• ?useful resources?
• ?the following links?
• ?the following websites?
• inurl:helpful
• inurl:useful
• inurl:links
  

Another great idea I have found effective is when you get a business that's in a local bni, commerce group, association etc. Take a look at the corresponding websites of the other members for linking opportunities. Sometimes a suggestion for that other business to even develop a local resources page is all it takes to get multiple links.
Also the best networking group to find local business, local linking opportunities, and to find other local bni groups is Network After Work. Find your local NAW chapter and sign up. If you want to multiply that effort, find multiple large cities around you with their own NAW group, my company has had people travel hours for another meeting because you meet so many contacts.

Anyone else use any local seo footprints to find local seo link opportunities?

 

[JustinB]

I just noticed that Linda already created a thread about this when I looked below to suggested threads. I guess it's a good link guide!