For SMEs serving a defined local area, does topical link building improve authority or do the links have to be locally relevant too for impact?

[gbimbh]

For an ISP serving limited zones in a province, we have been prospecting high-tier links with dofollow.io but they don't really build links from high DR local sites. Their proposition seemed more aligned for national and international brands who could benefit from links placed in the Bloombergs and Hubspots of the world. Any thoughts on whether links for local businesses should be both topically and locally relevant?

 

[celina]

Hey,

So in my experience most "local" sites often dont have a very high authority. The ones that do are usually your local news outlets or established local blogs. IE: Torontolife.com or Narcity (across Canada). Topical link building will absolutely help improve authority and should be done to help build brand presence however you are correct it wont exactly build you local relevant backlinks.
Id focus on a local backlink strategy. Start first with the the obvious like local chambers and business directories that allow website links, then Id start looking at local organizations that are looking for local businesses to sponsor or support them as that will help build local referring domains (These domains are usually not very high in authority but are strong local domains). You could also look into sponsored content, earned media or even ego baiting with super topical/relevant content to some of those larger news/blog outlets that are both local and authoriative because they are considered media publications.
I hope this helps!

 

[gbimbh]

Hey,

So in my experience most "local" sites often dont have a very high authority. The ones that do are usually your local news outlets or established local blogs. IE: Torontolife.com or Narcity (across Canada). Topical link building will absolutely help improve authority and should be done to help build brand presence however you are correct it wont exactly build you local relevant backlinks.
Id focus on a local backlink strategy. Start first with the the obvious like local chambers and business directories that allow website links, then Id start looking at local organizations that are looking for local businesses to sponsor or support them as that will help build local referring domains (These domains are usually not very high in authority but are strong local domains). You could also look into sponsored content, earned media or even ego baiting with super topical/relevant content to some of those larger news/blog outlets that are both local and authoriative because they are considered media publications.
I hope this helps!

Thank you, it most definitely does!