How do you assess the SEO value of a local backlink?

[calmicrobio]

Hi all, I could not find the "backlinks" thread and guess citations is the right place. If not, can someone direct me? Thank you.


How do you assess the SEO value of a local backlink, especially for improving Google Business Profile rankings? For example, if a site is highly relevant and local but has very low traffic, is it still worth paying for? What factors do you look at to decide if the cost is justified?

For Example, the city directly adjacent to my client's home city has a local Chamber of Commerce offers a backlink in their online member directory, but their site only gets about 10 visitors a day. The cost is $275/year. I’m mainly focused on improving my Google Business Profile (GBP) rankings — is a low-traffic but high-trust, hyper-local backlink like this still worth it purely for SEO? This also carries the assumption that I am trying to extend the reach of their GBP to adjacent cities.

BTW - I usually find that chamber of commerce links cost ~$500/year. This is not so much about the price as to understanding what links are worth the spend and how to assess that. I generally do not trust DR of a site without taking look at their own backlink profile and making sure it is not full of junk backlinks. I also will assess top ranking pages and keywords to also similarly assess it is not random sellout junk (eg CBD, casinos, crypto, feet pics, or topics that are unrelated to the site's topics).

 

[fisicx]

@JoyHawkins - whilst links building does still work, you need to have a decent target site to begin with. No point in building links if your site doesn't tick all the boxes.

As an aside, I been ranking sites for years without doing any link building. I've got one niche site that ranks globally. I don't need lots of traffic, one lead per week is sufficient.