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).

 

[keyserholiday]

This link is not worth the cost. For any link to count, the URL it's posted on must generate real traffic.

 

[calmicrobio]

This link is not worth the cost. For any link to count, the URL it's posted on must generate real traffic.

How do you know and/or measure that? Can you explain logic and/or experiemtns that validate that in translated local rankings increases? Ad lets assume what youre saying is true - what is the calculation there? What traffic makes that worth the price?

 

[calmicrobio]

I find PI lawyers sign up for low traffic places all the time. They are not free and sometimes I can track who is doing their SEO. This especially applies to niche law directories that have 10-20 traffic. Is it a different reasoning for niche links?

 

[calmicrobio]

by the way Jason, thanks for taking the time to answer. I always see you helping people out and appreciate you