What is a backlink, and how does it get you clients?

• A link on someone else’s site that points to yours. On a local news site, a trade association’s member page, a supplier’s list of partners, or an article about your kind of work.
• Google uses links as one sign of quality. Google says one of the factors it uses to judge quality is whether other prominent websites link or refer to the content. Google: How Search works, ranking results
• So a link works like a vote for you. A few links from real, relevant sites count for more than many from sites nobody reads.

1. A real site. It has its own readers and its own reason to exist, not a site made only to hold links.
2. Relevant to you. It is in your town, or about your trade or your customers.
3. Inside an article. The link sits where it makes sense to a person reading.
4. To the right page. It points to the page you want found for that search, not always your home page.

• Listings. Your Google Business Profile and the main directories, with the same name, address and phone everywhere. Many of them link to your site.
• The businesses you work with. Suppliers, partners, trade associations and your chamber of commerce. Ask for a link on their member or partner page.
• Local news and events. Sponsor or take part in something local; the page about it often links to you.
• Outreach to real sites in your trade. An article or mention that links to a page on your site. That is the link building in our link packs: you see every site before it goes live, and we check each link live.

1. Someone searches for what you do, where you do it.
2. Google shows the pages it trusts most for that search, and links are one of the things it reads.
3. Good links add up over time and can move your page higher, so more of the people searching see you.
4. They call or message you. That is the client.

Links take time. SEO takes three to six months to show. Where a page shows is Google’s call; the work of earning good links is yours or ours.