This article will take a detailed look at link building strategies for small businesses and determine the most suitable strategies for different types of business.

1. Organic SEO for Small Businesses – Part II
Note: Part I of this series of articles was published on July 1st, 2009 and can be
viewed at http://www.istech.ie/blog/?p=103
Intended Audience: Small Business Owners/webmasters and anyone new to the world
of web design and search engine optimization (SEO) particularly those working with
small businesses and sole traders.
The first article described a number of organic SEO steps for small businesses during
the construction of their website and touched on the issue of link building and the
associated pros and cons.
This article will take a detailed look at link building strategies for small businesses
and determine the most suitable strategies for different types of business.
At this stage of a website project your target market/audience should already be
defined in terms of the following factors:
• Business/Residential
• Demographics
• Geographical Location
All of the above items will play a role in determining your link strategy and should be
reviewed on regular basis.
Let’s spend a moment on the definition of a link often referred to as a “backlink”. A
link is a connection between another website and your own website. It allows a visitor
to directly access your website by clicking on a hyperlink on another website. The
name of the link, which is known as the “anchor text” may contain your company
name but consideration should be given to including your primary key-phrase, i.e.
Manchester plumbing services, particularly if your company name is not very
descriptive of your business’s services and products.
So what’s the purpose of a backlink? As outlined above it may bring visitors to your
website and it may increase the popularity of your website on search engines such as
Google, Yahoo and Bing. Some backlinks will perform both functions. Some websites
will require links that perform both functions while others will require links to
generate website traffic or increase the ranking (popularity) of their website. A
number of factors will determine this criteria such as the geographical location of
your business, facilities available on your website i.e. e-commerce, your business type
etc.
Let’s now take a closer look at how you start to arrive at a determination as outlined
in the previous paragraph.
Example: Small business providing local services only, website does not include any
e-commerce facilities.

2. Solution: There is little point in generating traffic for this website unless it is from
visitors in the same geographical region so the likelihood is that a link building
strategy for this company’s website would involve the sourcing of backlinks that
improve their website’s ranking on the search engines.
Estimates now suggest that 60% of users now use the Internet to source products and
services locally with the vast majority using Google to find companies and service
providers in their area. Backlinks that improve the ranking of your website are crucial
in this regard and may also reduce your reliance on pay per click (PPC) programs
such as Google AdWords to generate business leads. Google AdWords can then be
used for tactical internet marketing such as new product launches, new service
offerings or expanding your business into a new geographical region.
The third part of this article will expand on the topic of link building strategies for
small businesses including example plans, trusted backlinks, free and paid web
directories, social media, local directory services etc.
Eoin Redmond – 21st July 2009
Istech Technology Services Ltd
Leading Website Developer and SEO Specialists
00 353 86 154 1049
Blog: www.istech.ie/