* We All Want Easy Backlinks. Here They Are!

Here is the “low hanging fruit” of link building, in the legitimate business directory world

By Dirk Johnson

I’ll be the first to admit that link building is not much fun. Neither is cleaning the restroom in our shop. As business owners, we do it all.

This article will steer you toward the easiest-to-get links in the world of back links, while steering clear of scam directories.

The payoff is that you greatly increase your online presence by doing this work. You’ll end up with business profiles in good palces.

That’s a “two-for-one” deal that is had to find elsewhere.   

Are back links necessary for good rankings?

Sometimes, they are not. Let’s look at two specific scenarios.

1)    You already have a good deal of links pointing back to your website, maybe from blog postings or from local event and sponsorship involvement.

Maybe you have also recently added some well-optimized landing pages to your site. (as described in the SEO guide)

In this case, you might find that those new landing pages rank quite well, very quickly, thus making link building a lesser priority for you.

2)    You are in a such a small market that anything that you do with regard to good on-page optimization puts you to the top of your market in the search results. You are getting ranked well, regardless.

That’s great, but if you are just a little more ambitious, you can really enhance your online presence with just a couple of evenings of work.

The World of Legitimate Business Directories

We’re not going to split hairs here defining what is a directory and what is a review site and what is a social network. What we are looking for are legitimate sites that allow you to create a free online business profile that has your name, contact info, a description of your business, and a place to put a link back to your site. 

We are talking about sites like Yelp.com, LinkedIn.com and Alignable.com, and more.

What is “legitimate”? If the site appears to be nothing but a list of sites, it’s probably not a legitimate directory and don’t submit to it.

If the site appears to have a legitimate business purpose, then it is fair game.

Here are two good lists to start with:

Top 50 Free Business Directories To List Your Local Business

This is a USA-focused list, but many of the sites have international appeal. Search for a list of business directories in your own country if you are not in the USA.

The Ultimate List: 57 Online Local Business Directories

HubSpot has a great reputation, so I’d dive into this on deep. Again, search for local city directories near you if you not in the USA.
 

TIME SAVER Shortcuts to These Listings.

OK – it is going to take about 5 to 10 minutes per site to submit, if you are well prepared.

Get a spreadsheet or Word document to help you. In that document, put your basic info, like business name, address, phone numbers, email address, website URL, preferred username, and a brief description of your business profile.

It is sometimes possible to copy this whole block of info into the profile description, and then highlight and drag the elements to their respective fields in the profile form.

Have a file path to your profile photos that you can paste into a file dialogue box, and also have a file folder open with the same, ready to drag/drop the image files. You might also want to track your usernames and passwords in this document, just so you have them.

A Hundred Links – for FREE!

Sure, these are not the most powerful links in the world. So what. It's your foundation.

If you set up 100 business profiles on these sites, you are telling the world, and the search engines, that you are a player. It counts.

What’s more, I often see profile pages on Yelp.com and Alignable.com outranking other websites.

Bottom Line – Do Yourself Some Good.

The bottom line here is that you are going to do yourself some good if you make this effort. It might just pay off in a lot of long term free leads from search engine traffic, or even direct leads from the profiles themselves. 

It’s all laid out in this 80 page do-it-yourself guide to SEO for music lesson teachers, tutors, and studios will help.

If you don’t have time, or if you prefer to have someone else manage the basics for you, please contact me.

And, as always, if you want to get a quick review of your current website SEO condition, please contact me with your website address, and I’ll be glad to have a look and report back to you what I find.

Thanks again for tuning in!