The document discusses local search engine optimization and link building strategies for local businesses. It provides data on key local ranking factors and examines the backlink profiles of top-performing local HVAC companies. The analysis found that the highest ranking pages had more diverse, locally relevant backlinks rather than just a high volume of backlinks. A case study showed that acquiring competitor-based, locally focused backlinks resulted in a 38% increase in clicks for locations that implemented the strategy. The document recommends identifying strong local competitors, analyzing their backlink profiles, and targeting similar, locally relevant backlink opportunities.

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Why This Topic???

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2023 Local Search Ranking
Factors
Source: https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors
Local Pack
12
of top 50
Local Ranking
Factors
Organic
5
of top 15
Local Ranking
Factors

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Local Organic Ranking
Factors
Source: https://whitespark.ca/local-search-ranking-factors
Group Weighting
36% On-Page
26% Link
9% Behavioral
9% GBP
7% Personalization
7% Citation
6% Reviews

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Link Reminder:
Quality>Quantity

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What Does “Quality” Even
Mean for Links???

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Link Quality for SEO
Source: https://www.woorank.com/
Featured Snippet Winner:
“In search engine optimization, a quality backlink
refers to a dofollow backlink within the body text of
a page on a high-quality website that is relevant to
your topic that points to a page on your website. The
highest quality backlinks use relevant keywords
within the anchor text of the links.”

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Link Reminder:
Your topic is
your service
& your location

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Quality backlinks for local
businesses can be relevant
to either the topic or the
location

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Link Research

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Hypothesis
High-performing
websites are more
likely to focus on locally
relevant link building
instead of topically
relevant link building.

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Methodology
2
1
3
Top 50 Cities & HVAC Industry
Websites with First-Page
Rankings
Categorized Links

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Top Performing Pages
Average # of 1st page rankings
63 keywords
Top 5 performing pages had at least
87% more 1st page rankings

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Top Performing Pages
High # of Backlinks
≠
Better Rankings

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Top Performing Pages
Site # of Backlinks Page 1 Terms
SA Service Experts 59 133
One Hour Houston 58 191
One Hour Vegas 32 121
Baker Brothers 17 146
Penguin Air 7 118

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Top Performing Pages

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What You’re Probably
Missing: Local Links

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What You’re Probably
Missing: Diverse Links

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Link Case Study

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The Client
Nationwide house cleaning franchise
The Competitors
SMBs and national franchises
The Findings
Competitor-based link acquisition WORKS

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Results
Locations in the case study
had a 38% increase in clicks YoY.
Locations that were not in the case study
only grew by 14%.

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So How Do I Use This to
Build Better Backlinks?

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Identify Competitors
Choose competitors who
are consistently eating
your lunch.
Tip: BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid is
great for identifying these types of
competitors.

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Get Backlink Data
Use your favorite link
analysis tool to get
competitor backlink
data

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Categorize Backlinks
Create your categorization
guidelines and start
categorizing.
Tip: You can do this one-by-one, you can use a tool,
you can build a tool. I’m not going to tell you how to
live your life, friend.

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Analyze Data
What does the data tell you about
your top-performing competitors?
Are they favoring a type of
backlink you currently ignore?

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Identify Opportunities
Identify backlink opportunities
that meet the traditional link
quality guidelines PLUS have a
local focus.

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Acquire Links
Once you’ve identified
where the gaps are in
your backlink profile, go
after your competitors’
best quality backlinks.

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Okay But I Don’t Have Time to
Categorize a Ton of Links

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What We’ve Been Up To

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What We’ve Been Up To

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Find Out More
ricketyroo.com/link-benchmark

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Thanks!!!!