Do backlinks matter for local SEO?
Short answer
Yes, but less than link sellers suggest. Google has said local prominence draws partly on links, articles and directories from across the web, and that a site's position in ordinary web results counts as well. Links can't change your distance from the searcher or fix a badly set up profile, so they are rarely the first thing to work on.
Backlinks do matter for local SEO, as one part of what Google calls prominence. A backlink is a link from another website to yours. Google’s own description of local ranking names relevance, distance and prominence, and links belong to prominence. They do nothing for relevance or distance, which is why a business with many links can still be missing from the map a few miles from its office.
Where links fit in local ranking
Nobody outside Google knows how much weight links carry. They are one of several signs of prominence. Google’s help pages on local ranking have described prominence as how well known a business is, drawing on information from across the web such as links, articles and directories, along with review count and rating. The same guidance has said that a business’s position in ordinary web results is a factor too.
So links count in two ways at once, and anyone quoting you a percentage is guessing.
The two places a link can help
| Where | How a link helps | What it can’t do |
|---|---|---|
| The map results | Adds to prominence, which helps Google choose between similar businesses near the searcher | Make you closer to the searcher, or relevant to a service you haven’t listed |
| The ordinary results below the map | Helps your service and city pages rank as web pages | Make up for a page that says little about the service or the place |
The second row matters more than owners expect. The ordinary results are less tied to your address than the map is, so a well-linked page can appear for a city where your profile doesn’t. That’s the mechanism behind ranking organically where you aren’t in the map pack.
When links are probably not your problem
If the primary category on your Google Business Profile is wrong, your services aren’t listed, your reviews are few and old next to your competitors’, or your site has one thin page for everything you do, more links won’t cover for that. Those problems are cheaper to correct and easier to measure, so they usually come before links.
Links become a reasonable thing to test when the companies above you look much like you on those points, yet are mentioned and linked by more local websites than you are. I make that comparison with data before recommending any link work, because the answer differs from one trade and one city to the next.
What kind of links are worth having
A link from a local business association or a supplier’s installer page tells Google something true about where you work and what you do. Real websites connected to your area or your trade are the ones worth the effort. A pile of links from unrelated sites in other countries tells Google nothing useful, and may suggest you have been buying them.
For the sources and how to approach each one, see what local links are and how to get them. Local link building is the service that does this work.
Buying links to push rankings is against Google’s spam policies. If someone offers you a package of links at a set price, read is buying backlinks worth it before you reply.