E936: Local SEO lives or dies by local authority - and one of the biggest drivers of that authority is local backlinks.

I break down exactly how to build high-quality local backlinks that help search engines see your business as an authority in a specific city or region. This applies whether you're starting a local business, competing in a crowded market, or expanding into new locations.

I cover practical strategies that send real referral traffic, strengthen local topical authority, and support long-term ranking improvements - not theory.

What you'll learn:
- Why local backlinks matter for local SEO and topical authority
- How partnerships with local businesses create real traffic and stronger links
- How to find and evaluate local sponsorship opportunities (and when they're worth it)
- When to accept nofollow links or brand mentions - and when not to
- How to use ChatGPT agent mode to research local sponsorships and partners
- How to properly vet local partners to protect your brand and reputation
- Core local citations you need for local SEO
- How to track citations and backlinks correctly (and why tracking matters)
- How citation language and context impact local topical authority
- How to vary location and service language without hurting consistency
- Why anchor text matters less than contextual language for local SEO
- How to structure location hub pages to support link building
- How to build links to pillar pages to strengthen weaker service pages

This is especially useful if:
- You're launching a local business and need to build authority from scratch
- You're competing in a high-competition city
- You're expanding SEO into new locations
- You want a clear system for local link building

💎 Compact Keywords - My SEO Course - Get paying customers through SEO - Clear step-by-step video breakdowns - SEO templates to be copied and adapted for your products and services: https://compactkeywords.com/

00:00 Introduction to Building Local Backlinks
00:59 Partnerships for Local Backlinks
01:16 Sponsorship Opportunities
01:59 Using ChatGPT for Sponsorships
04:03 Local Citations and Directories
04:30 Tracking and Managing Citations
05:21 Language and Context in Citations
07:36 Hub Pages for Local SEO
08:54 Conclusion and Wrap Up

The Edward Show. The #1 search engine optimization podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/

#localseo #localmarketing #searchengineoptimization #linkbuilding