Link earning for local businesses who can't afford content marketing

[RickyShockley]

What are some of the best ways to earn and build quality relevant links that will increase exposure to your target market in addition to assisting search rankings?

I personally find that local niche directories and PR are the best ways to accomplish this without having content to "earn links"..what else works? Any interesting ideas??

[DrewR]

The first step I would take in this type of situation is to focus on getting accurate listings in the really authoritative local business indexes and directories. Use the tool at GetListed.org to be sure that you have accurate results across all these directories.

Next, use a tool like the Open Site Explorer to research your local competition and see if they have any quality links that you could also get for little cost and effort.

Then, reach out to the Local domains (Chamber of Commerce, BBB, organizations or local charities, etc). Often, these are relatively inexpensive and provide quality links.

If you want more valuable links, then the honest way is to earn them. Bite the bullet and blog twice a week. This will pull in those valuable long-tail keywords and hopefully snag the interest of someone who will link to you. Also, having a blog opens up a lot of free high-quality links from more directories and RSS feeds.

[RickyShockley]

Completely agree Drew! My problem is that I find it very hard to create the kind of exceptional and unique content necessary to really earn links and social virality on a low budget