Links still count. PageRank is still one of Google's core systems, and a link from a site in your trade is one of the strongest receipts a page can have. A small site earns them differently from a big one: one relevant link from a roaster or a repair forum beats twenty from directories nobody reads, and most of them come from two things. Pages worth linking to, and asking the right people once.
A vote from someone who knows
In SEO land a link is 'a vote', and the vote of someone in your trade counts for more than a stranger's. A roaster linking your descaling guide is a vote from someone who knows. A directory listing you between a plumber and a dentist is not a vote at all. In between sit the forum links, the guest pieces and the supplier pages, and the same test sorts them: does the person linking know the subject, and would a real reader follow the link?
The rule: earn links from sites about your subject, and spend most of your time on the pages that deserve them. The consequence is a time split most link-building advice gets backwards. Most of your hours go into the two or three pages a year that are built to be linked. An hour a week goes into asking. A new site gets its first links by asking. An established site gets most of them by being cited, and the asking tapers off.
This confuses people, but it's simple: a link that sends a real reader is worth having whether or not it passes PageRank ("nofollow" links included). A link on a page nobody reads is worth nothing, followed or not. Judge the page, not the attribute.
| Tactic | For a small site | How, for an espresso shop |
|---|---|---|
| A page built to be linked | Yes. The only one that compounds | A table of shot times across the machines you stock. The water hardness in your area, by district, from the water company's public data |
| Ask the people you already deal with | Yes | The roaster, the supplier whose machine you recommend, the cafés you service. One specific page, one ask each |
| Answer in forums, link when it answers | Yes. Mostly nofollow, still sends readers | The pressure-problem thread, with your leak page when it is the answer |
| See who links to the top three for your question | Yes, as a list of who links to pages like yours | If they link a weaker page than yours, one email |
| A guest piece on a trade site | Sometimes | One a quarter, on a subject where you have receipts, with one link to the relevant page |
| Local pages: the association, the chamber, the supplier's stockist list | Yes, once each | Ten minutes to ask, and they rarely say no |
| Buying links, swapping links, directories | No | Google's spam policies name them, and the trade can tell |
A page people in the trade link to. Water hardness decides how often a machine needs descaling, and most water companies publish hardness by area. Turn that public data into one table for your town, district by district, with the descaling interval you recommend for each band. Nobody else in your area has it. The roasters need it for their care pages, the repair shops need it, the forum needs it every time the question comes up. That is one page, one afternoon of work, and it earns links for years because it is useful to the exact people who link to espresso pages.
Worked example: a linkable page built from public data
Step by step
- Once a quarter, make one page built to be linked. A measurement, a table, a checklist, a photo series. Something a trade site would need and cannot make itself.
- List ten sites in your trade you already deal with, and ask each one once. For one specific page, with one line on why their readers need it. Suppliers, roasters, the cafés you service, the association.
- Look up who links to the top three results for your question. Any backlink tool shows it. If they link a weaker page than yours, one email.
- Answer in the forum and link when the page answers. Nofollow is fine. Readers are the point, and the mention is corroboration either way.
- Take one guest piece a quarter, no more. On a subject where you have receipts, on a site whose readers are your customers, with one link where it helps.
- Never buy, never swap. A bought link is a bought vote, and Google's spam policies say so in as many words.
- Split your time: most of it on the pages, an hour a week on the asking. A new site asks more. After a year or two the loop above turns on its own and you ask less.
When you need this, and when you don't
You need this from about the third month, once there are pages worth pointing at. Before that, every hour spent asking is an hour taken from the pages that would make the asking work.
You don't need a link-building agency, a "package" of links, or a monthly quota. For a small site the whole job is a linkable page a quarter, ten honest asks, and the forum hour you are already spending.
Next
- Next page: Promotion and outreach without spam. What to do with a page in its first week, and the one email worth sending.
- SitePerfector measures the link profile of every competitor on your map, so you can see how far ahead the sites you would be out-ranking really are. On Pro: Competitor landscape.