Link Building Tip – Local Events and Community Calendars

Here is a quick local SEO tip for business owners that are active in their community.

Local blogs and websites often contain an “event calendar” or “community calendar” that lists interesting events in the community.  They usually contain links to the event website, map embeds of the event address, as well as a description.

They make a perfect way to spread the word about any company events you are running in your neighborhood, while at the same time gaining backlinks from locally relevant websites.  Sounds great, no?

Here’s how you can go about it:

• The hard part is creating the event, but don’t overthink it at first. Consider a networking event for your business or neighborhood businesses.  You can host it at your business office and serve coffee and donuts.
• Then track down the calendars, some handy Google search terms for this:
  • alameda county event calendar
  • alameda county community calendar
  • things to do in alameda today
  • alameda neighborhood blogs
• The site owners will want a nicely designed flyer, so have your web designer whip up a beautiful graphic for them.
• Write a press release and host it on your website for reference. No need to distribute it on press release sites, though, since it’s a local event that would be overkill.
• Submit the events manually (when possible), or put together nice outreach e-mails to your list of sites.

Take it a Step Further with Event Websites

There’s a handful of websites dedicate to cataloging and promoting event and accept submissions at no cost.

Here’s a short list:

• lanyrd
• EventSetter
• My Event Guru
• EventBrite

And that’s it!  A quick, easy way to leverage your company events for local, relevant backlinks!