Backlinks in SEO: how Irish small businesses earn them

Most advice on backlinks in SEO ends at a warning not to buy them. For an Irish small business, the more useful question is where good links come from in the first place. The answer is usually close to home: suppliers, local press, trade bodies, clubs and partners who already know the business. A handful of real links from those places does more than hundreds of bought ones, and it keeps the website on the right side of Google’s rules.

What backlinks are and why Google uses them#

A backlink is a link on someone else’s website that points to yours. Search engines read these links as signals. According to Google Search Central, Google uses links to judge how relevant pages are and to find new pages to crawl.

The words used in the link matter too. Google calls this anchor text (The visible, clickable words of a link.) and says good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant to both pages. A link that reads “kitchen fitters in Wicklow” tells Google more than one that says “click here”.

The running example in this guide is a kitchen fitting business in Bray. Its owner, Cillian, gets most work from referrals and a few enquiries from Google, and his website ranks below larger firms from Dublin. Businesses that want a planned link programme can look at link building for Irish businesses, but the steps below can be started by any owner.

Which links Google treats as spam#

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Some links do more harm than good, and Google is specific about them. Its spam policies define link spam as creating links to or from a site mainly to manipulate search rankings.

The same page lists examples:

Google also says that buying links for advertising or sponsorship is normal, as long as the links are marked. Its guide to qualifying outbound links recommends rel=”sponsored” for ads and paid placements, and accepts rel=”nofollow” as well.

Watch out: An offer of “50 high-authority backlinks” for a fixed price is a description of link spam. The money is better spent on one real local sponsorship or partnership.

Cillian finds that a previous web designer added his site to dozens of low-quality directories. He stops paying for that service and focuses on the sources in the next section.

Where an Irish small business can earn real links#

The links worth having come from organisations that would mention the business anyway. For most Irish small businesses, that list is longer than expected:

1. Suppliers and manufacturers. Many list approved installers or stockists on their own websites.
2. Trade bodies and associations. Membership pages often link to members’ websites.
3. Local chambers of commerce and business networks. Member directories are real, relevant links.
4. Local press and community sites. A new hire, an award, a charity event or a useful comment on a local story can earn a mention.
5. Clubs, schools and events the business supports. A sponsorship page should mark the link as sponsored, which is still useful for visibility.
6. Customers and partners. A business client may mention a supplier in a case study or a project write-up on its own site.

Cillian asks his two main cabinet suppliers to add him to their installer lists. He also sponsors the local GAA club’s under-12s, and the club’s sponsor page links to his site with a sponsored link.

Note: Paid or gifted mentions should be clear to readers as well as to Google. Irish guidance from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the ASAI says commercial content should be clearly labelled.

Online shops face a different mix of sources, such as product reviewers and niche publications. The Baikou guide to link building for e-commerce covers that case.

How to check backlinks for free#

Before chasing new links, it helps to see what already exists. Google Search Console has a free Links report (A Search Console report listing sites and pages that link to yours.). According to Search Console Help, it shows top linked pages, top linking sites and top linking text, and it is a sample rather than a complete list of every link.

A simple check takes about 20 minutes:

1. Open Search Console and go to Links.
2. Look at top linking sites. Note which ones are real organisations and which look like spam directories.
3. Look at top linking text. Most links should use the business name or plain descriptions, not repeated keywords.
4. Look at top linked pages. If every link points to the home page, think about which service pages deserve links.
5. Write down gaps. Suppliers, associations or partners that should link but do not are the first people to ask.

Spammy links found in the report are usually not worth chasing. Google’s help page on disavowing links says most sites will not need that tool, and that it is meant for sites with many artificial links that have caused, or will likely cause, a manual action.

Tip: Repeat the check every three months and keep the list of new linking sites in a simple sheet, so progress is visible even before rankings move.

Cillian’s report shows mostly directory links and none from his suppliers. That gives him a clear first list.

Search Console only covers websites the business owns. Checking the backlinks of a competitor’s site needs a third-party backlink checker, which builds its own index of the web, so the numbers differ from tool to tool and from Search Console. Ahrefs offers a free version of its Backlink Checker that shows referring domains and backlinks for any website, which is enough to see which local organisations link to a competitor and might link to the business too.

Turning links into a steady habit#

Links are rarely a one-off project for a small business. They come from being active in the local and trade community and from making that activity visible online:

• Publish useful pages that others want to link to, such as a guide to kitchen planning permission or a cost guide for the area.
• Keep a short list of contacts at suppliers, associations and local media.
• Mention the website whenever the business sponsors, speaks, wins or helps at something.
• Fix broken links to the site by asking the owner to update the address after a website change.

This takes an hour or two a month. Cillian adds a reminder to his calendar each quarter to check the Links report and contact two new organisations.

How Baikou helps Irish businesses with backlinks#

When Baikou’s team builds links for an Irish business, it starts with the Links report and a list of real organisations around the business: suppliers, trade bodies, local media and partners. It writes the pages others are likely to link to, contacts those organisations, and marks any paid placement as sponsored. The team also runs a free AI visibility check, because customers increasingly ask ChatGPT for recommendations, and the check shows whether the business is named in those answers.

Where to start this month#

Open the Links report in Search Console and list who already links to the business. Ask two suppliers or associations to add a link, and check that any sponsorship links are marked as sponsored. Avoid any offer of bulk or guaranteed links. Baikou helps Irish businesses build links like this as part of its SEO services and wider digital marketing work.

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