The Links You’ve Already Earned (but haven’t claimed)

For someone who isn’t an SEO specialist, I find myself talking about links a surprising amount. I’m an agency advisor, which means I help the founders of digital agencies run better businesses. I’m around SEO a lot, and I’ve been hands-on with it in the past, but these days I leave it to the likes of Geoff and the Leapfrog team. The subject of links still comes up, though, and it’s for one reason: I think they’re everyone’s responsibility in a business, not just the job of whoever’s doing the SEO. 

Most small businesses treat link building as something that only their SEO agency handles, or something that happens by magic, or something they’ll worry about later. But some of the most valuable links available to your business aren’t ones anyone needs to build at all. They already exist in your world, in your memberships, your suppliers, your relationships. They’re just sitting there unclaimed, because nobody trained their eye to spot them.

Why links matter (briefly, I promise)

When another website links to yours, search engines read it as a signal: this business is real, established, and trusted by others. Links from relevant, credible sites pass authority to yours, and that authority helps everything else you do online work harder. Your website ranks better, your content gets found, your name carries more weight.

The good ones also do something simpler. They send actual people to your website. A link from a site your customers already read can be worth more in clicks than it is in SEO value.

That’s the theory done. But there’s a reason I want you to understand it, and it isn’t to turn you into an SEO expert. It’s that once you genuinely believe a link has value, you start noticing the chances to get one. The opportunities I’m about to describe are invisible to people who think of links as a technical detail. They light up the moment you start treating them as something worth having.

The blue car effect

You know how it goes. You buy a blue car and suddenly the roads are full of blue cars. They were always there. You just weren’t looking. There’s a proper name for this, the frequency illusion, but I’ve always thought of it as the blue car effect.

Link opportunities work the same way. Once you start noticing them, they’re everywhere in the ordinary running of your business. And this is the part no agency can do for you, because these opportunities are only visible from inside your business. You know who you buy from, what you’ve joined, who’s mentioned you, which events you’ve supported. Your agency doesn’t, and realistically never will.

That’s worth being clear about. Spotting these isn’t doing your agency’s job for them, it’s multiplying their efforts. They handle the technical work. You unlock the doors only you can see.

So here’s where to look:

• Your memberships and accreditations. Trade bodies, professional associations, chambers of commerce, local business groups. Most have a member directory, and most directory listings can include a link. When did you last check yours? Is it there at all? Is the link correct, and actually clickable? These get missed constantly. Often the listing was set up years ago by someone who’s since left, pointing at a website you replaced in 2019.
• Your suppliers and the tools you use. Plenty of businesses showcase their customers, whether through case study pages, “who we work with” sections, or partner directories. If you use a booking platform, an accountant, a specialist supplier, there’s a fair chance they’d happily feature you. Which leads to one of my favourites.
• Testimonials and reviews. If a supplier has done good work for you, offer them a testimonial for their website. It costs you ten minutes, it’s genuinely useful to them, and the natural format is your name, your business, and a link back to your site. This one works precisely because it isn’t transactional. You’re doing something of real value for someone you already work with, and the link comes along for the ride.
• Press and publicity, caught at the right moment. This is where the awareness really pays off. If you’re about to be featured somewhere, a local paper, a trade title, a partner’s blog, ask for the link while it’s happening. It’s far easier to get a link included when the piece is being written than to chase it down months later. A quick “would you be able to link to our website in the piece?” at the point of writing is a small, natural ask, and most people are glad to do it. Train yourself to spot the feature coming and the rest is easy.
• Local and community sites. Council business directories, local information sites, “what’s on” pages, business improvement districts if you’re in a town centre. Unglamorous, often free, frequently forgotten.
• Events you’ve supported. Sponsored the village fete? Spoken at a networking breakfast? Donated a raffle prize? There’s often a page listing sponsors and contributors, and the organiser is usually delighted to link to you if asked.
• Writing for people with a similar audience. Like this article, in fact. If an associate or a complementary business has an audience that overlaps with yours, a guest piece gets you in front of their readers and earns a contextual link at the same time. The test isn’t “will anyone publish me?”, it’s “do their readers look like my customers?”

It’s a habit, not a task

I could tell you to block out an hour and work through that list, and it wouldn’t hurt. But that misses the point. This isn’t a job to tick off, it’s a way of paying attention.

The real shift is that you now know these links have value, and you know they tend to hide in the everyday running of your business. So they start surfacing in the moments that matter. When you’re renewing a membership. When a supplier thanks you for your work. When someone asks you to speak, or mentions they’re writing something. A small question forms at the back of your mind. Is there a link in this?

There usually is. And the business owner who asks it as a matter of habit will, over a year or two, quietly build something their competitors never thought to.

Mat Bennett is an agency advisor who helps the founders of small digital and creative agencies with positioning, pricing, and building businesses that serve their lives. Find him at matbennett.com.