Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. For contractors, the ones that move local rankings come from real relationships: suppliers, manufacturers, trade associations, the chamber, local news and the teams you sponsor. Backlinks for contractors get earned one relationship at a time, and a few dozen relevant local links will beat a thousand junk ones every time.
By Carl Jiang, Co-Founder · Last updated October 2026
If you own a contractor website, you’ve gotten the email. “500 high-DA backlinks for $99, guaranteed results.” Delete it. Those links come from sites nobody reads, and Google has spent years learning to ignore them. Here’s how links work for a local trade business and which ones are worth chasing.
What are backlinks?
A backlink is a clickable link on another website that points to yours. Google reads it as a reference. Somebody outside your business decided your site was worth sending people to, and that tells Google something your own pages can’t say about themselves.
Not every link counts the same. A link from your county’s home builders association, a lumber yard two towns over or the local paper’s home section carries weight because it’s relevant and local. A link from a random overseas blog about crypto and cookware carries close to nothing. Links marked nofollow or sponsored usually pass little or no ranking credit, though they can still send you real visitors and phone calls.
So the count is the least interesting part. Who’s linking, and whether a homeowner in your area would ever see that page, matter far more.
How does a backlink help local SEO?
Backlinks help local SEO two ways. They lift your website in the organic results under the map, and they add trust to the site your Google Business Profile points to, which supports your map pack position too. Local, relevant links also confirm to Google that you’re a real business operating where you say you do.
But I’d be lying if I told you links are the first thing to fix. For the map pack, your Google Business Profile carries the most weight: the right primary category, photos, and steady Google reviews. Then useful service and service-area pages. Links come after that. We see contractors spend thousands on link packages while their profile still sits in the wrong category. That’s backwards.
Where links earn their keep is in tight markets. Two roofers in Tacoma with similar reviews, similar profiles and similar pages? The one with links from the local builders association, a couple of suppliers and a news story about a storm cleanup tends to sit higher. Links are the tiebreaker.
What is domain authority?
Domain authority is a score from 1 to 100 that Moz created to estimate how likely a website is to rank, based mostly on the links pointing to it. Ahrefs (Domain Rating) and Semrush (Authority Score) have their own versions. Google doesn’t use any of them.
Moz says so directly. As Search Engine Journal’s breakdown of whether domain authority is a ranking factor quotes Moz saying DA “is not a Google ranking factor.” Google’s John Mueller has said the same thing several times over the years.
That doesn’t make the score useless. It’s a decent yardstick for comparing your site to the three contractors who outrank you. If they’re all in the 30s and you’re at 8, links are probably part of the gap. Just don’t treat the number as the goal. Link sellers can pump a DA score with garbage links, which is exactly why they sell on it.
Where can contractors get backlinks from local businesses?
Start with the people you already do business with. Most of them have a website, and a surprising number of those sites have a page that lists contractors. You just have to ask to be on it.
| Link source | How you get it | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| Material suppliers and lumber yards | Ask to be added to their “contractors we work with” or referral page | Low |
| Manufacturer installer directories | Complete the certified or preferred installer program, then confirm your listing links to your site | Medium |
| Home builders association or remodelers chapter | Join, then make sure your member profile includes your website | Low once you’re a member |
| Chamber of commerce | Member directory listing | Low |
| Local news and community sites | Pitch a real story: a storm cleanup, a volunteer build, a tip piece before the rainy season | Medium to high |
| Youth sports, schools, charity builds | Sponsor or volunteer; these links are often marked sponsored, so count them for visibility and goodwill | Medium |
| Partner trades and realtors | A “trusted pros” page from people you refer work to and from | Low |
The ask is simple. Call or email the person you already know, tell them you noticed their page lists contractors, and ask whether they’d add you with a link to your site. Send the exact URL you want linked. Most say yes. It costs them nothing.
One caution on partner trades. A few honest “we recommend these folks” links between a deck builder, an electrician and a realtor who trade work are fine. Twenty contractors all linking to each other in a ring is a link scheme, and Google treats it as one.
Want this done for you as part of a full campaign? It’s built into our local SEO services, alongside the profile and content work that has to come first.
Are link building services worth it for contractors?
Most packaged link building services aren’t worth it for a contractor. If someone’s selling you a number of links for a set price, they’re selling links Google’s rules forbid. Paying for real outreach to local organizations, or digital PR that earns press coverage, can be worth it. Bulk link packages almost never are.
Google’s spam policies for web search list buying links for ranking purposes as link spam, including trading goods or services for links. They also name low-quality directory links, automated link building and excessive link exchanges. Sponsored links are allowed only when they’re marked so they don’t pass ranking credit. For most contractors the bigger risk is waste: hundreds of dollars a month, for years, on links Google already ignores.
Walk away from any provider that pitches you like this:
- A guaranteed DA increase. DA isn’t Google’s number, and the cheapest way to raise it is spam.
- Links sold by the dozen. “50 links a month” means 50 links from sites that will sell to anyone.
- No list of target sites. If they won’t show you where the links will come from before you pay, there’s a reason.
- Guest posts on unrelated blogs. A roofing article on a travel site doesn’t help a homeowner in Everett find you.
We cover more of the questions to ask in our guide on how to choose an SEO company.
How do I check my backlinks?
Use Google Search Console first. It’s free, it covers your own site, and the Links report shows which sites link to you and which pages they point at. For spying on competitors you need a third-party backlink checker. Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz all have free or limited versions that are fine for a small business.
When you look, you’re asking three things. Who links to us now? Did we lose any good ones? And what do the top three contractors in our area have that we don’t? That last question is where the work is. If the roofer outranking you has links from the same supplier you buy from and the same chamber you could join, you’ve got an easy list.
Don’t panic about spammy links you didn’t build. Every site collects some, and Google mostly ignores them. A full SEO audit covers this along with the technical side.
What we’ve seen on real contractor sites
Links never work alone, and our case studies show it. For CBS Professional Painters in Vancouver, WA, building quality inbound links was one piece of the job, next to metadata fixes, restructured landing pages and blog posts linked to service pages. Their rankings for “painting company” and “interior painters” each climbed more than 80 positions, and organic impressions grew 6x.
D&C Pro Flooring in Lake Stevens got a Google Business Profile cleanup and submissions to key local directories, plus title, header and internal link fixes. They now rank #1 in several nearby cities they serve.
And here’s the counterpoint. Snoqualmie Construction got 12 keywords to #1, including “kitchen remodeling services,” which went from position 28 to 1. The work there was metadata, restructured service pages and hyper-local internal links. No outside link campaign is part of that story. Internal links are the ones you control completely, so fix those before you go asking anyone else.
Where we work
We’re based in Washington State and run contractor SEO nationwide, with clients from Everett and Lake Stevens down through Tacoma and Olympia and out to California, Texas, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio. We take one contractor per trade per service area. We won’t pitch the same supplier page for two roofers in the same town.
Washington, United States
Phone: (928) 482-6963
Local SEO, link building and paid ads for home improvement contractors nationwide.
Frequently asked questions
How many backlinks does a contractor website need?
There’s no magic number. Look at the three contractors ranking above you and aim to match their good local links, not their total. A modest set of solid local links often does more than you’d think.
Do link building services work for local businesses?
The ones that sell links in bulk mostly don’t, and they can put you on the wrong side of Google’s spam rules. Outreach to real local groups, suppliers and press can work fine. Ask to see the actual sites before you pay a cent.
Does domain authority affect rankings?
No. It’s a Moz score, and Google doesn’t use it. The links behind the score do matter, so treat DA as a rough comparison and nothing more.
What makes a good backlink for a contractor?
A local site, a related topic, and a reason a homeowner might click it. A supplier’s contractor page or your builders association beats a big national site with no connection to your trade. If you’d be proud to show it to a customer, it’s probably a good one.
Not sure where your site stands against the contractors outranking you? Our contractor SEO team can pull your links and theirs side by side. Book a Free Strategy Call.
