How do you get quality backlinks for your website?
If you’re a real local business, here’s the truth:
Your own Google and YouTube properties are the most powerful backlink engines you’re not using.
And they’re free.
Here’s how to do it the right way:
1. Google Business Profile (GBP) It’s Your #1 Cornerstone Property
Most people never use GBP for backlinks, visibility, or authority.
But if you’re a real business, GBP is a gold mine.
Do this:
• Claim and fully optimize your profile
Fill out every field: categories, hours, services, attributes, descriptions, photos, and products.
Reference:
Google Business Profile Help Center (Google’s official docs)
• Post weekly (minimum)
GBP posts create topical freshness signals.
Google uses this in local ranking.
Reference:
Google’s own “How to improve your local ranking” page (Google Documentation)
• Respond to reviews within 24 hours
Fast responses show Google that your business is alive and active, which boosts trust.
Reference:
Google’s Review Management Guidelines
Why it matters for backlinks
Your GBP links directly to:
- Your website
- Your landing pages
- Your appointment links
- Your services
- Your UTM-tagged URLs
These links come from Google’s own ecosystem, which is as high-authority as it gets.
This is why I push business owners to champion their cornerstone Google properties.
2. YouTube: The most underrated backlink machine
YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world.
Everyone posts videos.
Almost nobody optimizes the description.
Here’s the move:
• Post videos, yes… But the description is the real super power.
In every description, include:
- Your website link
- Your GBP link
- Your socials
- Your services pages
- Your lead magnets
- Your phone number
- Your city and service area
- Keywords and context for what the video covers
YouTube allows HUGE descriptions.
A YouTube description can have a maximum of 5,000 characters, but only the first 100–150 characters are visible before a viewer has to click “show more.”
For YouTube Shorts, the description has the same 5,000-character limit, but only about 100 characters are visible before the user must click “show more.”
It is important to place the most critical information, like keywords and a hook, within the first few visible lines to capture viewer attention and help with search engine optimization.
Use all that real estate.
Why it works
YouTube is owned by Google.
Backlinks from YouTube descriptions are followed links, meaning Google does crawl them.
They don’t pass traditional “PageRank,” but they pass:
- Authority signals
- Entity relevance
- Brand reinforcement
- Association signals
- Topical trust
- Cross-property validation
This is the foundation of entity SEO, which is what powers AI search, featured snippets, and local dominance.
Reference:
Google’s patent on “calibrating trust signals using corroborative sources” (YouTube = corroboration)
Bottom line:
If you want quality backlinks, start with the high-authority properties you already control:
- Google Business Profile
- YouTube
- Social profiles
- Email signature
- Press releases
- Supplier pages
- Local directories
- Chamber listings
But GBP and YouTube?
Those are your cornerstone powerhouse properties.
If you’re a real local business, Google WANTS you to use them.
And they reward you for it.
If you’d like to learn a bit more about how I do things like this take a look here: http://bricknmortarmarketing.com/rich-snippets-engine
This is how I’ll be changing the world for the better overall.
🙂
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