If You Create Backlinks for Local Biz, Go With Quality Balanced Quantity!

richardjohnpaul
Make sure you're 100% on MozLocal to start.
Start doing competitor research and figure out where their local links are coming from.
Ask the local paper(s) to do a story with a link to the site.
Make sure you have location branded pages and that they're indexed.

griffex
To expand on /u/richardjohnpaul a bit – look for times of the year where storms/roof issues are likely to come up and reach out to local press outlets about 1-2 months in advance to pitch the story. If your dude has a slow season – see if he's willing to do some free charity repairs or a habitat for humanity to make the story a better pitch. Could also work if you find a really bad project as a warning and cut those folks a deal in exchange for letting the work be filmed by the media crew.
If you get decent traction from the first – you can try to pitch it as a series: "Seasonal tips from the experts at Bob's Roofing" come up with some tasks like cleaning gutters or signs your roof might be going. Could even do something like how to address a leak when you find one.
Other options are local sponsorships/cleanups. Basically just have to get your name out there doing things in the community where people will notice and care.

stillyoinkgasp
Respectfully, the local press isn't going to give many f*cks about what a roofing company has to say UNLESS there's a huge storm or something.
My family owns a roofing company. I generate local links by:
• Sponsoring community events and getting mentioned on their social channels and blog
• Writing very specific/local optimized content (IE "How Much Snow Can a Roof Hold? Understanding the Colorado Building Code") and then sharing that on local Facebook groups, subreddits, etc. The FB/Reddit stuff doesn't do much for SEO proper, but I've had great success in driving qualified traffic and thus having our brand called out on community sites, blogs, etc.
• Joining community association directories, etc.
• Sponsoring school teams and getting mentioned on their site
• Running promotions with local radio companies and getting called out on their social/blog
The biggest thing for me is the community association piece. Here's a secret worth money: when you do work in small towns/regions near your main GEO, talk about it on your blog and post about it in your GMB. Then, when you approach those organization websites, you can paint an easy case as to why you should be included. I've had great success. My competitors focus on getting links from local press and I get two-dozen qualified links from nearby towns, communities, and hobby blogs.
Local SEO is about BEING and THINKING local mate.
EDIT: Hey, I got a hug. That's sweet! I was having a really bad day so that actually was a nice pick me up. Here's another free tip for local SEO:
I use software like Animoto to create quick slideshow videos that I offer websites in place of the typical guest post. Guest posts are shit. I get 100+ requests a week across my network of sites and I hate it.
But send me a decent slideshow video and a post that wasn't written by some outsourced "copywriter" that has no experience in the industry? Shit son, now you got my attention.
The video takes 1-2 hours to make, tops. Everyone has a decent smartphone. Send the client a $15 Amazon tripod, a $15 Amazon LAV mic, and get them to give you a quick "1-2 minute elevator pitch" on a TOPIC, not THEMSELVES.
"Hi, this is Fred from Fred's Furnace Repair. Many people forget that their dryer vents on the exterior of their home need to be periodically checked for debris and animals. With winter on the way, now is the time. It will take you 10 seconds and save you a potential headache and repair bill down the line. Look, as much as I'd love to hear from you, nobody enjoys paying big repairs because of small things like this. Go make sure your vents are clear and have a great rest of your day!"
Combine a couple of clips with the client speaking, overlay the voice on some other nice slideshow images, and BAM. You have a unique asset that doesn't suck that someone might actually post and link to you for.
Cheers :)

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traffickite
You can try the following proven link building strategies:
• local business listing. We should have a brief bio about your business and Name, Address & Phone Number (NAP) details.
• guest posts from local bloggers. Especially from interiors or DIY blogs.
• links form the resource page or from the weekly round-up post
• And a few editorial links from high authority blogs, e.g., Domain Authority (DA) 50+
You must choose anchor text wisely because it can make or break your link building efforts.
JudeMarshal
Whenever you are installing a new roof make a YouTube video for it for example how to install this roof in this condition or in this kind of altitude with this material whatever just get as many YouTube videos as you can and then use them as social proof and include your website in the description and let's will start coming to you for free forever and for very little work

a_moalin
If you are after local then focus on Local SEO.
• Start with your GMB.
• Make sure you fill out all the relevant fields, add photos and Vidoes. LEAVE NOTHING OUT!
• DO your citations
• Your NAP details should be consistent across the web. Local directories even better.
These two alone took me from 20th to 3rd position in a matter of 20 days. Once you take those out of you plate then you can start implementing the third step.
3. As for backlinks, choose quality over quantity. That means few are enough if they are relevant to your niche. Backlinks from Roofing suppliers would be great start and local chembers of commerce. These two alone would boost your ranking because of relevacy and proximity respectively.
There is no point in building 500+ backlinks which are all spammy. We know it and Google KNOWS IT!
LET'S NOT forget that SEO overall is a long term game and that there is no silver bullet to fix rankings.
Hope that helps.

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