In short and in plain language
This article shows how businesses around Hildesheim can earn links. A link here means a pointer from another website to your site.
Google counts such links as part of how well known a business is. This plays a role in local search.
Good links come from real contacts. They can come from your club, guild, supplier, the local paper or partners.
Paid links must be marked. This also applies to sponsoring. A paid report in the paper is an advert.
Every link needs a fitting page on your website to point to. Check your links from time to time. In a free first talk, we look at where your business is already named.
When a sports club in Sarstedt shows its sponsors, a guild lists its member businesses or the local paper reports on a workshop opening in Hildesheim, a link to the business's website often appears along the way. Links like these from the region are more than decoration: Google explicitly names the number of websites that link to a business as part of what counts as prominence in local ranking. At the same time, the spam policies draw a clear line against bought links. This article shows where a Hildesheim business can earn reputable links, how sponsorships and paid reports have to be marked, and which page on its own website should receive those links. How the business profile, reviews and location pages work together for local visibility in Hildesheim is covered in a separate article – this one is about the links themselves.
Key takeaways
- Google names three main factors for local results (Google Business Profile Help): relevance, distance and prominence. Prominence also takes into account how many websites link to a business.
- Reputable links grow out of real relationships: club, guild, supplier, local press, event and partner firm. The LandesSportBund Niedersachsen alone has 8,990 member clubs (LandesSportBund Niedersachsen).
- A sponsor link is a paid link and needs
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow"(Google Search Central, spam policies). A duty to place an unmarked link does not belong in a sponsorship contract. - A paid report in a newspaper is an advertisement: in print, section 10 NPresseG requires the word "Anzeige", online, section 22(1) MStV requires a clear separation from other content.
- Every link needs a suitable target: a subpage on community work, training, a service or a town, plus a ready-made text block with name, place and service for the partners who link to you.
- The Search Console links report shows linking websites and link texts, but only a selection of links, and its tables stop at 1,000 rows (Search Console Help). A list of your own with the link attribute fills the gap.
Why links from the region matter in local ranking
For local search, Google has described the rules unusually openly. According to its business profile help, local results are mainly based on three factors (Google Business Profile Help): relevance, distance and prominence, which the help page also calls popularity. Relevance comes from complete information in the Google Business Profile; the distance between business and searcher cannot be influenced. That leaves prominence. As examples of the information it is based on, Google names the number of reviews and the number of websites that link to the business. How to earn and answer reviews is covered in the article on managing Google reviews. This article is about the links.
This factor’s also based on info like how many websites link to your business and how many reviews you have.
Behind this statement lies an older principle of web search. In its guide to ranking systems, Google describes its own link analysis systems and explicitly names PageRank as part of its core ranking systems (Google Search Central, ranking systems guide). A link from a local paper's report or from the guild's member directory can tell these systems that the business is known in the region. How much a single link weighs is not disclosed. The business profile help even makes clear that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking (Google Business Profile Help). Building links therefore means working on one signal among many – and on something that works without a search engine as well: club members, the supplier's customers and newspaper readers click on these links and land on the business's website.
No promise of effect
What makes a good local link
A good local link has a reason that would exist even without search engines. The club names its supporters, the guild its members, the manufacturer its certified installers, the newspaper the business it reports on. In each of these cases the owner of the other website decides whether and how to link – and that is precisely what separates a link from a placement you buy. Google describes link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily to manipulate search rankings (Google Search Central, spam policies). A link that grows out of a real relationship does not have that purpose. How to keep your company details consistent across directories is covered in the article on consistent business listings; there, a link is often just one field in the listing.
- Real occasion: membership, supply relationship, partnership, report or event – not merely the wish for a link.
- Fitting context: the linking page relates to the region or the trade. A tiler from Gronau belongs in a tile manufacturer's installer finder, not in a link directory without a topic.
- Clear link text: the name of the business, ideally with place or service. Google recommends anchor text that is descriptive, reasonably concise and relevant (Google Search Central, link documentation).
- Right target: the link leads to a page that matches the occasion, for example the training page or the page about your support for the club.
- Honest marking: if money or something in return is involved, the link carries
rel="sponsored"orrel="nofollow".
The rule of thumb
Restraint pays off with link text. The spam policies explicitly list links with optimised anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites as an example of link spam (Google Search Central, spam policies). Sending the local paper a press release in which "cheap bathroom renovation Hildesheim" is the link tends to achieve the opposite. The business's name as link text looks natural because that is how people refer to a business. It also tells the reader where the click leads, which is what link text is for in the first place.
Six sources in Hildesheim and the surrounding area
Most businesses have more relationships in the region than is visible at first glance. The map above shows six typical sources. Not every one fits every business, but almost every business deals with several of them in day-to-day work – they are just not yet on the list of people to ask for a link.
Clubs and sponsorship
Sports club, fire brigade support association, marksmen's club or arts society: many clubs show their supporters on a dedicated page. Because money or goods change hands, such a link is a paid link and is marked accordingly.
Guild, chamber, association
Member directories and tradesperson finders list businesses with address and website. A complete, current listing is all the work required here, and it is part of keeping your company details in order.
Suppliers and manufacturers
Manufacturers with installer or dealer finders, wholesalers with partner lists: anyone who installs or sells their products can appear there with place and service. The field sales rep usually knows how a listing comes about.
Local press
Opening, anniversary, new apprenticeships, donation handover: when the newsroom reports online, it sometimes links to the business. Whether it does is up to the editors. A paid report, by contrast, is an advertisement.
Events
Town festival, Christmas market, trade show, apprenticeship fair or open day: exhibitor lists, programme pages and event calendars name the participants, often with a link.
Partner firms
The painter recommends the floor layer, the hotel the restaurant on the market square. A short list of real partners with a description is a recommendation – a long link page with unrelated businesses is not.
The figures from the associations show how dense the network of clubs and guilds is. In July 2026 the LandesSportBund Niedersachsen counted 8,990 member clubs with around 2.7 million club memberships (LandesSportBund Niedersachsen). It is divided into 47 sports federations (LandesSportBund Niedersachsen), one of which is the Kreissportbund Hildesheim. In the skilled trades, the district craft associations Hildesheim-Alfeld and Holzminden are merging on 1 January 2027 (Handwerkskammer Hildesheim-Südniedersachsen). The new Kreishandwerkerschaft Hildesheim-Weserbergland will then represent 29 member guilds with around 840 member businesses (Handwerkskammer Hildesheim-Südniedersachsen). Each of these organisations keeps lists, directories or reports in which a business can appear with its website.
Clubs and sponsorship: paid means sponsored
For many businesses in Hildesheim, sponsorship is the obvious connection to the region: shirts for the youth team, a banner at the sports ground, a donation for the club trip. Many clubs thank their sponsors on their website, often with a logo and a link. The classification matters: the link exists because money or goods were provided. The spam policies name exchanging money for links and exchanging goods or services for links as link spam where such links are meant to manipulate rankings (Google Search Central, spam policies). The same section shows the way out: Google recognises that buying and selling links is a normal part of the web for advertising and sponsorship, and treats such links as acceptable when the link element carries rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" (Google Search Central, spam policies).
Google introduced the sponsored attribute value on 10 September 2019 (Google Search Central Blog), together with ugc for user-generated content. Since 1 March 2020, nofollow has also been treated as a hint for crawling and indexing (Google Search Central Blog). In its documentation on outbound links, Google recommends marking advertisements and paid placements as sponsored; nofollow remains acceptable, sponsored is preferred (Google Search Central, outbound links). In practice this means the sponsor link is not a ranking lever, but it is not worthless either. It brings visitors from the club to the website and shows publicly that the business is rooted in the region. The value of a sponsorship is measured by the club and the contacts that come from it, not by a link attribute.
<!-- Club sponsors page: paid link, marked -->
<li class="sponsor">
<a href="https://www.example.com/community/" rel="sponsored">
<img src="/sponsors/business.svg" alt="Logo of your business name">
Your business name, Hildesheim
</a>
</li>When it comes to implementation, the club decides, because it runs the website. The business can help by supplying everything at once: logo as SVG or PNG with alt text, name and place as link text, the preferred target page and a note on rel="sponsored". In its SEO Starter Guide, Google also advises putting the website address on business cards, letterheads and posters (Google SEO Starter Guide) – so it belongs on the banner at the sports ground too. Anyone on a club committee who wants to rework the club site anyway will find a structure for events, members and donations in the article on the club website; for the implementation there is our web design for clubs.
No link obligation in the sponsorship contract
Guild, chamber and suppliers
Directories of guilds, chambers and associations are the quietest source of links: the listing comes with the membership, and the work consists of keeping it complete and current. Check in your guild's tradesperson finder and in the chamber's directory whether name, address, phone number and website match your legal notice and whether the link points to the right address. After a relaunch or a switch from http to https, old listings can lead to a redirect chain or an error page. On 1 January 2027, the district craft associations Hildesheim-Alfeld and Holzminden become the Kreishandwerkerschaft Hildesheim-Weserbergland (Handwerkskammer Hildesheim-Südniedersachsen). Guild members should check after the merger whether their listing, including the website, has been carried over. For trade businesses whose own website still has gaps, the page on web design for trades describes what we build there.
Suppliers and manufacturers are the second quiet source. Many manufacturers of building products, heating technology, windows or vehicles run an installer or dealer finder on their website, and many wholesalers show partner businesses by postcode. A listing there has a clear occasion: the business installs or sells the products. It is often tied to a training course or a partner programme; the field sales rep knows the conditions. Make sure the listing uses the same company details as your business profile and that the link leads to the page where you describe the relevant service – the heat pump page rather than the home page.
Local press: report or advertisement
A report in the local paper is the source that is hardest to plan – and that is exactly why it is credible. Newsrooms report on occasions: an opening, a company anniversary, new apprenticeships, a donation handover, an unusual job in the region. Whether the online article links to the business is up to the editors. You can make it easier for them: a short press release with the facts, a contact person, a photo with cleared usage rights and the address of the matching subpage. The same applies as with link text: no search terms as the link, just the name of the business. How such occasions regularly turn into content for your own website is what our content marketing is about.
Things are different when the report is paid for. For printed newspapers, section 10 of the Lower Saxony Press Act (NPresseG) requires a publication for which the publisher received payment to be clearly labelled with the word "Anzeige" (advertisement), unless its layout already makes it recognisable as an advertisement (section 10 NPresseG). For online services, section 22(1) of the Interstate Media Treaty (MStV) requires advertising to be clearly recognisable as such and clearly separated from other content (section 22(1) MStV). Competition law addresses the business: under section 5a(4) of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG), anyone who does not disclose the commercial purpose of a commercial practice acts unfairly, unless it is directly apparent from the circumstances and the omission is likely to influence a business decision (section 5a(4) UWG). No. 11 of the UWG annex declares editorial content financed by a trader to promote sales, without the connection being clearly recognisable, unlawful towards consumers in every case (UWG annex no. 11). For the link in a paid report the spam policy applies as well: native advertising with links that pass ranking credit is listed there as link spam (Google Search Central, spam policies).
| Situation | Who decides on the link | Labelling | Link attribute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Editorial online report | Newsroom | none, not advertising | per the newsroom's house rules |
| Paid report, advertorial | Publisher after booking | "Anzeige" (section 10 NPresseG), online clearly recognisable advertising (section 22 MStV) | sponsored or nofollow |
| Club sponsors page | Club | mention of the supporter | sponsored or nofollow |
| Guild member directory | Guild | listing as a member | as specified by the guild |
| Recommendation by a partner firm | Partner firm | none if unpaid | no attribute |
| Bought link package | Seller | missing | violates the spam policies |
Events and partner firms
Events bring links that recur over the year. Exhibitor lists of a trade show, the programme of a town festival, the stall plan of a Christmas market or the participant list of an apprenticeship fair name those involved, often with a link. On top of that come the event calendars of towns, municipalities and neighbourhood associations, where businesses can enter their own dates – the open day, a workshop, a tasting. Whether a link in an exhibitor list carries an attribute is up to the organiser. If the mention with link is part of a paid advertising package, the same applies as with sponsorship. For your own calendar entry, a subpage for the event with date, place and schedule is worthwhile, so the link does not just lead to the home page.
Partner firms are the source where the line blurs most easily. When a painter names the floor layer he regularly renovates flats with, that is a recommendation with real value for customers. The spam policies, on the other hand, name excessive link exchanges and partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking as link spam (Google Search Central, spam policies). The difference lies in purpose and scale: a few partners you actually work with, each with a sentence on what the partner does and why the business recommends them. A page with long lists of links to unrelated businesses is no longer a recommendation.
What does not work
Besides the reputable sources, there is a market that sells links as a commodity. The spam policies describe the common patterns quite precisely (Google Search Central, spam policies, as of 2 September 2026). They include:
- Buying links for money or paying for posts that contain links, without marking.
- Exchanging goods or services for links, for example a product in return for a review with a link.
- Excessive link exchanges and partner pages that exist only for cross-linking.
- Automated programs or services that create links to your own site.
- Press releases and guest posts with optimised anchor text distributed on other sites.
- Links from low-quality directory or bookmark sites.
- Forum comments with optimised links in the post or signature.
Google describes the consequences soberly: sites that violate the policies may rank lower or not appear in results at all (Google Search Central, spam policies). For a local business that is a serious risk, because its own domain has built trust over years. Fixed-price backlink packages or guest posts on arbitrary portals from all over Germany also have nothing to do with Hildesheim – they do not reflect any relationship a customer could follow. That is why our SEO support relies on technology, content and local reputation in line with search engine guidelines.
A page people like to link to
Anyone asking for a link should know where it should lead. Many clubs and directories link to the home page because they know nothing else. A subpage that matches the occasion is often better: a page on the business's community involvement for sponsorships and donations, the training page for the apprenticeship fair, the service page for the manufacturer, a town page for customers from the surrounding area. How to build such town pages without them counting as doorway pages is covered in the article on location pages around Hildesheim. A good target page has its own reason to be visited – then the people who arrive via the link keep clicking too.
- Text block: a short paragraph about the business with name, place and service that the partner can use as it is.
- Logo: as SVG or PNG, with alt text that names the business.
- Target address: the matching subpage, not the home page by default.
- Contact person: name and email address for questions and later changes.
- Photo: a picture from the business with cleared usage rights, in case the partner wants to show one.
- Marking: for sponsorships, a note on
rel="sponsored", so the partner does not have to guess.
The end of the year as an occasion
The fourth quarter is a good time for links from the region. Businesses plan their budgets for the coming year, while clubs prepare their year-end accounts and meetings and look for supporters for the new year. Christmas markets, Advent promotions and charity drives create occasions that local papers report on, and many newsrooms collect topics for their annual reviews. In the skilled trades, the merger of the district craft associations on 1 January 2027 comes on top (Handwerkskammer Hildesheim-Südniedersachsen). Planning now means having the conversations before the new lists are drawn up in January. A possible schedule for the coming months:
- October: list your relationships – clubs, guild, suppliers, partners, events – and compare them with the existing links in the Search Console links report.
- November: talk to clubs about the coming year and hand over the text block including the marking; check listings in directories and dealer finders.
- December: use occasions for the press, such as a donation handover or new apprenticeships, and prepare the matching target page on your own website.
- January: check new sponsor pages and the guild listing after the merger, report broken links and update the list.
Checking and maintaining links
Which websites already link to a business is shown in the "Links" report of Google Search Console. Under "External links" you find the top linked pages, the top linking sites and the top linking text; the tables are limited to 1,000 rows (Search Console Help). The report is not complete, though: according to the help page it contains only a selection of links and does not show whether a link is marked nofollow (Search Console Help). A look once a quarter is usually sufficient: is the club still on board, does the supplier show the new address, has a link slipped onto an error page after a relaunch of your own site? How to read the other Search Console reports is explained in the article on Search Console data.
If addresses on your own website change, for example during a relaunch, redirects from the old to the new addresses are part of the job. Otherwise it is precisely the links that have grown over the years that end up going nowhere. A simple table with source, contact person, linked target address, link attribute and date of the last check is enough for maintenance. It turns many small relationships into an inventory you can look after, and at the next conversation with the club it shows what has been added since last season.
Where to start this week
- Open the "Links" report in Search Console and note the linking websites from the region.
- Write down all clubs, associations, suppliers, partners and events your business deals with.
- Compare the two lists: where is there a relationship but no link yet?
- Prepare the text block, logo and target pages before you approach anyone.
- For every paid link, make sure it is marked with
rel="sponsored".
Links from the region are not a project with an end date but the visible result of good relationships that you look after. Together with a complete business profile, well-kept reviews and pages that answer customers' questions, they add up to a picture that Google can read as well. How we bring these building blocks together for businesses in and around Hildesheim is described on the page about local SEO. For a first conversation about your starting point, you can reach us through the contact form.
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