Bogdan
I get your pain – our world is full of guides and case studies on how to get backlinks. In reality – except the very few ones with enough name, Public Relations (PR) and visibility, everybody pays for backlinks.
How to do it? Simply write good articles on topics related to your website's, and use a link to one of your pages. As soon as that article is published on a websites – that link is THE BACKLINK.
How can you find cheaper websites that accept guest posting? Start with some Google searches. Use your main keywords and add the usual guest posting ones. For example, if your business is Phones repair, search for "phone repair guest posting". Mix your main keyword, and mix the guest posting (write for us, submit an article etc).
Aarstad
Setup an IFTTT Syndication Network, blog regularly, then share the blog posts everywhere, then post each link everywhere, so post the blog post to a couple of pinterest boards, post the board and pin urls to Twitter, post the urls from the IFTTT posts to Twitter, Pinterest, Post blog URL to Google Business Profile (GBP)Pin and Tweet that, repurpose blog to yt video, interlink yt videos, that will trigger IFTTT, do the same with those links, build a Google Site and copy the site URL structure and embed each money website page into each GSite page , Build GBP site when you post to GBP it will create a URL here, do the same with those URLs. Now you have a bunch of URLs, just keep posting things and interlinking things and use the URLs as link targets. I literally have been doing this for a decade and rank every time, and everytime people lose rankings during an update, mine always improve.
Pin all of the business citations as pins in multiple different Pinterest boards each targeting keyphrases. Tweet all of those.
Also sometimes I'll just post a bunch of links to Tumblr, or whatever IFTTT property. Get creative, use other sites, Pearltrees, Images to Flickr etc. I might break videos into YouTube Shorts.
Share Google Google My Biz (GMB) CID URL, Reviews URLs Post URLs, embed reviews in places.
I translate pages and blog posts into multiple languages and keep them in folders on Google Drive, interlink and link to money page.
You can also create PDFs with hyperlinks in them linking to tier 2 properties and submit on Fiverr to pdf sites.
Other advanced things you could do on top if this is create content silos between properties, use Google Stacks, use Cloud Stacking (yaccs) (I have not used YACCS before).
And next stage to keep it going forever automatically is set up every single link and create a bunch of posts for each link, set up in Socialbee to post to Google My Biz (GMB), Twitter, FB. So it just posts in a giant loop forever. (You don't even need to do this, but this is the next phase of what I'm doing)
You could also spend small amounts on ads just to slow drip traffic that way at the same time.
Basically just think of it like this, post content, repurpose everywhere, and interlink everything, creating a massive web of interrelated content.
*NOTE, I often include Name, Address & Phone Number (NAP) in content.
Generally speaking, almost no local website is going to be competing with this method.

Danie
To everyone mentioning directory links those are just a foundational beginning. I have seen others speak on the issue with Application Programming Interface (API) aggregators versus manual aggregators and the indexing problem there in. API aggregators get very few of their listings indexed compared to the number you buy from them. You have a better chance with a manual aggregator but that is because you have more control over each directory and you can create some unique descriptions. Even in the manual case if you pump out the exact same content Google's newest updates will not index all directories because they know they don't need to. It's the same issue on a website that has two pages that are similar and Google search console warning "Google chooses a different conical than user" They have gotten very picky about indexing because crawl budget is expensive. Still no matter how you slice it SEO directory listings are only a foundational piece of your backlink profile. Though typically they are no follows these specific kind of links will help increase your authority very marginally but they do, And they help your citation flow.
In the end the real backlinks that really drive authority are high authoritative relevant traffic delivering backlinks and there is no easy way to get those side from a few that you can find by using tools like Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Rush, doing analysis on the top 10, and you'll end up with a list of thousands of potential backlinks you can get for free however some end up not being free but some sort of paid directory that is a follow and very authoritative.
Best way is simply to find a reputable company that does this, get you backlinks, and pay for them though it's not considered best practices or it's black hat, I don't consider it that because even if you do manual outreach the amount of time it takes means you're paying for backlinks because time is money. So again you might as well buy some. Do be careful and understand backlink profile management well because when it comes to buying backlinks there is much to know. Everything from proper anchor text knowledge to best place to connect said backlink and even the velocity at which you get them are all factors but there are more to.
Kathy
1 great backlink will trump 100,000 low quality ones. 22 years doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and I've seen it many times. So my approach is to shoot for that one great one. Tell me what your vertical is and I'll give you an idea.
Also, in local, if you do everything else right you quite often don't need backlinks. It depends on the competition. And it depends on how good your content and on-page SEO is.
I have a PI attorney client with zero backlinks outranking others with many thousands. This is nationally and for a particular topic that gets him business. How did I do that? Simple. It's a great article. But that's not so easy.
Shaun
This is always my starting formula for any website – local or national SEO
1. Social Signals – build your Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, etc profiles and create content. Then order 200+ social signals sent to your profiles and website. It's like $20 or something.
2. Business Citations – Yelp (Google has been rumored to grab their data), then other business directories, local directories and niche directories. 25 to 100 total
3. Guest Posts – stay in your niche. Don't go after General/News sites until down the road. Grab a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs and get a list of domains linking to your competitors and send them a pitch. They will charge you and you have to provide the content.
That's it. Then keep getting guest posts regularly. You can dig into Help a Reporter Out (HARO) too which is fantastic but kind of difficult.

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