4.2. Press Links and Partners

What counts as a local link

A local backlink is valuable when it documents a real relationship: chamber of commerce membership, mandatory registration, press coverage. Bought or exchanged in bulk, it hurts your ranking.

Querétaro press: knock on the right door

Neither El Universal Querétaro (eluniversalqueretaro.mx) nor Diario de Querétaro has a dedicated food section. Pitching them "we are a new pizzeria" leads nowhere. The real avenues:

• vsd.mx, “the city guide,” is the only outlet in Querétaro with its own Restaurant section and publishes “Sabores de Querétaro.” Your number one target.
• Dressing (oem.com.mx/aderezo), the culinary vertical of Organización Editorial Mexicana, the group behind Diario de Querétaro. Write to aderezo (at) elsoldemexico.com.mx: hardly anyone knows about it, and everyone knocks on the general newspaper's door.
• codiceinformativo.com, rotativo.com.mx and plazadearmas.com.mx, where an opening or a partnership with an Amealco cheesemaker gets featured as a news story.
• At El Universal Querétaro, the route is “Vida Q”, “Tendencias”, or the special feature “Orgullo Queretano”.

Two notices: amqueretaro.com now redirects to aldialogo.mx, and the Michelin Guide Mexico 2026 does not cover Querétaro.

Mexico City: break in through listicles

The format that welcomes small businesses is the themed listicle. Four targets: chilango.com under Comida y tragos, timeoutmexico.mx/ciudad-de-mexico/restaurantes-cafes, dondeir.com, and eluniversal.com.mx/menu. Animal Gourmet moved to a new home: it is now grupoanimal.mx/gastronomia.

Pitch the editor with an angle, not a press release: 48-hour fermented dough, wood-fired oven, the supplier's first and last name. Attach three high-res horizontal photos ready to publish and your exact address, the same one you use on your Google Business Profile. Without photos, the feature won't run.

That link must point to an asset you own

A media outlet links to a website, not a WhatsApp chat. If your pizzeria only lives on Instagram, the editor links your profile or nothing at all. Entrust this to a team of web design or fix it today for free:

Chambers of commerce and public registries: the legitimate route

CANIRAC charges an annual membership fee based on capacity: Micro, from 1 to 16 people, 2,700 pesos; Small, from 17 to 60, 3,750; Medium, from 61 to 120, 5,850; Large, from 121 and up, 8,950. Includes SIEM registration at no extra cost. National: afiliacionejecutiva (at) canirac.org.mx, 55 5604 0478. Querétaro Branch: queretaro (at) canirac.org.mx, 442 465 1785, Av. Luis Vega y Monroy 405, Col. Quinta Balaustradas. Access via portal.canirac.org.mx: caniracqueretaro.org does not resolve and caniracqueretaro.com.mx is an unfinished template. Here, you're not buying the backlink; you're buying the membership.

Free and mandatory: the National Tourism Registry (RNT) includes "Food and Beverage", must be filed within 30 days of opening, and the certificate is valid for 2 years; you can be verified at rnt-consulta.sectur.gob.mx and any questions go to tramitesrnt (at) sectur.gob.mx. On queretaro.travel the directory does not list restaurants: request inclusion at info (at) queretaro.travel or by calling (442) 238 5067.

Neighborhood allies and sponsorships

Partner with non-competing businesses: the coffee shop that closes at six, the boutique hotel downtown. The deal happens in the content, not in the footer: they publish “where to have dinner nearby” and you publish “what to do after pizza.” Two businesses recommending each other once is natural; twenty cross-linked in a network is excessive link exchange, strictly prohibited by Google. And sponsoring the kids' soccer team or the elementary school fair only helps if they publish a sponsors page with a backlink: ask about it before writing the check.

What to offer in exchange

Never pay money for a backlink. Offer what the media outlet lacks: photos with usage rights, kitchen access for a feature story, the recipe signed by your pizza chef, and same-day replies. If the outlet charges, it's an advertorial and it's legal: the condition is that the link includes rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". Get it in writing before paying.

Blacklist: this actually costs you rankings

Google Search Essentials spam policies (developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies) name what you must reject: buying links, including sending free product in exchange for coverage; link exchanges at scale; automated link generation; undisclosed advertorials; serialized guest posts and syndicated press releases; mass submissions to low-quality directories; replicated widgets and footers; and forum comments with optimized anchor text. Middlemen selling “we'll get you published on a major news site” is site reputation abuse: it drags both down.

An algorithmic penalty is silent; a manual action shows up in the “Manual Actions” report in Search Console as “Unnatural links to your site.” Anti-spam updates are dated: March 24, June 24, and the August 2026 spam update, rolling out since August 18.

This is outreach and follow-up work, week after week. If you prefer to cook and let someone else chase editors, that's exactly what our SEO rankings within the monthly plan.

Let the agency manage it