Share the Link Love: How Linking Benefits Your Business

A successful marketing strategy includes six main points to help you ATTRACT attention, NURTURE relationships, and create loyal customers. Today we’ll focus on one of those points: How linking benefits your SEO and real-world relationships. (Need a refresher on what those six points are? Read this post to catch up.)

Let’s talk about links

Getting found on Google is like an online popularity contest – the “cool kids” rise to the top of search results. Links signal to search engines your site is worth talking about. Quality links tell Google your website is trusted, valuable, and relevant.

Links are powerful in Google’s eyes, but they’re also a great way to create connections with real people in your community and industry. When you link OUT to businesses, resources, and organizations, you deepen and strengthen relationships with them. Everyone LOVES getting a flattering mention online! When you receive links IN from other trusted sites, Google takes notice. Every link back to your website is a “vote” in your favor!

Linking benefits and examples

What does effective linking look like in 2016? Consider a few real-world examples:

Community Pages

Add a community page to your website to recommend (and link to) some of your favorite local hotspots. These could include restaurants, attractions, and upcoming events. iGrin’s page all about Boiling Springs, South Carolina is a fabulous example of this.

A community page is also an ideal location to showcase sponsorships and community involvement. PDO Specialists does a killer job with this on their community page. We especially love their support of San Diego schools!

Blog Posts

Your blog is a great spot to highlight your community and share some links. Remember to reach out to these businesses on social media and/or via email to let them know you’ve written about them. Typically, they can’t resist sharing your content with their own followers!

For inspiration, check out some of our own recent posts. From promoting our fave breakfast-to-go to spotlighting a spectacular community in Bellingham, we LOVE sharing our team’s local recommendations!

Does it work? Well, in our own case, these recent posts have led to huge traffic boosts to our website. Compared to last year, our website’s unique visitors are up by more than 600. Referrals from Facebook alone are up 633% compared to the same period last month! Stay tuned for a full case study coming soon!

Your linking action plan:

• Add a community page to your website to link to local recommendations.
• Get involved and sponsor local organizations.
• Write blog posts spotlighting your favorite local businesses, attractions, and upcoming events.
• Reach out to these businesses and organizations to request they share your content and/or link to your website.