If you’ve ever gone to an SEO conference, there is a good chance that you will have heard people asking about link building for brands that perhaps aren’t regarded as “exciting” as those based in travel, fashion or lifestyle. If your brand fits into this description too, you may be wondering how on earth you are supposed to go about securing appropriate backlinks for your website. You know that these links are important – regardless of whether your business is selling diggers or pencils; you want to appear in the search engines for the phrases and brand terms that are important to get the right traffic to your website after all. So what should you do? Here are a few ideas…
Share your news
Every business will have something to shout about to the right audience. Spend your time getting your stories out to the right people, rather than aiming to share news with people who are never going to become a customer. If your updates strike a chord with your audience, they may share your story across the web, using your URL as a reference. The first step here is to create a news section on your website, as well as connecting with influential journalists and PR individuals.
Do a survey
If you don’t have any news that you think is worthwhile sharing, come up with something that is. One way that companies do this is by running a survey for their customer base or even just the wider internet user base. For example, a dating service might ask their customers how many of them have a pet, and a car dealership may ask people what their first ever car was. These can bring up some interesting results that could even make it as far as being published in the Daily Mail or their website. You can imagine it now: “52% of Men Actually Seek Crazy Cat Lady” or something along those lines!
Hold an event
Another way to generate a buzz is to hold an event. Obviously what this is will depend on the type of business you own, but if you have premises you could provide a free service for a day. What you lose in revenue that day may end up paying for itself in overall profits due to higher visibility and advertising. If you are an ice cream shop and offer free ice cream on a particularly warm day, you will generate a social buzz and may even capture the attention of the local press. Cue a load of new customers.
Provide important tips
Finally, it’s likely that you’re an expert in your field so share a bit of your knowledge. This can be especially influential if you are in the know on a hot topic; news organisations are always looking for people who can do interviews on them. Start off by doing some videos on YouTube, and make sure you include a section on your website about your availability for interviews. If you’ve done any before, include reference to these so people know you’re the right person for the job.
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