A common topic the past several months has been focused on how limited our options are for building links, ever since the almighty Penguin rained on the link buyers’ parade.
Link Building is not dead. You just have to (gasp) earn those links now. Regardless of how much more time and effort it requires, there are still ample opportunities to earn backlinks from a wide variety of sources.
Philanthropy for Building Links
Rather than cover the same link building ideas you can find widely discussed, I want to take a moment to talk about how philanthropy can help support your backlink strategy.
Philanthropy in and of itself is something that you likely already do in some forms. While it is not always appropriate to request a backlink, the following are a few opportunities where you would stand a good chance of earning a link.
Donations
If your business already donates to charities, kudos to you. Some charities will even include supporters on their website, especially for sizeable donations. In the end, the good you are doing by donating truly matters, so a link to your site thanking your company for the donation is lagniappe.
Support a Charity
Again approaching this from the perspective of the business, it is always impressive when a group of coworkers can band together and pitch in with time and effort.
For local or regional charities, you can request a link back to the website in return for volunteering a certain amount of collective hours.
Depending on how tech savvy they are, this is an easy request to accommodate via a digital-only press release, a blog post, or featuring you on a sponsor’s or “friends of” page on the website.
Represent a Charity
Charity events and rallies often provide a great forum to get some visibility, and they also offer a chance to get a link.
You could sponsor a charity event itself, which typically comes with a mention on the website. Make sure you request a link, even if you can’t suggest anchor text.
Another way to show your support is to speak on behalf of the charity at another event, or alternatively, to speak at the charity event itself.
As keynote speaker, your bio will be featured on either the charity’s website itself or whatever they set up for the event. Assuming you get to craft your own bio, be sure to include your URL and ask them to hyperlink it as well.
Help Them Promote Themselves
The fourth way to give back is by supporting our vendors themselves. All B2B companies need case studies to show that they are credible at what they do.
But having managed case studies in the past, I can tell you that they are a LOT of work, very time consuming.
The easiest case study projects were when clients volunteered to share some kind words. And we were happy to give them a backlink in return for seeing the case study through the whole process.
So volunteer to give a testimonial or a full case study. Just ask for a link in return, and you’ll find that a lot of vendors will be happy to oblige.
Tommy Landry
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