2008Nov19

Search Engine Optimization Tip 22: Link Building Using Coupons

This is search engine optimization tip number twenty two in our continuing series of search engine optimization tips. Vizion Interactive is a search engine optimization firm. All of our search engine optimization tips are meant to be specific, they should not take too much time to review (to make sure that you are following the search engine optimization best practices), and will be rather “short and sweet” and directly to the point. In fact, this search engine optimization tip is pretty simple: if you sell something on your site you should offer a coupon.

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? Our last search engine optimization tip was about understanding redirects and the type of redirects you can use to direct traffic to your site or to another site if you change your site’s location or a page’s location (its URL).

Before that, I talked about search engine optimization tip 20, was about checking the whois of your domain name: checking the public domain record. Before that, in search engine optimization tip 19, was about code bloat and moving your JavaScript code to an external file. And before that, I wrote search engine optimization tip 18, which was about linking within sentences. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

This search engine optimization tip is really for those who are selling something on your site. In other words, it works well if you have a shopping cart. But, even if you are not currently using a shopping cart and you have your customers call you on the phone, you can use this tip.

If you are selling something on your site you need to offer a coupon code or “promo code”. Then, go out and publicize your code on other web sites that offer coupons and promo codes. For example, let’s take a look at this search result at Google, which shows a LOT of coupon code web sites: these sites are looking to list coupon codes and would be happy to list your coupon code and link to your web site.

There are also a lot of message boards out there that you can sign up for (register on) and post your coupon code or your promo code. Quite often if you are selling a popular product then others will start doing the posting and linking for you once they learn of your promotion.

Generally there are two benefits to offering coupons and promo codes: additional traffic, additional sales, and links. These links should help your organic search engine rankings, which will help over the long run.

Keep in mind that there are some coupon web sites out there that are essentially “affiliate sites” that will want something in return for listing your coupon or promotional code: you really should not have to pay to list your code. You might initially skip over those sites. There are other things that you can do once you have your coupon code or promo code set up, including:

Issue a press release. This should be a good reason for issuing a press release (the press release will get you some links) and you might get a mention in a news article (often reporters and journalists pick up on these sorts of things, especially during the holiday season).
If your site has a blog you might mention the promo code or the coupon code on your blog. Talk to your readers and explain what they need to do to get the discount: you might also mention any terms and conditions of it, as well, and mention any dates involved (perhaps it’s only good until the end of the year).
If you can offer a free sample of a product it will go a long way. I once worked with an online retailer who offered a free sample of their product (they even shipped it out for free). The response was unbelievable and they had to shut down the offer after they shipped 5000 free samples. Furthermore, the number of links that they generated was unbelievable: thousands of links were generated and the site’s search engine rankings skyrocketed as a result.

So, since the holiday season is starting, now would be a great time to start thinking of offering a coupon or a promotional code. People are looking for a deal this holiday season because of the economy in the United States, and a coupon just might be your ticket to online success this holiday season.

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