Author: Sarah Nasir
Concurrently acquiring customers, making sales and driving traffic to your website is not impossible – with the help of SEO. With SEO’s prominence in digital advertising showing no signs of slowing down any time soon, it is crucial for companies to take advantage of every practice used to gain customers, and utilize it as an SEO tactic. One significant practice used to attract customers and make sales is the use of coupons. Utilizing coupons as an SEO tactic will drive traffic to your website, simultaneously increasing its page ranking on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).
Coupons posted on external sources link back to your website, making them relevant backlinks for your SEO strategy. External sources that you choose to post your coupons on should depend on the industry you’re in and your target market. I have identified three external sources that you may want to utilize as coupon backlinks in your SEO strategy.
1. Coupon Websites
Coupon websites offer an accumulation of aggregated coupons for customers to browse through and select. You may choose to post coupons on third-party coupon sites in order to target customers that are looking for discounts. Instead of posting your coupons on as many third-party coupon sites as possible, it is important to thoroughly research and choose coupon sites that perfectly fit into your SEO strategy.
To avoid being considered spam, coupons should be posted only on relevant coupon sites, or in relevant categories within the coupon site. For example, a tour company could post coupons in the ‘travel’ or ‘tours’ categories within a coupon site. Additionally, coupons may also be localized. Coupons posted on Groupon could be advertised under ‘Local Deals’ in order to target customers in the location you offer your services in. Coupons could also be posted on niche coupon sites that primarily target your niche market. A tour company may post coupons on DestinationCoupons.com.
Major coupon sites like Groupon and RetailMeNot aggregate coupons based on upcoming holidays. You could take advantage of holidays in your local area such as Valentine’s Day, President’s Day or Independence Day by offering coupons for particular holidays. When posted on coupon sites, the coupon would show up in the directory for that particular holiday. Suppose a browser is skimming through deals, trying to look for coupons for ‘things to do’ on Independence Day. They may come across your coupon, and if it is attractive enough for them, use the offer. The coupon will redirect them to a landing page on your website where they will be able to finalize their purchase.
2. Partnerships
You may choose to partner with another relevant company in your niche to offer a coupon deal together. For example, a company for local tours could potentially partner with local restaurants in the area. The tour company could include the restaurant as a part of their tour itinerary and the restaurant could offer a discounted price for individuals on their tour. Developing a coupon together would enable both companies to benefit from the partnership and provide a relevant backlink to each other’s websites.
Search engines consider the relevance of the linking site and content, so backlinks from appropriate partnerships will be considered high quality backlinks from relevant sources. Additionally, a backlink that is not easily acquired is considered more valuable than a backlink that may be readily replicated by competitors. Relevant backlinks arising from unique partnerships in your niche will improve your website’s page ranking and drive traffic from partners’ websites, leading to potential conversions of your partners’ customers.
3. Influencers
Influencers are ubiquitous on all digital platforms from social media to YouTube. They also have huge fan followings with considerable influence over their followers’ purchasing decisions. A partnership with an influencer relevant to your niche, if utilized correctly, could be an external source that provides substantial traffic to your website. One way to acquire a backlink from an influencer’s page is by creating a unique coupon code to market to their followers. This partnership would benefit both parties: the influencer will be able to profit from every discount used by their followers or subscribers, and the company will acquire a relevant web 2.0 backlink to drive traffic and improve the ranking of their website.
Over time, is better to diversify the sources through which you get backlinks. This is because a new link from a website that has not linked to your website before is considered a high quality backlink. Therefore, the incessant search for new, relevant and qualified sources that could potentially be utilized for high quality backlinks should never end.
