Link building for the small and boring
Why small businesses have a tough time in Google
The basic idea behind Google is to treat the Web as one big democracy where “votes” determine which websites rank highest. But instead of voting by showing up to the ballot box, people vote by linking out to other websites from their websites. The website with the most links wins (it’s not nearly that simple, but that’s the idea). In theory, this works wonderfully. In reality, it often doesn’t work for small businesses like law firms.
Ranking websites based on links works well for, say, websites about celebrities and politics, because countless people are willing and eager to link to those types of websites. Small business websites don’t usually enjoy the same treatment– you could run an excellent small law firm, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into people linking to your law firm website. People naturally link to great gossip about Lindsay Lohan and politics. They don’t naturally link to great small law firms, even if they think they’re great.
In this way, linking for small businesses is often completely unnatural and contrary Google’s idealistic vision of the Web. Or, to continue the democracy metaphor, when it comes to electing small businesses, the Google democracy has a voter turnout problem.
The tabloid or publicity stunt option
Some marketers try to get around this problem by telling lawyers to make the unsexy sexy. They advocate writing articles aimed at the general public about celebrity law or even pulling publicity stunts. And while anything is possible, this awkward approach often fails because it’s not enough to make law interesting; you also have to market your interesting content to people willing to link to it, which is no easy task. Besides, even if you could succeed in Google by turning your website into a tabloid or by pushing the limits of good taste, would you?
So what is a lawyer to do to get links?
Faced with the reality that getting links to a small law firm websites is hard, many lawyers turn to perfunctory or risky link building tactics— they do link exchanges, they submit their websites to directories that human readers ignore, or they buy links despite Google’s admonitions.
The non-profit sponsorship solution
There are several ways of solving this problem, but one that is particularly effective and simple is to sponsor local non-profit websites that link to you as a sponsor. This link building tactic stands out among many others because it works from a traditional and online marketing perspective. By sponsoring local non-profit websites, you help good causes, build awareness and goodwill among people in your community, and, incidentally, build powerful links to your website. Not a bad deal.
But isn’t this buying links? Isn’t that bad?
Google doesn’t like when people directly buy links for the sole purpose of manipulating Google; that much is clear. However, there are certain gray areas that Google has not addressed. Non-profit sponsorship is one of them. Does this mean Google approves of the practice? Who knows…Google is deliberately vague about these sorts of things.
As far as I know the practice of charity sponsorship involving links has not raised the ire of Google, which makes sense. After all, a legitimate charity wouldn’t allow someone with a bad reputation to be a public sponsor, so there is a built-in quality control mechanism. Besides, Google’s “don’t be evil” mantra doesn’t exactly mesh with forbidding charity sponsorship. So as long as your intent is to help solid local organizations and any SEO benefits are just a bonus, then there’s no theoretical or practical reason for Google to be upset.
There’s no better time to get started with non-profit sponsorship
The economy is in the dumps, and many non-profits are struggling. This means there is no time like the present to reach out and become a sponsor. If you need help finding non-profits to sponsor, try VolunteerMatch or Charity Navigator. This is one great way to do well by doing good.
