The Season Of Giving: Leveraging Charities For Link Building

For SEOs and link builders, charities have been a long-utilized source for high-quality backlinks in various respects. While it may seem very self-serving, it should come as no surprise: Creative SEOs will generally weed out any way of building links on the web, everything from white-hat content marketing to hacked-site spam and more.

For those unfamiliar with "link building," I'll provide a short introduction.

One of the key ways Google decides which websites to rank well in their search engine is backlinks, i.e., 3^rd party sites that link to a given website or webpage. Links are one of the most effective ways of improving ranking, but also generally the hardest ranking factors to influence.

Because of this, an entire field of practice emerged, "link building," which attempts to find creative and effective ways at generating and analyzing backlinks.
These tactics can range wildly. Some examples:

• Friendly outreach (i.e. "Hi! We've created this content, it's great, would you link, please?");

• Outright purchases, (i.e., "How much for a blog post?");

• Broken link building, (i.e. "You are linking to a 404 page, my page is better");

• Automated Spam, (i.e., Programmatic posting of content/links to publishing platforms like forums, web 2.0s, and article directories);

• Hacked sites, (i.e., Exploiting vulnerabilities in CMS like WordPress, posting links or content without owners consent or knowledge).
  

Because of the value associated with search engine rankings, the SEO community can and will find any way to build links. This includes leveraging charities, the subject of this post.

I'd like to address upfront any concerns about the ethics of leveraging charities for link building.

I understand, it sounds weird. We should be giving to charities out of the kindness of our hearts, not for personal or professional gain. But I would frame it in this light:

All that being said, if you don't feel comfortable with any of the tactics/strategies listed below, feel free to not partake in them. However, none are unprecedented or outside of the realm of ethical practice, in my opinion.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret: all links are paid links.

When someone touts the dangers of "buying links," it's usually people that have little to no actual experience ranking websites or practicing SEO. If I were to guess, these people would have little success at tactical SEO and source all their alleged "knowledge" from industry blog posts and Google propaganda. I say this because, years ago, I was just like them. Simply put, I was, and they are, beginners.

The more years you put into the industry, the more you will realize that every link has been paid for in one form or another. It costs money to write content and make sites look pretty. Hosting CDNs and strategy sessions costs money. It costs money for PR, it costs money for customer service, outreach, writing guest posts, running scrapers, digging through broken link reports, and whatever.

So when all those white-hat links come pouring in, it can't be argued that they aren't bought and paid for. So, let's dispose of those hollow "paid links" arguments and get down to the brass tacks: this tactic is just like any other tactic.

There are several aspects of charities that make them prime targets for link building, including:

Ok, enough preamble. Let's get down to the real link-building tactics you can use.

Starting off with the most common and obvious, the Sponsor page.

Sponsor pages are areas on a site where a company will list out all its supporters. This sometimes (but not always) comes with a link to the company site.

This is the most common tactic because it's so simple. I give you money; you give me link.

Of course, you'll have to be a little more courteous than that when reaching out. Here's an example of one outreach e-mail I sent just the other day:

I obviously want to confirm that I'll be getting a link before I make the donation. Thankfully I got a nice response as well:

How do you go about finding these opportunities? Just like any webpage, you need to get creative with your Googling. Here are some search queries you can use:

• "sponsor us" $100

• inurl:/sponsors $100

• inurl:/sponsors $100 AND "501(c)(3)"

• inurl:/sponsors $100 ("New York City" OR "NYC" OR insert city name here)

• "sponsor our team" AND "501(c)(3)"
  
  

You will find that there are plenty of local charities, non-profit athletic teams, animal shelters, etc. Here are some examples I've found using the above searches:

You get the idea. There are plenty of opportunities across the web.

This is one of my favorites because it starts to cross over into more classic PR methodologies. The tactic can come in a few different ways:

If you have an office space, you can host an event for a charity of your choice. This counts as an "in-kind" donation but also leaves you open to being mentioned in press releases and press/blog coverage for the event.

Another "in-kind" donation is great if you have products or services that you can provide to an event coordinator. Some common examples are DJ equipment for parties/events, food or drink purchases for fundraisers, and random "junk" that can be raffled off for donations.

Get creative: What do you do? How can you do it to help someone? You can help with website set-up or promotion if you are an internet marketer. If you are a graphic designer, offer to design flyers. You get the idea.

This is all well and good, but even better (in my opinion) is going one step up the food chain and organizing an event yourself.

This is my favorite tactic because it doesn't rely on any specific charity organization but allows you to organize a fundraiser for yourself, generating your own funds that will be used for good.

In this way, you will generate coverage for your company and spur donations. You essentially become the charity (although not technically).

Here's how it works:

Again, I didn't say it would be easy. A lot of work goes into making something press-worthy, and a lot of logistics goes into running an event.

The upside is it works, and people are happy to support a good cause. Check out this outreach e-mail for an event I recently put together for a local client:

And a very nice positive response:

After a little back and forth we got a blog post, a community calendar entry, and an offer to share on social, nice! One of the biggest challenges with "white-hat" link building is finding something that is worthy of press mentions. Timely charities are worthy of coverage, especially local coverage, so this is a great fit.

Above all, you generate new revenue for a good cause!

Another great way to create a charitable arm of your organization (and gain exposure and links from it) is by creating a Scholarship. Albeit this has been run into the ground over the past 5 years or so, but it still provides an effective way to give back to your community and build SEO equity at the same time.

Here's how it works:

I recommend offering $1,000 to one student each year. It may sound like a lot of money at first (and it is a lot of money to a broke college kid), but it comes out to like $80 a month, equivalent to a phone bill, and can garner you dozens of backlinks or more.

Some Google searches to find these opportunities:
site:.edu external scholarships
inurl:k12 external scholarships

To this end, consider making the scholarship some type of special interest, either geographical (i.e., available to NYC students only), or another interest group (single mothers, Irish-Americans, Engineering students, etc). The press loves a good angle, and this gives it to them. The trade-off of course, is that you will have a smaller, niche audience, so pick a big enough niche to make it worth your while.

I'm not a lawyer or tax pro; consult a professional to talk about the tax ramifications of a scholarship.

There is a reason this tactic has been used repeatedly, and it's because it works. If I told you I could get 30+ .edu and .k12.us links for $80 a month, you'd be foolish not to look into it.

And while financial aid offices and guidance counselors probably get a ton of these e-mails, you can still get lots of interest. You should endeavor to "wow" the staff visually, which will entice them to share, like this example:

Furthermore, you should view it as an opportunity to foster good relationships with the community. When I've done this in the past, I make sure to add on layers of perks for the winners, such as:

• Local limo company offers $1,000 scholarship plus a free prom limo ride to high school seniors.

• Local consultancy offers scholarships, plus ongoing mentorship, letters of recommendation, and preference in future internships.
  
  

You get the idea. It's more than just paid links.

Let's pass to some examples from rather prominent sites that have offered a scholarship program. NYC-based company Empire Maids offers to write an essay on the importance of education to NYC Youth and the best author gets the scholarship.

As you can see this is a common tactic used by large national sites and smaller local sites alike.

Supporting a good cause should be part of every established business. Ramping up the culture of giving while at the same time gaining exposure and benefiting your SEO is a perfect recipe, in my opinion.

Not only are the basic "sponsor" pages relatively easy and effective, but it open the door to more complex, involved efforts that have the potential for bigger benefits to both the charity and your company.

Press coverage and link-worthy events or assets are hard to come by (if they were easy, everyone would do them), and one of the best ways to break through the noise and get attention by blogs and press is to leverage a good cause.

Doing so in a creative, thoughtful, and honest way will reap the rewards for everyone involved.