Developing Links with Strategic Partnerships

Teaming up with another site or organization is a great way to build links, exposure, and branding. It can be done in a number of different ways, depending on your company's goals and resources.

Let's explore some of these strategies for both large and small companies.

Community Organizations & Nonprofits

Partnering with an organization for an online fundraiser can work for e-commerce and non-commerce sites. They promote it – you sell it.

Not an e-commerce site? Find a retailer that offers fundraisers to handle sales and fulfillment. Here's a search to get you started: fundraising T-shirts.

Let's look at this example for a home improvement store. Team up with a fire department for a fundraiser selling carbon dioxide (CO2), and fire alarms. They get a percentage of each sale, and in exchange they promote this sale within the community. This is something that will get picked up (linked) by local media, bloggers, and city government.

Online retailers, check with your shopping cart vendor to find out about features or plug-ins that will make this project easier.

Industry Groups

For companies with a good budget, form a partnership with an industry group or association for a special project. This could be anything from an online tool, consumer educational site, or even research.

Here are two major benefits to partnering with an industry group:

• Their reputation will carry over to the project thereby making it more linkable. 
• They already have public relations and marketing in place. That's the hard part – raising awareness.

Instead of proposing a project to them, find out what they're interested in doing. That way they will put more attention into the project, and most importantly promote it more!

Other Retailers, Bloggers, and Community Sites

Looking for something simpler? Consider a partnership with another site, such as a retailer, blogger, or community site. The possibilities here are endless, ranging from cross-promotions to contest to simply giving them access to some of your resources.

The key here isn't necessarily the links from that one site. It's the exposure, traffic and branding it can generate. That in turn will lead to more links and customers.

Keep your mind open when coming up with a partnership. It doesn't need to be something that promotes both sites. The other site might be in need of SEO help, or use of a skilled programmer.

Here's another tip: Rather than focusing on the obvious popular sites, focus on upcoming sites. They will have smaller needs and be more appreciative. Since the needs are smaller you can create more of these partnerships, thereby creating more buzz and branding for your business. Plus it gets you in early for a long-lasting relations as they grow.

Building partnerships with other sites is a great way to develop links, exposure, and branding. It's all about finding the types of partnerships that work for your company.

/Search Engine Watch/