The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
February 2009, Volume 8, Issue 2

Philanthropy & Search: How Doing Good Can Benefit Online Visibility

By Casey Williams, Client Services Manager, iProspect

Many companies have philanthropic initiatives — whether it’s donating funds to a particular non-profit, allowing its employees to volunteer on company time, or providing its service or goods at a reduced rate to charities — yet few realize that their “do-good” efforts can positively impact their website’s search engine visibility.

How it can help you
In order to capitalize on your philanthropic endeavors to improve online visibility, you need to publicize your efforts online. Doing so will help you attract high quality external links, both from the non-profit you assisted, as well as from other interested parties. In turn, these links will lend increased credibility to your site, and boost online visibility.

For example, the “community” section of Target’s website has 142 links pointing to it (according to Yahoo!’s site explorer tool), with many of them coming from high quality non-profit websites that Target supports. These links positively impact the overall credibility and visibility of Target.com, making it more likely that potential consumers will see Target.com in the search results, even on terms unrelated to their community efforts.

Making it work
Below are a few “must do’s” for anyone looking to capitalize on their charitable activities for increased search engine visibility:

Discovery: To get started, you’ll first need to develop a comprehensive list of your existing philanthropic initiatives. Find out what your company is currently doing to help out its community. How is it currently publicizing those efforts online and/or offline? In addition, be sure to note whether or not your company wants their involvement with a particular cause promoted.

Get the Links: Approach any non-profit your company works with and request that they link to your company’s website from their supporters/donors page (or similar page). High quality links pointing to your company’s site will have a significant impact on search engine visibility.

Host Content: Most corporate websites have an “About Us” section. Add a sub-section specifically dedicated to your philanthropic efforts. Updating this section regularly will encourage the spiders to return to your domain frequently. Including properly optimized photos or videos of employees volunteering may help you gain visibility in blended search results on branded queries (which are often almost as competitive as non-branded keywords). This type of “feel good” content will naturally attract external links.

Make it Official: Announce your charitable efforts to the world with an optimized press release. The keyword-rich links in the release will help increase your site’s visibility. It will also drive traffic to your company’s website, thereby increasing brand awareness. Even small charitable actions may be deserving of a press release, especially if there is an official check presentation ceremony with a photo.

Kudos to companies that are making an effort to give back. Such efforts not only help out those in need, they also benefit the organization as well. Smart marketers will capitalize on the opportunity by leveraging their do-good efforts for increased visibility in the search engines.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: February 2009, Volume 8, Issue 2

Philanthropy & Search: How Doing Good Can Benefit Online Visibility

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
February 2009, Volume 8, Issue 2