I have recently been doing some web design work for a client of mine and on the side have been working to help optimize their site so that it is search engine friendly and easy to find for their consumers. I asked this client to let me know what kind of business organizations they are members of and any sort of philanthropies or community involvement they participate in. They sent me a list and I decided to do some research on it and make sure they were getting as much out of it as possible.
I went through the list and checked each website for the organizations they belonged to in order to ensure that the client’s website was properly listed and linked to. I immediately found a problem with one of the larger organizations they were a part of. When I tried to find them there was not only no link to their website but actually no listing of the company at all. This was a perfectly good resource for them to utilize but it was overlooked by the company and they did not have a listing like they should have.
It is important for a small business to make sure they are utilizing every resource they have to promote both their company and website. Making sure that you have links back to your website from the organizations you belong to is an extremely easy way to increase your exposure and will add to your web site’s back-link’s (the links that refer to your site). A good practice for a small business is to periodically check and make sure that these links and profiles are up to date.
I would also suggest to any companies that offer community service or free products to other organizations to request a small favor in return in the form of a back-link on their website. This can increase website traffic and again help you rank better with the search engines and is something that any business owner can easily accomplish.