Share the Love: Help yourself by helping others

I’ve been thinking for days about something witty to put up on our blog to commemorate St. Valentine’s Day. My searches have all but dried up – so I’ve decided to share one of my secrets to getting great links to your website by simply….sharing a bit of love.

If you want to get to the top Google then we all know you need to produce viral content. This isn’t easy though, especially when you’re trying to do it all by yourself. By following a few basic tips, you’ll be on your way to securing hundreds of likes and posts, helping your content go viral. One of my favourite SEO techniques involves thinking about other people first. I sometimes feel that in the business world, we have little or no regard for other people around us, so it’s refreshing to have fun and spread the love by helping others first.

I start by reaching out to connections via email. These are people I respect within my wider circles that have a good online presence and reputation. I begin by offering them some assistance with their content at no cost to them. Simple things work best, such as offering to tweet an article, like a post or even write a comment on a blog. These are all fantastic ways you can help people around you without spending a whole load of time, energy and resources. Reaching out to your connections with the offer of free help creates an immediate relationship between you and the connection. 

The next step is the hardest – wait. 

A few weeks later, try asking for some help from them; a link from their website or a social share are great places to start. You’ll be amazed how inclined people are to help after you’ve demonstrated such generosity. Try guest blogging, social sharing and offering to promote their articles and watch the love come back to you again and again. If they want your help on other blogs then be gracious and help out where you can. If they don’t, then let them know the offer is always there.  

Although this may be slightly underhanded, you’re still getting the chance to help other businesses fight their way through the economic climate through being yourself – a resourceful digital marketer. 

If you do this regularly, you’ll start to see a real difference in your Google search rankings as the links begin to come in. After all, someone once said, “the best link is the link you don’t know about”.

Now I‘ve shared my secrets with you, I expect lots of emails offering me social shares and likes. You can start by liking and sharing this blog post. Of course I will kindly re-pay the favour when you next ask.