Friday, December 14, 2012

The SEO and Social Media Benefits of Daily Deal Features

Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal websites have been known to drive offline traffic into local business of all kinds. From Yoga studios to Pizza shops, daily deals are a great way to get the word out about your business and create an influx of customers. But did you know that the benefits extend beyond that? Let's take a look at how these platforms can help your website rankings and increase social media following.

Search Engine Optimization Benefits

A lot of SEOs will argue that backlinks are the key to increasing search engine ranking and I tend to agree. One way to get a quality, one-way link to your website is to run a feature. Groupon, for example, applies SEO techniques to each feature they write. They do this to not only rank well themselves but also to help the business they feature. With contextual links that point back to your website embedded in the copy, an increase in SEO love is sure to occur. Groupon links to a merchant website in several ways. Depending on the quality of your website they may link to it multiple times in one feature and help you rank for several keyword phrases overnight. When a site as large as Groupon links the keyword phrase "Hot Bikram Yoga" to your local Yoga studio, the chances of it moving up the rankings, at least locally, for Hot Bikram Yoga (enter your city here) are likely. The changes in ranking are likely to be dramatic and often generate an increase almost overnight. So consider thinking through how your feature is structured when running a deal and work with your chosen vendor to draft the most SEO friendly feature you can; your SEO will thank you!

The SEO and Social Media Benefits of Daily Deal Features

Social Media Love

Another benefit to running a feature is the social media buzz that is created. When a feature is created and ran on a site like Groupon, a lot of social media discussion takes place on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Online reviews will also increase and websites like Yelp and Urban Spoon will burst with new reviews from the people who visited you and took advantage of the offer. It's not unusual to receive dozens and sometimes even hundreds of new fans or followers as a result of your daily deal feature. So be sure to stay on top of the discussion by engaging with your social media following and making the most of the attention.

In Summary

A daily deal feature is more than just a way to generate customers. A strong website will benefit from the S.E.O techniques that platforms like Groupon use to promote features. Social Media is an important part of a feature so be sure to monitor and engage in the discussion.

In closing, be sure to be picky when deciding which daily deal website you partner with, there are several hundred to choose from these days. My advice would be to focus on the quality of the daily deal and that usually means working with the industry leader. Groupon, LivingSocial, Facebook and now Google all have a platform to run a feature on. Be careful about local start-ups or old-school business models like local coupon mailings that have added daily feature to an archaic business model in an effort to look modern and relevant. These platforms are typically built as a "me-too" and do not have the support or savvy of the larger platforms that strictly focus on daily deals.

The SEO and Social Media Benefits of Daily Deal Features
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Jason Murphy is Co-founder of Gabster Media, a Cleveland, Ohio website design and social media marketing agency.

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