Over the past number of weeks we’ve discussed different ways to build links to your website including:
- content marketing (ie, blog posts, product descriptions)
- video links from YouTube
- images and infographics
- social media links
- guest posts
- directory submissions
- influencers, affiliates, and joint venture partners
- podcasts
- trade shows and virtual events
- outreach: broken links, mentions, references
I’ve used a combination of all of these to build over 158,000 backlinks to my website.
But what about links from coupon sites?
I recently partnered with a coupon site, CouponUpTo.com. Why? They sent me an email stating that they “have a collaboration plan without fees that will help you reach more new customers. That is your discounts, product images, and brand information will be featured on a 2-million-visits website and homepage event which many people search for coupons.”
Seemed like a pretty good way to get more eyeballs on my website.
For ecommerce stores, online traffic is the lifeblood of the business — and the links pointing to your ecommerce site contribute significantly to your Google search rankings. That’s why link building is essential for success in ecommerce.
But do links from coupon sites help with SEO efforts?
The simple answer is no. Google does not count links from coupon sites for building page authority. It simply ignores those links.
Exact match keywords, like “coupon codes for Amazon” look suspicious as it’s typically associated with anchor text manipulation. You can only use this if you include a nofollow attribute. Basically, this means that those links are meaningless for SEO purposes and not following Google’s rules can earn you a manual penalty.
However, Search Engine Journal (SEJ), states that “Coupons are excellent for driving traffic that points back to your site from relevant high-traffic pages, earning you links and boosting your ranking.” They go on to say, “You can look to either industry leaders like Groupon and Retail Me Not, or smaller sites that match your particular niche.”
In other words, like most things with SEO, there isn’t a definitive answer. Regardless, coupon sites can be a great way to drive traffic to your site. And the more traffic your site gets, the more credible it becomes to Google.
Human traffic is always good and relevant referral traffic is a great way to grow your audience and your sales. If you are looking to build both links to your website and sales for your business, I recommend creating coupon codes and promoting them on various coupon sites.
Greg Jameson has been writing blog articles on ecommerce and internet marketing for over 10 years. Learn more about Greg at https://webstoresltd.com/about/
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