What is crowdfunding link building? How can it help SEO strategy and digital marketing? 👩🏻💻
Crowdfunding is widely known as a way to raise funds on the Internet by spreading the word using certain platforms. You can ask family members, friends, customers, and even investors to share your crowdfunding link on as many platforms as they can so that it can reach more people. It is a great way to gain support from a large audience.
Crowdfunding link building involves a blend of all the principles of digital marketing, website’s search engine optimization, and fundraising to improve the visibility and domain authority of a website. It is often viewed as an “underrated” and even “unexplored” link building strategy. It is not a very common strategy and only a few link builders out there make use of it.
In simple terms: Crowdfunding link building utilizes social media platforms and other crowdfunding websites and makes use of the network to get more reach.
It also encompasses using top crowdfunding platforms to generate backlinks to your website. When you launch a crowdfunding campaign, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and even small businesses can use links to their websites and products, which indirectly creates an opportunity for high-quality backlinks from the media, supporters, and websites that have mentioned the campaign.
Guest posting vs. crowdfund link building: 🖇️
Guest posting: It is a very well-known strategy for building backlinks, but it is very different from crowdfunding. Guest posting involves writing articles for other websites and including links back to your own website.
You start by reaching out to relevant blogs in the industry and ask if you can write unique content for them. You can then include one or two backlinks. You should never purchase backlinks from websites, but if you have to, check out this guide.
Guest posting link building is an underrated way to build authority, drive targeted traffic, and enhance brand visibility.
Crowdfunding link building: It makes use of crowdfunding campaigns to attract backlinks by promoting the project. It also engages with influencers. You usually start by creating a crowdfunding campaign and reach out to journalists and bloggers to help share your project. You offer backlinks as rewards for supporting your campaign.
How can you make use of crowdfunding platforms for link building? 🤑
1. Choosing the right crowdfunding sites: ☝🏻
Different crowdfunding platforms will cater to different audiences and wishes. For example, Kickstarter is known to cater to people who want to raise funds for creative projects. GoFundMe has been known to help raise money for personal cases. Indiegogo offers great flexibility for service and product launches. You need to choose one of these popular crowdfunding platforms that aligns with your niche.
2. Launching a crowdfunding link building campaign: 🙇🏻
This is the first step in creating a compelling campaign. It should clearly outline your goals, the funds needed, and the amount of funds that will be used for the campaign. Make sure that you include links to your website in the campaign description. It also serves as the primary backlink source and essentially helps drive organic traffic back to your website.
3. Leveraging broken link building strategy: 🌟
This technique will involve finding broken links on crowdfunding websites or even other related websites. You will then suggest your URL as a replacement. It is a clever way to secure backlinks without raising any funds through a campaign. It is a cost-effective strategy.
4. Promote your campaigns on social media platforms: 📱
Sharing your campaign across many social media platforms can increase visibility. When people view and share your campaign, it can lead to a significant number of blacklinks. Crowdfunding link building leverages these shares for SEO benefits. It attracts the attention of journalists and bloggers. Social media is a great place to share your campaigns, as it will reach the target audience if you use the right keywords. On Instagram, for example, the algorithm takes your content, keywords, and hashtags into consideration before showing them to audiences that are relevant to your brand.
5. Offer backlinks as rewards: 🤝🏻
A unique approach that you can pursue is offering backlinks as a part of your campaign’s rewards. For example, if a supporter donates a specific amount of money, you could include their name and a link to their website on a page on your website called “supporters.” This will attract businesses and other websites that are also looking for backlinks.
6. Make use of Google Alerts: 📈
You can set up Google alerts for any mentions of your campaign on the Internet. You can monitor a search term and take a look at the websites mentioning that specific term. When you find websites that are discussing your campaign but not placing links that direct traffic back to you, you can reach out to these websites and request a backlink. These are also known as unlinked mentions. Build links for unlinked mentions to help increase visibility and bring in more traffic to your website.
Top crowdfunding platforms you need to know about: 📊
1. Kickstarter: ✨
It is one of the best crowdfunding platforms available on the Internet. It is ideal for creative projects and launching products. It has a high domain rating, which makes gaining backlinks from Kickstarter incredibly valuable. You will be able to build high-quality backlinks that will enhance your SEO efforts. Using this crowdfunding platform has been said to be a great experience by tons of people on the Internet, which is why it is #1 on this list. It has promoted successful crowdfunding for more than 250,000 projects so far. One of its best features is that you can connect with creators and even offer feedback. Using crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo has helped raise more than $8.5 billion so far. They can help you with one of the most effective ways for crowdfunding link building.
2. Indiegogo: ✨
You had to have guessed that Indiegogo would be next on this list!
Leverage crowdfunding link building with the help of Indiegogo, a platform that is known for its flexibility and its support for a wide range of projects. It is very effective when it comes to link building and crowdfunding projects for start-ups and tech-related products. It is a great platform to create your own crowdfunding campaign and has raised more than $55 million so far.
3. GoFundMe: ✨
Another popular crowdfunding platform that is primarily used for social causes and personal cases. It is not always directly linked to business ventures, but it can be used for certain niche projects that need a boost in visibility. This platform has had tons of successful crowdfunding campaigns that have reached a large audience, and these campaigns have saved lives. Out of various crowdfunding platforms, I feel GoFundMe is kind of special because it has helped people with all kinds of things. It has helped people with pay for things like medical expenses, education costs, moving expenses, gifting something to someone in need, groceries, and more. I feel it can also be your key to successful crowdfunding link building efforts.
4. SeedInvest / Crowdcube: ✨
These platforms usually focus on equity crowdfunding, where backers also get a stake in the business. They’re popular for start-ups that want to build links and also secure investors at the same time.
A link building strategy thread I found interesting on Reddit: 👀
What is your link building budget and strategy?
byu/e0nblue inSEO
Why I think crowdfunding link building works: 🤩
As discussed above, crowdfunding link building is a lesser-known strategy compared to other SEO strategies. But I think it works effectively for many reasons. Leveraging both the nature of crowdfunding platforms and the dynamics of digital marketing, I have provided a couple of reasons why I think you should consider it for your business.
Crowdfunding is a popular way to raise money. You need to strategically make use of its benefits to gain high-quality backlinks.
1. High domain authority 📊
Most crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have high domain authority, and the links from these websites will be highly valued by search engines. When you secure a backlink from such a platform, it ends up enhancing the credibility of your website. This can significantly improve your search engine rankings. It is a strategy that enables you to improve your own website’s domain authority as well.
2. It is considered a cost-effective strategy: 💰
It is generally budget-friendly compared to traditional marketing activities. You need to have a large budget if you want to invest in advertising as well. Consider crowdfunding link building if you are looking for something relatively affordable. Any form of investment required to support the campaign will usually yield high-quality backlinks without high costs.
3. Targeted exposure: 📝
A compelling crowdfunding link building feature is that it attracts a niche audience that is interested in specific products and services. By participating in these campaigns, you gain exposure to a targeted audience that is much more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. This increases your chances of converting visitors into customers.
4. Build relationships: 🤝🏻
Many crowdfunding ventures will help you engage with campaign creators and others in the industry. This will help you form valuable relationships. These connections can result in further collaborations, partnerships, and even more backlink building opportunities. Building on these relationships will help you form a great network.
5. Ethical and legal compliance: 💼
The success of crowdfunding link building is fuelled by the fact that it is fully aligned with Google’s policies. Unlike some other backlinking methods, which probably violate search engine guidelines, crowdfunding link building is an effective, fully legal, and ethical practice. By supporting campaigns on crowdfunding websites, you are not purchasing links directly, but you are contributing to a project and receiving acknowledgment in return.
6. Increase in brand awareness: 🆙
Crowdfunding link building can help improve brand visibility. Relevant crowdfunding campaigns will generate media buzz and will increase sharing. Your involvement will lead to tons of mentions across different social media platforms. This further amplifies your reach and increases the potential for backlinks.
7. Content creation opportunities: 🧑🏻💻
Crowdfunding link building is a great way to create engaging content that is relevant to your campaign. This can attract organic backlinks. Producing informative articles about your project will encourage others to link back to your website if they reference your content.
8. Engagement metrics: 📊
Crowdfunding campaign organizers will have to keep track of high engagement rates through likes, shares, comments, and discussions. Interaction not only boosts visibility but also increases the chances of acquiring backlinks from people who are interested. A lot of people will discover your project through these discussions.
Some thoughts: 💭
If you care about your ranking on search, you definitely need to consider multiple SEO strategies. Crowdfunding link building NEEDS to be one of them. It is an underrated yet powerful tool. I would say that it combines the best of both worlds: you raise money for a cause or a product, and you also improve your SEO.
It’s great if you are a small business or a start-up. It allows you to secure some visibility without steep costs. The kind of exposure that you will receive is hard to achieve with other link building strategies.
I do agree that it requires some time and effort to set up a successful crowdfunding campaign, but when you consider the benefits and the high-quality backlinks that come along with it, I think it’s worth it. When executed well, it will bring along long-term benefits, making it worthwhile.
FAQs: 🤔
1. Does link building cost money?
Yes, link building will cost you money in some cases. Prices can range from $100 to over $1,500 per link. It depends on many factors, like the quality of the links and the industry involved. Monthly budgets for link building campaigns can vary. It often falls between $3,000 and $20,000.
2. What are link building mistakes?
Common link building mistakes:
– Prioritizing quantity over quality. This can lead to penalties from search engines.
– Acquiring links from irrelevant or low-authority sites, which negatively impacts your site’s credibility.
– Neglecting to optimize anchor texts and not monitoring your backlink profile can hinder your SEO efforts.
3. Is link building an important strategy for SEO?
Yes, link building is an essential strategy for SEO.
– It significantly influences search engine rankings.
– The more high-quality backlinks a site has, the higher it usually ranks on SERPs.
– This not only enhances visibility but also establishes credibility and authority in your niche.