How to Grow Your Online Presence with Your Networking Group

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• Add a Testimonial Page to Your Site

Create a Google spreadsheet with column titles including the business NAP, website, and description of their business and share it with the people in your network. Put it on your website as a testimonial or a partner page. You are creating a local network of sites that give backlinks to each other. If you have a group of local business partners that work, support, and help each other rise in rankings, it would be awesome. Google loves that local power. 

 

• Every Time You Meet, Write Reviews For Each Other On Google, Yelp, Linkedin, Avvo, Etc. Include Photos If Possible

If you are in a  networking group, you’re going to have one-on-one meetings where you learn about each other’s business. We recommend always asking if you can write them a review and most of the time, they write one back for you. 

Most of those reviews will last forever especially on Google and Linkedin. When you’re leaving a review for somebody, always try to include a picture of the service they provide. It stays up much longer on Yelp. For some reason, Yelp won’t remove reviews with photos attached to them. So, get into the habit to do that at the end of every one-to-one meeting and you’re going to have 50-70 reviews in a year. 

 

• Guest Blog On Each Other’s Sites

If you know someone who has a business, you could write something you know their audience would enjoy reading on his website. At the end of that, you could write an about-me-section where you could put a link to your website. It’s another backlink that’s super powerful. Both your own and your friend’s business are both benefiting from it. You can just keep doing that for anyone in your group. 

 

• Join Local Facebook Groups & Recommend Each Other

Once you join local Facebook groups, you will notice that there are a lot of people asking for different kinds of services. When you see somebody who needs one of your group member’s services, recommends them. You can include their website link on that recommendation. It’s called a social signal and that helps their ranking.

   

• Like Each Other’s Pages, Posts And Comment Regularly

If you have a Facebook business page, you could like and comment on their posts and share them and they'll do the same for you. That’s the point of all these business groups, it’s building trust and linking each other. That relationship could bleed into business and help each other’s business grow.

 

• Make Sure Your NAP On The Networking Group Site Is Correct

Most of these business networking groups have a website, like a chamber of commerce. Make sure your chamber of commerce page (one that’s dedicated to your business) has your name, address, and phone number listed correctly. Also, make sure it has a description. All those are super important. Most of those networking groups have a high domain rating, so Google really values those links. These business networking groups have hidden areas of power and they really work when you maximize them.