Sometimes great SEO techniques aren’t invented, they are discovered accidentally. In that vein, today I want to take a look at a new linkbuilding technique for  local internet marketing that a few different experts have been kicking around lately. It may be a surprise, but the idea is focused entirely around Groupon.

Groupon is a company that provides coupons via daily email. These coupons are usually worth a large discount so they tend to be popular. Additionally, they are sharable over social media, so the best ones go viral to a degree.

If your business sells a product or service that can be discounted, than Groupon is probably worth your time. Like any other coupon though, you need to make sure you aren’t going to hurt your business. Some people have underestimated the popularity of the service and offered coupons that didn’t really make them any money. By the end, they had so many coupons coming in that they were working full speed just to break even!

Apart from just the coupons themselves though, people are discovering the Groupon does have an SEO element to it. As your coupon is shared and syndicated, it appears that you get backlinks from every instance. We aren’t sure exactly how strong the benefit is, but it’s definitely worth trying it out for your business at least once.

When it comes to creating the deal on your Groupon for SEO, there are two schools of thought. One is that you should make your deal as unappealing as possible so you get the maximum link juice without losing any money to customers. The second is that you make your Groupon genuinely useful so that it gets a wider spread. Both techniques have their merit, but if no one shares your deal then your scope is limited. Try to find that happy middle ground!