Local Links From Sponsorships

The sponsor page

Most local sponsorships come with a mention online. The minor hockey association lists its sponsors on its website, the fall fair puts logos on its program page, and the charity run thanks its supporters after the race.

The business pays, the logo goes on the jersey or the banner, and nobody at the business ever looks at the sponsor page.

When somebody finally does, the mention is often slightly off. The name is from before a rebrand, the link goes to a page that no longer exists, or there is no link at all.

It is a small thing, and easiest to fix while the sponsorship is fresh.

What the mention is worth

• Referral visits from local people who already know the organisation.
• Local relevance: your name on sites tied to your town.
• Consistent naming that helps people and search engines recognise you.
• Credibility with the parents, members and volunteers who see it.
• Something to mention on your own site and page.

The first is the easiest to underrate. People clicking from a hockey association's sponsor page live nearby, have just been reminded that you support their club, and some of them need exactly what you do.

What it is not

A sponsor link is not a way to buy ranking. Google's guidelines say links bought with money should not pass ranking credit, and they count paid links that do among the schemes they warn against.

So many organisations mark sponsor links nofollow, a label telling search engines the link is not an endorsement. That is normal and correct, and nothing to ask them to change.

Be wary of any offer that sells a sponsorship mainly as a link, especially from a site with no connection to your town or trade. A real sponsorship's value never depended on the link.

The right page

Most sponsor links point to the home page, which is usually right. A visitor from the hockey association wants to know who you are, and the home page should say it in a sentence.

Check that the address is current. Sites rebuilt since the sponsorship began often have new page addresses, and a link to a page that no longer exists lands the visitor on an error.

Check that it points to your website, at its secure address if it has one, rather than a social media profile you rarely update.

If you keep a page about the teams and events you support, that suits too: the visitor finds their own club among the others.

The exact name

Use one business name everywhere: on the sign, the vans, the Google My Business listing, the website and every sponsor page.

Sponsor pages drift because the name was passed along informally. The treasurer wrote down the owner's surname, the company's old name, or a shortened version from the cheque.

To a customer, three versions raise a small doubt about whether they are one business. To a search engine, consistent mentions of one name in one town are part of how a local business is recognised.

A worked example

An insulation contractor in Kamloops, with three crews working on attics, crawl spaces and new construction, sponsors a minor hockey team, the fall fair and a charity run each year.

This summer the office manager looked up each sponsor page. The hockey association listed the company under the name it used before a rebrand four years ago, linked to a services page that disappeared when the site was rebuilt.

The fall fair showed an old logo with no link. The charity run had the right name but linked to the company's Facebook page, which posts twice a year.

None of it was harmful, and none of it showed the sponsorships at their best.

She sent each organisation a short note with the current name, logo files, the website address and one sentence about the business, and asked politely for an update. All three changed within a month.

The old services page now redirects to its replacement, so any link still pointing there lands somewhere useful.

The website also gained a page listing the three sponsorships, with a team photograph used with the association's permission.

A sponsor kit

The simplest way to get this right is to send the details with the cheque, so nobody has to guess.

A short email does it: the exact business name, the website address, a phone number, one sentence describing what you do, and the logo in two forms, a large one for print and a smaller one for screens.

Keep the email as a template. Each new sponsorship then starts with the right details, and so does each renewal.

Checking once a year

Sponsor pages change every season. A new volunteer rebuilds the association's site, last year's sponsors are dropped or carried over, a logo gets swapped for an older one.

Put a check on each renewal date: find the page, click the link, read the name. It takes five minutes per sponsorship.

Analytics shows the visits too, under Acquisition, then All Traffic, then Referrals. A sponsor page sending a few visitors a month is doing its small job.

The counter-case

Some sponsorships produce no mention at all, and that is fine. Supporting a local cause is worth doing for its own sake, and many of the best are informal.

A sponsor page on a small club's site may send a handful of visits a year, and its effect on search is modest. Choose sponsorships for the community and the people they reach, not for the link.

But where there is a mention, it should carry your exact name and a working link to the right page.

This month

1. List every sponsorship the business pays for.
2. Find each sponsor page and click the link.
3. Check the business name matches your sign.
4. Send corrections with logo files attached.
5. Redirect old page addresses to current ones.
6. Write a sponsor kit for next time.
7. Add a yearly check to each renewal date.

Step two is where most problems turn up. A link nobody has clicked since it was added can point anywhere, and the only way to know is to click it.

Keeping the same name and details on directory listings is covered in local directories worth being listed in.

Frequently asked questions

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