What does social media, blogger outreach, PR & influencer marketing have to do with SEO? That’s a loaded question for sure. And the answer is a lot. We used to think of these things as separate entities in your marketing strategy. But now, you have to start thinking of them all (and more) as an integrated approach to search engine marketing.
Getting Found Online
When it comes to online marketing, it’s all about getting found online. Ok, ok. Not only about getting found online. It’s about much more, like communicating, engaging, and adding value to your customers through great content. But getting found is very important. Usually, getting found online means ranking highly on search engines. Yes, we want to believe that people will just come to us when they want or need something. But the truth of the matter is that the first place we go when we are in need, have questions or want to buy something is our good friend Google. When people find us on social, it is usually because of something we posted. But it’s not always solving a problem they have right now. When it comes to selling and making a buy, social media is best for the future sales brought upon by building an authentic relationship while search engines are very good for capturing those that have the immediate need or want.
It’s tricky to define what the most important aspect of marketing is, because the truth is, you need it all. You need content on your website, you need social, you need SEO, you need people talking about you on blogs and websites, and you need great search engine results. What’s even trickier is that lines of search and social are getting blurry. The lines between social media and PR are also blurry. And the line between content marketing and SEO is also blurry.
Of course when you build your social media plan or embark on a PR campaign, most likely you aren’t thinking about how it will affect your SEO. You are thinking about the relationships you’ll build with new readers. You’re thinking about the way you can relate to larger themes and trends. And you are thinking about how you can increase awareness, build buzz and engage with people online to bring them into your sales funnel. But, maybe it’s time you change that. And start thinking about a strategy that not only engages, build relationships, mentions you in news articles and other stories, creates buzz and awareness, but ALSO helps your search engine results. Because social and PR can do both.
So, what do these different strategies have to do with SEO? They all help you get earned links back to your website. Here’s what you need to know.
Social Media For SEO
There is a lot of talk about how social media helps you get better search engine rankings. When things are shared online they are social signals to the search engines. It’s social proofing to the search engines that your website is valuable and that people like it. So beyond the links pointing back to your website, social media is also about building relationships with different people online. You want to build relationships with your customers online, potential customers and people who can link back to your website. Once you build those relationships, it is easier to get your content in front of the right people. When the right people have access to your content, they can share it and link to it. We like links.
Blogger Outreach For SEO
The goal of blogger outreach is to get people writing about your products and/or services in a meaningful way. From a more traditional standpoint, the reason we do blogger outreach is to reach a new audience in a trusted manner. The blogger already has a relationship with his or her readers. When they post about you in a positive manner, they are telling their readers that they too should like you because they like you. From an SEO standpoint, each of those links back to your site help your search engine rankings. The more links you have from authentic articles, the better your search engine results will be and the higher your domain authority will be.
Influencer Marketing For SEO
Influencers are people, who like bloggers, have a trusted audience. When you empower your influencers to share for you, you are increasing your trust with their audience. They are sharing their love for you with their audience and network who already likes them. Now influencers can come in any shape and size. Of course we want to find those with the most clout and the biggest followings because they can reach the most people. But if you spread this out you can also reach a lot of people in new ways and highly targeted people as well. Imagine all your influencers sharing your content on their blogs. Those links add up.
PR For SEO
A lot of people talk about sending out a press release, it gets syndicated and those all have your link on it, and boom amazing SEO results. Not true. Those syndicated press releases aren’t as good as real stories with real links back to your site. PR can help you increase your buzz, move the needle for sales, and give you a lot of links to your site that are real and authentic. Plus, when a larger site writes about you, you can expect to see a lot of smaller sites talking about you too. It’s that trickle down theory and it can be hugely beneficial for your search engine results.
What other strategies do you use to help your SEO?
