People create over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data online daily. That’s…a lot. We write millions of blog posts, send Tweets, and post photos on Instagram. The amount of content produced daily increases year after year.
To stand out in a world saturated with content, your brand needs to provide social proof and win the trust of potential and existing customers through your marketing. Partnering with a trusted influencer who knows how to create popular content is a great first step.
But how do you make sure that content is in front of your target audience? Let’s dive into how influencer marketing can be used for SEO.
First of all, using influencer marketing for SEO purposes correlates with the E-A-T principle, which means Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. The concept is a part of Google’s Search Quality Raters Guidelines, a frequently updated document that guides Google Quality Raters when they perform the rating of websites.
It’s well-known that the E-A-T metrics are impacted by the creator, the content, and the website.
Working with an influencer who possesses deep subject matter expertise and resonance in your niche will ultimately align with your audience. By including that influencer’s content on your website, search engines will rank your site more favorably within your shared category.
While not the only result you can expect to achieve from influencer marketing, it’s easy to realize the SEO benefits of your influencer marketing. And by gaining more value from each collab, you can increase the ROI of your brand’s influencer marketing program in fantastic ways.
How to Manage Influencer Marketing with SEO in Mind
Here are some clear methods for integrating SEO into influencer marketing and vice versa:
Determine your target audience + choose the right influencer.
No matter what your business is, it’s crucial to know your target audience(s). It has to match or be related to the blogger’s audience, vlogger, etc. you’re going to work with.
To start, use an influencer marketing platform like Pixlee for Creators to find people in your niche to partner with. By using Pixlee TurnTo to manage your influencer marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to discover, publish, and track success metrics of all of your community content — from influencers of different sizes to everyday user-generated content.
If you’re working with a social media influencer, the platform you choose to run your campaign on is also important. For example, Facebook is a great option for an older target audience. If they’re younger, TikTok or Instagram may be more suitable. It’s important to meet the influencer where they’re at — if their audience aligns with your brand’s, then you may want to trust them to choose which platform will be most impactful.
If your content is connected to B2B, you can try LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. Instagram is pretty universal since both TikTokers and LinkedIn-ers tend to have accounts there.
Brands like Babyletto use Pixlee TurnTo to manage relationships with “momfluencers” or other family influencers, often resharing their Instagram content on the brand’s account or website.
When choosing an influencer to work with, pay attention not only to the number of subscribers but to:
- Their niche
- Their values, beliefs, and transparency
- Their target audience
- How active their followers/readers are
If you see a blogger with 2M subscribers but 10K likes and 100 comments on their posts, this means they may not have an engaged audience. In this case, you may want to partner with a micro-influencer who has fewer followers but a higher engagement rate.
Utilize Influencer Reviews
34% of shoppers always read reviews before considering buying from a business. The importance of online ratings and reviews is high. The stakes double when we’re talking about influencers – consumers tend to believe them more than brands, as they are respected individuals and their content is often more humanized/relatable..
Social proof is essential for any brand nowadays. So, make sure that when you cooperate with a blogger, they leave a review about your product or service.
Reviews are very important for SEO as they can improve your local ranking on Google. Also, reviews earn clicks on your links, which increases your online visibility and ranking.
NAVY Hair Care uses Pixlee TurnTo to collect ratings & reviews as well as Checkout Comments, customer insight into why they purchased. These comments show that positive feedback on the product by influencers Darylann Denner and @justclassicallycasiddy provided the social proof these customers needed to purchase!
Moreover, if we’re talking about reviews by influencers, the effect increases tenfold. Famous bloggers raise brand awareness and improve your social media presence (if you cooperate through SNS). This, in turn, increases conversions and sales.
Post influencer Content On-Site Through Shoppable Landing Pages
We’ve established that the popularity of influencers can benefit your business, bringing more customers, improving SEO, and increasing revenue.That’s why the content these skilled individuals create related to your brand should not just stay on social media. Pixlee TurnTo makes it easy to seed influencer content across all of your marketing channels, from website to email.
Here are some tips when creating or customizing influencer website pages :
- 54.96% (Jan 2022) of the worldwide market share is mobile users. Optimize the page (and the whole site) for mobile devices;
- Make sure it’s easy to share on social media, as well as the rest of the pages of your site, especially the product and service pages;
- Ensure there’s enough information for influencers on the page.
With Pixlee TurnTo, brands can create site pages dedicated to influencer content, or add widgets featuring these creators to existing pages, providing an extra layer of social proof and improved SEO.
Alo Yoga features influencer content on-site, making photos shoppable with Pixlee TurnTo.
The last influencer recommendation would be to look for exclusive cooperation. Try to work with people your competitors haven’t worked with. That way, your content will seem more authentic and business – unique to the influencer’s target audience. Such an approach will help you stand out and improve online visibility and conversions, getting the most out of your partnership.
Influencer marketing and SEO are both core pillars to a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for ecommerce brands. Search engines will favor your content due to the high E-A-T, and users will be more likely to trust you because of the influencer advocacy.
Alina Tytarenko is part of the marketing team at all-in-one SEO and digital marketing platform SE Ranking. She has worked in the SEO sphere for four years and has tested various marketing techniques. Alina gladly shares her experience and the key points on combining influencer marketing and SEO.
