SEO Strategies for Link Building: The Role of Influencer Marketing

SEO, Influencer PR February 12, 2016
SEO Strategies for Link Building: The Role of Influencer Marketing

Link building has always formed the basis of effective SEO marketing strategies. Despite constantly revising their search algorithms, Google and other search engines have consistently rewarded best-practice link building with improved organic rankings.

In this article, we’ll discuss the positive impact influencer marketing has on link building and SEO strategies and techniques. And using a real world case study, we’ll demonstrate the organic search benefits having quality content and links on popular blogs will deliver.

Link Building Without Content

One of the challenges faced by many businesses looking to boost their ranking in organic search is link building without suitable content. Recipes, fashion and photography are all topics that content producers are likely to share willingly, but business services or holiday park accommodation? Unlikely.

Influencer marketing, then, presents a genuinely compelling opportunity for businesses of every kind to give their SEO strategies and techniques a bit of rocket fuel. Working on outreach with bloggers you’ve developed a relationship with often yields mutually beneficial content you’re likely to see a surprisingly immediate positive impact from.

Link Building Quality vs. Quantity

There’s always the temptation with link building campaigns to go it alone and – almost blindly – nurture as many links as possible. That’s a bad idea. It’s absolutely true that a backlink to your website is a valuable thing. But not all links possess the same value, with many even proving damaging.

“…a link from a blog, with a high page authority and relevant anchor text will have a far bigger impact than even a dozen spammy links on free online directories.”

The beauty of naturally building links back to your domain through influencers is that you can directly control their quality. Let’s be clear; a link from a blog, with a high page authority and relevant anchor text will have a far bigger impact than even a dozen spammy links on free online directories. In fact, links of this sort could even send your organic search rankings in the wrong direction.

Quality vs. quantity in link building is absolutely something you should consider. Building high quality links takes time, but it will pay dividends in both the short term and, more importantly, the long term. And key to success here is approaching bloggers in the right way and building relationships with a clear link building strategy in mind.

Link Building Strategies: Influencer Marketing Case Study

But how does influencer marketing apply to link building for SEO in the real world? Let’s take a closer look at one of our recent natural link building campaigns to demonstrate the level of results you can expect to achieve from influencer marketing.

A holiday accommodation provider in a hugely competitive search market, John Fowler Holiday Parks wanted to increase its organic search revenues. After refreshing its previous SEO strategy, our teams began working with our 7,000 strong network of UK influencers to develop a broad spectrum of high quality content.

Having built strong relationships with influencers across our network over several years meant that we could maximise the value of every content opportunity, nurturing natural and relevant links back to the John Fowler website from prominent travel, food and even fashion blogs.

The Results of Our Link Building Campaign:

link building strategies techniques

Conclusions

As far as SEO strategies and techniques go, link building remains fundamental, with each backlink to your domain acting as a popularity vote that Google and other search engines use to influence their rankings.

But for many businesses, link building without content can be tricky, with content creators unlikely to link back to business services regularly. Working with a network of influencers can ably and easily bypass this issue, ensuring high quality links back to your domain and an organic search boost as a result.

“…you shouldn’t underestimate the value of working directly with blogger networks like ours to ensure your SEO marketing strategies yield the highest returns for your business.”

On the surface, link building may not appear difficult or time consuming. Unfortunately, the story couldn’t be more different, with easily earned links more likely to be spammy and potentially harmful to your rankings. By controlling where content about your business appears, you can naturally generate high-quality and relevant links back to your website.

As far as link building techniques go, influencer marketing is the new SEO. And you shouldn’t underestimate the value of working directly with blogger networks like ours to ensure your SEO marketing strategies yield the highest returns for your business.

If you’d like more information about targeted link building through influencer marketing and how it has been shown to positively impact revenues through organic search please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can reach us on +44 (0)1179 111 420, or submit a request here…

Digital Visitor is the UK's leading strategic agency in travel, tourism & hospitality. For any more information on how we can help, get in touch.