Data from a 2017 report states that only 24% of the brands surveyed were running influencer programs.
Cut to 2022 and more than 75% of brands have a budget dedicated to influencer marketing.
Blogger outreach is but an extension of influencer marketing.
Some of the biggest advantages of influencer marketing in the blogging world have to do with SEO. Confused? We’ll tell you all about it in this article.
But before we start, here’s a very brief recap.
Blogger outreach is when you reach out to well-known bloggers in your niche to write about your business. The blogger you choose should ideally have a large and active following.
9 SEO Benefits of Blogger Outreach
All webmasters are chasing behind one thing – ranking on the first page. If you’re not within the first 5 results, then your page may as well not exist.
Amidst the slew of things you can do to get there, blogger outreach is one. Here’s how it can help.
- Diversify your audience
When you pick a blogger to write for you, you’ll look at their metrics like post engagement and reader rate. And if your budget allows it, you’ll choose a blogger with a significant number of followers.
When this blogger writes about your products, a new set of audiences gets exposed to your brand.
Say the blogger posts their article about you to their Twitter feed. Though people won’t find you through search results, Google does notice that your link is getting extra clicks. Especially from new audiences.
So it recognizes your brand as something viewers want to see. This will encourage Google to place you higher in search results.
- Increase your website ranking
Nothing drives SEO more than high-quality content. A blogger becomes an influencer because their content meets the quality standards.
So when you have content about your brand written by an influential blogger, your site’s ranking could improve.
Bloggers would probably also include links back to your site in their article. So mentions and links of yours appear on a high-ranking website. This also gives Google a green signal to rank your site.
But for this to be effective, you need to connect with a quality blogger. This is where blogger outreach services will fill the gap. They will have a directory of bloggers in various niches. So they can put you in contact with the right person per your budget. This also decreases the time you need to spend on research.
- Increase your connections in your niche
This isn’t strictly an SEO benefit. But it’s a marketing benefit nonetheless. For any business, having good contacts and connections is a very valuable asset.
Blogger outreach is a very organic way to build connections within your niche.
Let’s say you start working with A, a level 3 blogger. They have fairly good numbers but aren’t the most well-known. It’s very possible that A has connections with B, a level 1 blogger.
By building relationships within your niche, you can improve the business opportunities for your brand.
- Improve your backlink directory
Quality backlinks are one criterion that Google ranks your site with.
Influential bloggers run blogs that rank high on SERPs. So having a backlink to your site on their blog is like winning the lottery.
As you increase the volume of your blogger outreach strategy, you can start organically building your backlinks. This is a good indicator for Google to boost your page’s ranking.
An alternative way to build backlinks is by pointing out broken links on the blogger’s site. Google doesn’t appreciate broken links, so your tip would be a favor to the blogger. This may encourage them to add more of your brand’s links to their page.
- Boost your social media following
The rise of social media marketing has made it mandatory for every business to have a social media page. Depending on your business, social media could even be your storefront.
That’s why it’s crucial to build an active following on social media.
But unless you buy your followers, which the algorithm frowns upon, building a following takes effort and time. By reaching out to bloggers, your brand will come under the spotlight of their followers.
This will boost awareness for your page, which could lead to an increase in follower count.
The more followers you have, the more shares you’ll get. Google considers social media shares as a factor to rank websites.
- Builds your brand’s credibility
In advertising, why do you think brands use mainstream to sell their product? It’s because celebrities have a huge influence on the buying behaviour of consumers.
Blogger outreach is a type of endorsement you’re getting for your brand. A high authority blogger has built trust with their following. So when they start saying your brand is worth investing in, their followers will believe them.
But make sure your blogger outreach strategy is effective. The quality of the blogger should be high if you want the endorsement to be of use.
- Increase your traffic count
This graph shows what the best sources of traffic are. As you can see, referral traffic is the second-highest source of traffic.
The people who click on your link through referral links did not end up on your page by accident. They very deliberately made the decision to click on your website after seeing your name in a blog.
This type of traffic is the most valuable because they’re the most likely to take action. So when comparing 100 users from paid search and 10 users from referral links, the referral is better.
The increase in traffic will also alert Google that your website is gaining popularity. So this will also give you a boost in SEO ranking.
- Improve your online presence
Blogger outreach usually doesn’t end with writing an article. The blogger will then promote their article on their social media feeds. In doing so, they’re likely to tag you on the post.
So that’s one additional mention of you on the internet.
Then, within the blog itself, the blogger will place one or two links pointing back to your website.
This is another mention of your brand.
So from one blogger, you can get at least 2 mentions of your brand.
As you build your blogger outreach numbers, there will be more and more mentions of your brand on the world wide web. This gives a huge boost to your SEO ranking because Google will notice your name in more places.
- Add fresh perspective to your content
If you’re working with an in-house writer, it may be hard for them to come up with new angles to cover what your brand does.
A new blogger can add a fresh perspective to your content. This is more engaging for the audience to read rather than the same content they’re used to.
So the time on site of the audience will increase. This will contribute to an increase in SEO ranking as well.
Don’t discount blogger outreach as a long and laborious process. It does take time to accomplish, so do it in tandem with your other marketing efforts. But in the long run, blogger outreach does pay off.
