When you follow that through to the work that actually needs to get done in this day in age to get more organic traffic, if you’re chatting to someone who knows their onions, at some point the conversation is going to turn to content outreach. Granted, you’ll have covered off what seems to be an infatuation with hats in all of their coloured glory, but you will, I assure you, end up on content outreach.
And for good reason.
What is content outreach?
Content outreach is the process of getting relevant sites to link to your content. It comes in all shapes and sizes, and there are more tactics under the umbrella than you can shake a stick at. But they’re all designed to get sites to link to content that resides on your website.
This is because relevant sites linking to your website helps to build page authority (PA) and domain authority (DA), which are both good for SEO.
But that’s not all. There’s another benefit that rarely gets spoken about in the context of content outreach – and that’s the brand awareness.
SEO and branding: one step beyond
As we’ve covered in a number of articles on the blog, branding is important. Whether it’s an evolution, or a full on rebranding piece of work, organisations go to great lengths to get their brand firing on all cylinders.
I’m here to tell you that content outreach can 100% be part of a discussion around brand building. And not one of those rubbish conversations where people are talking over each other with ‘highlights’ from Love Island. An actual, properly productive conversation (like off of the olden days).
Here are my ideas on how to integrate it into your SEO and branding activities.
Press release distribution
Some SEOs like it, some don’t. Even the naysayers wouldn’t be able to take away the clear benefits of press release distribution on brand awareness. Press release distribution does exactly what it says on the tin. So if your message lands in the way you want it to, it can get picked up by media outlets. Obviously this is the kind of PR we all want as marketing folk. But even if it doesn’t land squarely, most press release distribution services post your release on loads of syndicated news sites. Through this process, all the decent ones will have one or a number of mechanisms to get you listed in Google News Alerts too. This can be excellent exposure directly to the audience you want to put your brand in front of.
Guest posting
Guest posting is a great tactic as part of SEO content outreach. If you approach it in the right way, it can be great for brand building too. Getting your company’s name front and centre on respected blogs and websites aligns your brand to the industry in which you serve, positions you as a thought leader to your audiences and gets your company in front of people who may have have been, or will ever, visit your site.
The role of influencers
Having strong relationships with influencers is an important part of a wider content outreach strategy. As always, it comes down to people at the end of the day. Us humans tend to be quite nice to other people we like. We want to help them out and be part of their journey in getting ahead: it makes us all feel good. SEOs wanna get in the good books for influencers because they want inbound links on the blogs and websites they look after to provide those all important backlinks. But there are wider benefits to the brand if you can get on the good side of influencers.
If an influencer has a popular blog, then it usually follows they have a large social media following. Whether it’s one or several that are popping, sites usually end up popular in part because of a strong social media game that spirals them into the stratosphere. Quite often influencers will be happy to feature your brand in a tweet, or Facebook post, which is going to put your brand in front of a potentially huge number of people who might not know what you do.
Build your brand
So next time you’re thinking about SEO and content outreach, think a little bigger. There are more benefits to be sought than just high quality links back into your website. Content outreach can also form an important part of your wider brand building and awareness raising approach.
If you need help concocting the best blend of content outreach, whether it’s for SEO, brand building, or both, we can help. We have the knowledge, experience and passion to make both SEO and branding success. Get in touch today.
