This post first appeared in Anthony Bullick’s Daily Post column.
Organisations seeking the holy grail of top spot in the search results to drive traffic to their website may be surprised to hear that reputation is a key component of success.
While PR’s relationship with search engine optimisation (SEO) has long held roots in securing links from third party sites, commonly referred to as link building, the likes of Google also factor in how trustworthy a brand is.
The search engine giant itself created the acronym EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) as part of its guidelines, with the latter labelled the most important metric.
It will consider your digital footprint including reviews, references on high authority domains, and recommendations.
Do you have a large volume of positive reviews from the likes of Trustpilot, Glassdoor, and Tripadvisor? This is a clear indicator of a strong reputation.
Similarly, if valued third parties such as news outlets, educational institutions, and the government refer to your organisation, even without a link, this is extremely beneficial.
And if relevant articles are published that recommend you, for example if you’re listed as one of the top renewable PR agencies, this is another strong sign that you can be trusted.
The reaction to PR activity also impacts Google’s opinion about you, as brand signals help it paint a picture of how people perceive you.
For example, consistent messaging pushed out through marketing communications can lead to increased branded searches and therefore traffic to your website.
The user behaviour on your site also plays a role: if people choose to stay longer and click on different pages, this can lead to a boost in user engagement, and ultimately, higher visibility in search results.
Crucially, just because you appear towards the top in search rankings, it doesn’t automatically convert to clicks. People having trust in the brand will lead to a growth in traffic.
Referenced earlier, link building still plays a critical role in your SEO efforts. As always, it’s about quality rather than quantity: fewer links from relevant and authoritative sites is much more impactful than more links from random domains.
While Google has consistently stated social media bears no impact on your search results, there are indirect benefits.
For example, a creative and strategic campaign on the likes of Instagram, Tik Tok, and LinkedIn may lead to increased awareness and therefore more branded searches and engagement on your website, all of which Google favours.
Consider paid social media as part of your integrated communications mix to elevate your social media success.