Influencer marketing and SEO are two powerful tools, each boosting your brand’s visibility and helping reach your target audience.
Did you know you can combine these two methods for even better results?
An influencer marketing campaign is traditionally run on social media, where influencers create social media posts that introduce your brand to a new audience. While not a direct ranking factor, social media can enhance your SEO by expanding brand visibility and driving more traffic to your site.
If you pair an article or blog with your influencer campaign, you can increase your SEO impact.
Let’s dive into the benefits of SEO within your influencer campaigns and see a real-world example of how this was done.
*Photo Credit Chelsea Brown Photography
The Benefits of Pairing SEO in Your Influencer Campaign
You just ran a successful influencer campaign—your social reach is up, followers are increasing, and DMs are rolling in. But how do you turn that social content into long-term, evergreen growth on your website?
When content is widely shared, it boosts website visits, brand searches, and potential backlinks, which support your SEO goals by improving metrics like site traffic, time on page, and bounce rate.
Here are three SEO benefits of including content creation in your influencer campaigns:
- Brand Visibility: Influencers expose your brand to a broader, loyal audience, boosting traffic and brand awareness. This engagement signals relevance to search engines, indirectly enhancing SEO.
- Backlink Opportunities: Influencer content often includes links to your website, which serve as endorsements to search engines. These backlinks improve your site’s authority and search rankings over time.
- Social Signals: Although social shares don’t directly impact SEO, the resulting site traffic can. When influencer posts bring visitors, increased time on site and lower bounce rates signal quality to search engines, indirectly benefiting SEO.
- Keyword Ownership: Pairing an influencer campaign with an evergreen post on your site can secure keyword ownership, creating a lasting, SEO-friendly testimonial for your brand.
How to Pair a Blog with an Influencer Campaign
Here are three ways to add a blog element to your influencer campaign:
- The Influencer Writes and Posts a Blog
Have the influencer publish their own blog post, and then summarize it on your site. Now you have one blog on their site and a recap on yours highlighting all the best bits—double the exposure!
- You Write a Recap Blog of the Influencers’ Posts
Create a blog that pulls together everything the influencers shared, like a boosted testimonial with your added insights. This showcases their feedback with your brand’s personality and captures the impact of influencer marketing.
- You Write a Campaign Results Blog
Craft a post detailing the campaign’s results, showing how well it worked. This is especially effective in marketing or B2B, giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at the campaign’s success and insights for those interested in the campaign’s impact.
The best part? You don’t have to choose just one; you can create all three blog posts if your campaign allows for it.
A Real-Life Example – Influencers at West Coast Wilderness Lodge
*Photo Credit Chelsea Brown Photography
Myself and eight other small business owners spent two days at the West Coast Wilderness Lodge in Egmont, BC, for an in-depth mastermind hosted by Jessica at In Great Company.
The experience helped us get past business blockers and dive into our dream business mindset, all while immersed in the natural beauty of the lodge.
Highlights included breaking down internal barriers in the executive business room, a 2-hour kayak trip through the inlet complete with seal sightings, and amazing food served by a warm, attentive staff.
The rooms were spacious and beautiful, with balconies that made you feel as though you were surrounded by the wilderness. And the views? Unbeatable.
How This Ties into SEO
Each attendee was asked to publish a blog on their experience at West Coast Wilderness Lodge. Each post provided a backlink, increased brand visibility, and drove traffic to the site.
If you’re considering running an influencer campaign, I highly recommend asking influencers to post on their blog about their experience. If they don’t have a blog or it’s outside your budget, don’t worry—you can post a recap and showcase all the content they created for you.
My SEO Tip: Make sure to choose a keyword before the blog goes live. For this article, the keyword is “influencer marketing and SEO.”
*Photo Credit Chelsea Brown Photography
Data Tracking – Measuring SEO Success in Influencer Campaigns
Now, let’s discuss how to track the success of your campaign because metrics matter.
Here are some key metrics to track in your GA4 account:
- Organic Traffic
Use GA4 to track organic traffic increases to pages mentioned by influencers. Go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition, then filter by organic search. Look for notable traffic boosts during and after the campaign to see how influencers’ content drove visitors from search engines.
- Backlink Acquisition
Monitor new backlinks in Google Search Console. Under the Links section, review incoming links to your site, identify those from influencer blog posts, and assess link quality. Consistent, high-quality backlinks are a major SEO asset.
- Social Referral Traffic
In GA4, view social referral traffic by going to Reports > Acquisition > User Acquisition and selecting source/medium to filter by social sources. This metric helps you understand how much traffic came from influencer-generated social media posts.
- Domain Authority
Tools like SEMRush and Ubersuggest are needed to track domain authority changes since GA4 and Google Search Console don’t offer this feature. Improving domain authority through quality backlinks and traffic sources strengthens your site’s competitive SEO position.
- Keyword Impact Assessment
To measure whether your campaign has influenced keyword search interest, use Google Search Console’s Performance tab. Track campaign-related keywords like “West Coast Wilderness Lodge reviews” or “Egmont BC kayaking” for changes in impressions and clicks. This data reveals if people are searching for influencer-driven terms, helping gauge the campaign’s reach and SEO impact.
Setting Up an SEO-Focused Influencer Campaign
A successful influencer campaign for SEO begins with clear communication of your SEO goals and specific keywords. Here’s how:
Brief Influencers on SEO Goals
Make sure influencers understand the SEO objectives. For the West Coast Wilderness Lodge campaign, we asked influencers to use keywords like “Egmont BC lodge” and “kayaking in Egmont” to boost search visibility and align with our SEO goals.
Content Requirements for SEO
- Backlink Request: Quality backlinks from influencers improve your SEO. Ask influencers to link to your website (e.g., wcwl.com) in their content.
- Content Depth: Encourage influencers to create detailed posts. Longer content performs better in search engines and engages readers, leading to longer visits and lower bounce rates.
Distinguishing Between Social and SEO Campaigns
Social campaigns focus on engagement, likes, comments, and shares, while SEO campaigns prioritize backlinks, keywords, and traffic. Combining these approaches, as we did at the West Coast Wilderness Lodge, where influencers created social posts and blogs, maximizes impact.
By aligning influencer content with SEO priorities and combining social reach with search visibility, you create a robust campaign that drives results across channels.
*Photo Credit Chelsea Brown Photography
SEO Results from the West Coast Wilderness Lodge Event
The influencer event at West Coast Wilderness Lodge was designed to maximize both social engagement and SEO impact. Each influencer created three social posts, shared real-time stories, and wrote a blog about their stay. This approach reached a broad audience and built lasting assets, like blog backlinks, that provide ongoing SEO benefits.
Potential SEO Impacts Observed
This type of structured influencer campaign can deliver notable SEO advantages.
Social posts and stories drive referral traffic, introducing new visitors who may return organically. By using keywords like “Egmont BC lodge” and “kayaking in Egmont,” influencers improve keyword visibility for the brand. Each blog post with a backlink also boosts backlink quality and diversity, enhancing domain authority.
Backlink Value and Organic Traffic Growth
Backlinks from respected influencer blogs act as endorsements, boosting the site’s domain authority and organic rankings. Over time, these quality links can drive more organic traffic, as higher authority typically leads to better search positioning.
By combining social reach with these lasting SEO assets, the campaign achieves immediate visibility and sustained traffic growth. For your next influencer campaign, make sure to include an SEO strategy!
