Two ways LinkedIn can help with your SEO marketing strategy

It’s no secret that LinkedIn is a valuable resource for professionals in most any industry.  But, one little discussed attribute is LinkedIn’s value as a tactic in your SEO marketing strategy.  Our team is sharing how we use LinkedIn with our SEO marketing.  As a refresher, SEO ties to where your website ranks when keywords are provided to a search engine.  There are many contributing factors to your ranking and these can vary by search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing).  The contributing factors include how often the keywords are naturally embedded in your site, the age of your website, how often your content is updated, how many reputable outside sources link to your content, and several other factors.  For the purposes of sharing how we use LinkedIn in our SEO marketing strategy, we are focusing on content and inbound links.

LinkedIn has a Google page rank of 9 (that’s really good).  For purposes of SEO, in part, this means many other websites link to LinkedIn’s content.  It makes sense because their news section is packed with valuable content and LinkedIn members are frequently sharing this content every day in their LinkedIn updates and through other channels.  When search engines see this activity, it helps raise LinkedIn’s SEO ranking.  So how can you benefit from this value? Here are two tactics.

1. Share valuable content through your company blog.  Ensure your blog is tied to your company website.  Valuable content is content your audience wants and needs, and it includes useful links to supporting content, and often relevant videos and pictures.  Share this content by linking to it through a status update or start a discussion, link to your content, and engage your audience. ** One important step to remember with discussions is to “engage”. Don’t just post and bolt.  If you start a discussion respond to those who respond to you, just as you would if you started a discussion with a group of people at a gathering.
2. Share valuable content through your LinkedIn company page as a company update.  Company updates can be forwarded by LinkedIn members, just like the stories in the news section.  Include a link to your website and to outside links supporting your content.  Your team can help share the content and start discussions about the content in their groups and circles.

What is most important is creating the right content.  To be effective with social media, you need to offer valuable content.  This differs among industries, so to find what is relevant to your audience, begin by asking your audience what kind of information is most valuable to them.  Once you have a list of topics, build a content calendar to follow for delivering this information.  For more information on content development, visit the myMarketing Cafe resource stand, and consider subscribing to our weekly blog, The Cup of Jo, where we focus on fresh ideas and trending topics in the world of marketing.

myMarketing Café is an online resource center for small business owners and non-profit organizations.  Our team of small business marketing experts has developed and tested real-world strategies, so that members have the most up-to-date information. Cafe membership is free.