SEO is an important part of any digital marketing program. No matter what you’re advertising online, you’re always going to be at least partially at the whims of the algorithm managing whatever site you’re on, whether that’s a social media site, a search site, or something else entirely.
When you’re running your affiliate marketing software through Refersion, you should also be paying attention to your SEO. Here’s how you can do that.
Incorporating SEO Into Your Affiliate Marketing Program From the Ground Up
Remember, SEO shouldn’t be an afterthought for your affiliate marketing program. It’s true that just by developing an affiliate marketing program, you’ll boost your SEO. However, having a great starting point is the difference between ending up with an okay SEO platform and a truly excellent SEO platform. The better your starting point, the better it’ll be after you boost it.
By using these tips, you’ll be able to incorporate SEO from the beginning, ensuring that your program is built on a solid SEO platform.
How to Optimize Your Affiliate Program for SEO
So, what can you do to optimize your affiliate program in the world of SEO? Here are five actionable tips that you can use to bring in better affiliates.
1. Focus on an Effective Call to Action
Your call to action is what makes people submit their blog, channel, or other media format for consideration in your affiliate program. It also helps SEO bots understand that you’re actively requesting people to apply to something on the page, which means they’ll guide people looking for an application process to your website.
Additionally, having an easy-to-follow call to action makes it more likely that affiliates visiting your website will actually apply. This is great both for SEO and for normal human behavior when it comes to your website.
2. Use Outreach Link Building Alongside Your Affiliate Marketing
You shouldn’t focus exclusively on affiliate marketing as your only way of marketing. Although it’s true that over 80% of brands use affiliate marketing programs, they’re not all relying on affiliate marketing alone. One of the best ways to improve your SEO and your outreach at the same time is with outreach link building.
With this type of marketing, you write articles that go out to various blogs on the internet, all linking back to your website. You could even write articles about affiliate marketing that link back to your program. This spreads your information all across the internet, which can help your page show up higher on a search.
3. Understand Different Types of Keywords
There are many different types of keywords, all of which target people at a different point of the sales funnel. Those who are at the “top” of the funnel are furthest away from making a purchase, while those at the “bottom” of the funnel are ready to make a purchase right now. For an ideal SEO approach, you want to be targeting people at all levels.
This can mean working with different affiliates for different parts of the sales funnel. For example, you may have certain affiliates for individuals who might be looking to buy in two or three months, certain affiliates for customers who may buy by the end of the week, and certain affiliates for customers who are ready to click through and buy right now.
4. Showcase How Your Product Solves a Need
One of the most important things you can do is to do some of the work for your affiliates directly. That means you need to show your affiliates how your problem solves specific needs. Then, your affiliates can pass on that information to the customers who visit their website. Adding that information to your website can also make your own website rank higher when someone searches for certain types of products.
If you give your affiliates as much information as you can on your products, then they’ll be in a better position to display why customers should consider buying your product, especially over a competitor’s product. Don’t be stingy with the information; showcase as much as you can to your affiliates and try to stay in touch with them when they ask extra questions.
5. Prioritize Relationships Over Links
Possibly the most important thing to keep in mind is that you need to maintain positive affiliate relationships. These affiliate relationships can be far more important than a single link that you’re able to get on someone’s website. The better your relationship with an affiliate, the more likely they will be to do work for you in getting your product out to potential customers.
Those links are obviously important, and it’s a critical part of your affiliate program. However, you want to make sure that your affiliates don’t feel like they’re just a link to you. Encourage affiliate relationships, and they’ll do more work for you, which will boost your SEO over time.
The Bottom Line
Affiliate marketing software and SEO work are a natural pairing. No matter what you’re doing online, you want to keep an eye on your SEO, including how your SEO functions and what you can do to improve it. These five tips can help you maintain your SEO throughout your affiliate marketing projects, no matter what those projects are. Refersion also helps you stay on top of your affiliate marketing in general, giving you more time to work on other things like your SEO platform.