4 Ways Email Marketing Can Boost Your SEO Efforts

Email marketing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are frequently ranked as marketers go-to strategies. In a Nielsen survey of CMO’s search and email, were ranked as the number two and four most important media channels.

Both channels are capable of producing outstanding return on investment. But combine them and you can take your marketing to the next level.

A truly powerful marketing strategy requires synergy. It’s about making your marketing channels work together so that the sum is greater than the individual parts.

The synergistic relationship between email marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) is for many marketers an untapped resource.

Like many opportunities the benefits of leveraging your email newsletter to improve your SEO efforts is not immediately obvious. But once understood how these two channels can work together it can give you a significant advantage.

Best of all creating synergy between SEO and email won’t usually require you doing significantly more than you are already doing. It’s all about paying attention to the details.

#1 Improved Engagement Metrics

Fundamentally Google wants to present websites which users find useful. Consequently the more engaged users are, the higher that website is likely to rank.

To achieve this the search engine giant has been using machine learning in the form of RankBrain.

RankBrain looks for signals that visitors are engaging with a website. This includes click through rate, bounce rate and dwell time.

But how to attract visitors who more predisposed to engage with your content?

Provided you’ve built your email newsletter the right way and developed real rapport with your readers, then that engaged audience is only a click away.

By segmenting your list and sending targeted emails, you can encourage your email readers to visit pages of your website they are likely to find most interesting. Better yet they already like and trust your brand.

Sending visitors with a high propensity to be engaged can really improve your overall user metrics. In turn this will boost your rankings.

#2 Increased Number of Social Shares

Ask the search quality team at Google and they will claim that social sharing isn’t a ranking factor for their algorithm. But, studies have shown a high correlation between the amount of social engagement a website receives and its rankings.

According to SearchMetrics ranking factor study the “correlation between social signals and ranking position is extremely high.”

Now correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation. More likely those higher rankings are caused by the website gaining more visibility and consequently being more frequently linked to.

But the end result is the same. Get more social engagement and your website is more likely to rank well.

An engaged and enthusiastic email subscriber base is an easy way of producing that social engagement. In your email newsletters include a clear Call-to-Action (CTA) asking your readers to share the content on social media. If you are segmenting your lists you should be present your readers with content that they have a propensity to share.

You can even test emails on a portion of your email list to test for social engagement. Once you have identified content and a CTA which is likely to be shared you can roll this out to the rest of the subscribers.

#3 Craft Compelling Headlines and Content

The right meta titles and descriptions is key to increasing your Click Through Rates (CTR) from the SERPs. Your email newsletter provides the ideal “laboratory” to discover what your audience finds compelling and will click on.

Emails secret weapon is that you don’t have to expose all of your list to the same message. You can test different subject lines, headlines, content, CTAs and the best time to send an email. Through testing you can identify what messaging your audience will connect with and delivers clicks.

That information can be applied to improving your email marketing. But equally it can be used to improve your meta titles and descriptions.

Take your most popular subject, headlines and CTAs from your email marketing and use these to craft your meta titles and meta descriptions. This takes the guesswork out of what you need to say to get your audience clicking on your links.

Email newsletters are also great source of content ideas. Email content that your readership has responded well to can be repurposed for your blog. This is tested content that you can save time by repurposing.

If you are using long form email content it may require very little in the way of rewriting. If the email content is shorter, then it will form the basis of your blog article.

#4 Target Local SEO

Reviews account for 6.47% of local organic ranking factor, according to Moz 2018 Local Search Ranking Factor report (3). When it came to being featured in the all important Local Pack reviews were even more important. Here reviews were the third most important ranking factor.

So if your business relies on local customers then it’s safe to say you need to be collecting reviews.

Your email list should contain some of your biggest fans. Leverage that love by requesting that they leave you a review.

Use the PlaceID Lookup Tool to create a unique Google Local review link. Share this with your email list and wait for the reviews to roll in.

When email and SEO works together the results can be magic. The two channels can produce a viral loop where email is increasing your organic visibility which in turn leads to more sign-ups for your email newsletter. That’s the true power of synergy.