A classic marketing play is to borrow authority from strong brands.
Mentioning great companies & thought leaders, especially those that praise your business, signals credibility to your prospects.
Here are several ways that SEO can leverage this as well:
- Write a guest blog for an authority in your industry, or launch a campaign or membership program on Kickstarter or Patreon. You’ll gain a backlink while associating your company with a well-known platform. Plus, you get exposed to a larger audience.
- Link to a brand in your content. You may earn a reciprocal link when they receive a pingback. Simply having an outbound link to a reputable site will associate you with a “good neighborhood” that improves SEO as well.
- Mention the brand’s handle on social media. This amplifies your post, promoting engagement from them or their audience.
- Design a case study for a major brand you’ve helped. This keeps the right users on your site longer, improving keyword rankings via the long click. Testimonials, or even just displaying logos, work too.
- Depending on the query, you can earn organic traffic from branded searches. This can involve comparisons or reviews like “Company vs. Company” or “Company Reviews.” You can also be creative here, for example, by providing tutorials on how to use a company’s product effectively.