How to Combine your SEO and Affiliate Marketing Strategy

The revenue-boosting power of affiliate marketing is no secret. But while this key branch of digital marketing is paved with potential rewards, many brands or marketers fail to make an impact.

More often than not, the reason for lackluster results or complete failure is a lack of affiliate marketing SEO. Many brands fail to see that their affiliate marketing strategy and SEO strategy overlap—which means that their content performs poorly.

For any piece of affiliate marketing content to perform well (and generate revenue), it has to be visible to the right people at the right time, and through the right channel. That’s where SEO comes in.

Combining your SEO and affiliate marketing strategy might seem like a challenge, but once you get started, the link between the two disciples will become clear.

To guide you to affiliate marketing SEO success, here we explore practical ways you can merge your affiliate and search engine optimization strategies.

Did you know? 53% of consumers research products on a search engine like Google before deciding whether or not to invest in a service or product.

Based on this insight alone, it’s clear that for a piece of affiliate marketing content to drive engagement and ultimately, prompt people to buy particular products, it must be visible on search engines.

Without using the right keywords for your content, offering direct personal value, and matching your target readers’ search intent, it’s unlikely your affiliate content will ever get discovered, let alone read.

SEO is vital to the success of your affiliate marketing strategy because:

• It will ensure your content is relevant, informative, and valuable

• It will help you to become an authoritative voice which will build consumer trust and increase conversion

• It will make your content easier to read and prompt positive action

• It will make your content more visible on search engines while inspiring people to share it through social media channels (this will boost brand awareness and drive more affiliate sales)

• It will offer you a healthy return on investment (ROI) from your affiliate marketing strategy

To get things off to the best possible start, read our essential guide on becoming an affiliate marketer.

How to combine your SEO and affiliate marketing strategy: 5 top tips

Now that you understand the significant link between SEO and affiliate marketing, let’s look at how you can combine the two strategies for maximum digital marketing success.

1. Choose the right keywords for your affiliate content

First of all, to give your affiliate marketing content a fighting chance of ranking for the right searches on the likes of Google, choosing the right keywords is vital.

Conducting keyword research will not only help you shape ideas for your affiliate marketing campaigns —it will also significantly expand the reach of your content.

To maximize your chances of ranking for the right search terms, it’s important that you curate a mix of:

• Short tail keywords: singular words relevant to your topic or subject matter (e.g. “affiliates”).

• Long tail keywords: Multiple words relevant to your topic or subject matter (e.g. “affiliate marketing SEO”).

• Key phrases: entire sentences or questions someone might search for related to your topic or subject matter (e.g. “how do I combine my affiliate marketing and SEO strategy?”).

By creating groups of relevant key terms for your content using dedicated online research tools, you will give your affiliate marketing strategy a definitive direction while maximizing the success of your content.

Read: Our '5 Steps of Keyword Research' infographic to start optimizing your affiliate marketing content for better search engine rankings.

2. Create value-driven content on your niche

To get your affiliate marketing SEO efforts right, your content must offer direct value to your audience.

We live in an age where consumers are immune to the allure of the plastic sales messaging. To drive growth from your affiliate marketing efforts, creating content that matches the searcher’s intent while offering direct answers to specific pain points is vital.

If your affiliate marketing content fails to deliver on its promises, search engines will penalize you and you will not rank well. When this happens, it’s unlikely that anyone will discover your content and if they do, it’s likely that they will bounce before clicking on any affiliate links.

There are several types of content you can utilize for affiliate marketing SEO content. These include:

• Email marketing campaigns or content with well-placed affiliate products and links

• How-tos and tutorial-style content

• Detailed product reviews and comparisons

• Listicles based on hacks, tips, ideas, best products or useful resources relevant to your content’s subject matter

• Videos

• Dedicated affiliate landing pages with useful information and links to relevant resources or products.

Whatever content angle (or angles) you choose, it’s vital that you aim to offer value first and close sales second. If you don’t produce content that reads naturally, compels the reader to engage, and has an actual purpose, your affiliate strategy will sap your budget rather than make you money.

Read: our definitive guide to content ideation and learn how to craft content ideas that will not only help your affiliate content rank well, but lead to more engagement, conversions, and sales.

3. Optimize your affiliate content

Another key area where affiliate marketing and SEO strategy intersect is content optimization. Take the time to optimize your content and your search engine rankings will improve as will the performance of your affiliate marketing content.

This example from Decor Outdoor is an excellent example of SEO optimized content. This informative product guide includes:

• A well-researched mix of short tail, long tail keywords and questions that reflect the target readers’ search intent

• Well formatted subheadings arranged into a <H1>, <H2>, and <H3> hierarchy

• Eye-grabbing imagery (with keyword-rich alt text) and formatting that is easy to navigate on-page

• Product links that weave naturally into the content using solid anchor text

• Information and insights that are far from sales-y and offer an objective view

• A tone of voice and language that is fluent and easy to understand (no jargon, no overcomplicated wording)

Read: Guide to SEO writing to learn how to shape, format, and produce content for better search engine rankings.

4. Work on your link-building profile

By building high-quality backlinks to your affiliate marketing content, you will boost your search authority and drive more traffic to your website.

Link-building remains one of the most vital SEO ranking factors, so earning those all-important backlinks should be one of your main affiliate marketing priorities. Here are some savvy ways you can boost your link-building profile:

• Write guest posts for relevant and respected industry blogs and publications

• Work on affiliate content collaborations with relevant brands or publications to cross-promote each other’s content and exchange links

• Ask any of your trusted affiliate partners to add backlinks to your content or website from theirs

Read: 5 ways to maximize SEO and social media for additional affiliate content-boosting tips.

5. Track, measure and evolve

Once your affiliate marketing and SEO strategies, you should keep fine-tuning your efforts to adapt to an ever-changing digital landscape.

To ensure your affiliate marketing and SEO strategies are optimized for continual success, you must use data to track as well as measure your content or campaign success. Doing so will help you pinpoint potential strengths and weaknesses while gaining the insight you need to refine your strategic efforts while meeting the needs of your audience head on.

Read: Essential SEO Reporting Tools For Beginners [Free Reporting Checklist] and learn how to use data-driven insights to your strategic advantage.

If you're looking for agency support in the areas of SEO, content marketing and paid media, get in touch with Neil Patel Digital 

Affiliate marketing SEO: final thoughts

Executed well, affiliate marketing SEO will empower you to create content that sparks real engagement and generates revenue.

Understanding where SEO and affiliate marketing strategy meet will empower you to develop content that speaks to specific segments of your audience while expanding your commercial reach.

Use these top tips to your advantage and with a little persistence, you will see your affiliate marketing ROI soar.

“Focus on the right message for the right people at the right time” Russell Glass, CEO and marketing specialist

Start your affiliate marketing SEO journey today

Our professional diploma in search marketing dives deep into the essential skills and competencies you will need to level up your SEO and affiliate marketing efforts.

Enroll today and start your journey with our search marketing course for more information.

Related

• Affiliate Marketing For Beginners: How to Develop and Manage a Successful Strategy
• What is Digital Marketing?
• Webinar: How to Drive Sales with Affiliate Marketing