Role of Brand Communities in boosting SEO Rankings

Over 93% of online experiences begin from a simple search on Google. When searching for a new product or service online, users are more likely to click on the web links visible on the first page of Google search and make a decision based on these choices. This essentially implies that ranking better on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is one of the key focus areas of marketers to improve brand visibility and generate leads. To achieve the same, marketers attempt to understand the logic used by Google for page ranking and optimize their web presence to achieve the same. The path followed is one of multiple incremental but consistent actions that eventually lead to a big boost in traffic on the website. One such effective yet rather underexplored strategy to improve the SERP of brands is the use of online communities.

Fresh Content in High Volumes

Baked food tastes best when it is fresh out of the oven right? The same goes for content. Google prefers to show new and unique content. This means that you would do better on the search engine’s results if your content is recently posted. This is where communities have a game-changing effect. Posts and comments are frequently added to the community platform. These comments are also considered fresh updates. Google takes a note of the last updated comment and shows these pages higher on their rankings, considering new content is more relevant as time passes. More often than not, the content in it is unique too, as it is based on user experiences that vary from person to person.

 Similarly, allowing users to contribute to knowledge resources such as blogs, product hacks or testimonials can boost the content around specific keywords frequently searched on Google. A highly engaging video blog on “Plum cake recipes for Christmas” on a brand community page of Betty Crocker is most likely to show up first in searches using keywords like “plum cake recipe”, “Christmas cake” or “desserts for Christmas”. Since most recipes listed on this brand community would include Betty Crocker cake mix as an ingredient, all that would be required to prompt a spike in sales is to have an “Add to Cart” button as a Call to Action (CTA) in the content.

Relevant Topics & Keywords

One of the major mistakes brands make in pursuit of SEO optimization is to cram their web pages with keywords. However, this doesn’t always work. A website is made up of all the webpages in it. Google identifies the purpose and authenticity of a website by crawling through every webpage on it, not just the ones with your keywords. So rather than adding high-impact keywords that make no sense to the intent of your brand, spend some time in researching the specific keywords that matter to you.

 Communities act as one of the most effective places to conduct this keyword research. Users write content that is relevant to them. By identifying the subjects that they talk about frequently and noting the queries that go unanswered, you can create a list of topics. Make use of them in the blogs and posts that your brand generates. You can also categorize the posts that are generated in your community by their topic. This allows users to filter the posts by topic, helping them find what they are looking for more easily.

Value & Utility to Readers

Relevance and value are two different things. By using relevant keywords, you are maintaining the identity of your website. You are letting users know that they will find content for the topic they are looking for. But this does not mean that the content they find will be of any use to them. Your content needs to be substantial and provide value to the users who approach your website. In a community, the brand doesn’t create the content, users do. So, there is no more second-guessing on the value a user derives from this content since another fellow user has produced it.

 Take an example of “how to transfer data from a OnePlus Phone to your Windows PC”. The person who is searching this content will trust a step-by-step process post written by a fellow One Plus user on a community thread. In fact, there is a possibility that even FAQs generated by the brand may not have anticipated the roadblocks or constraints faced by actual users. In such scenarios, tried and tested hacks by fellow users may be extremely valuable. The upvotes on such useful threads nudge Google to tag your webpage as one with high value to users.

 Creating guidelines for your users, encouraging them to be clear and specific in their posts, and consolidating highly upvoted conversational threads can help brands score high on the value score of their web pages.

High Authority Backlinks

 Google rewards content links shared on high authority platforms. If you are a Game of Thrones fan, you would have surely come across major episode *spoilers* covered in national and international news websites. Almost all of this content was sourced from Game of Thrones fan communities on Reddit. From secret camera shots of the cast & crew in Iceland & Croatia to sub-plots and finale predictions, these community pages were the go-to-destination for any GoT buff. And this is why it was rewarded by Google in terms of its page authority and overall ranking.

In short, brand communities can work wonders for your SEO strategy to make your brand easily discoverable on Google and acquire customers at minimum costs.