What influencer outreach does an SEO company provide?
The part that overlaps with search: finding writers, bloggers, and creators whose audiences match yours, giving them something worth covering, and earning mentions and links from their sites. Running paid campaigns on social platforms, where the goal is reach rather than links, is influencer marketing, a separate discipline that some SEO companies offer and others do not. Wherever a creator receives anything of value, two sets of rules apply at once, one about what the creator tells the audience and one about how the link is marked for search engines.
The part that overlaps with SEO
An SEO company approaches creators the way it approaches any site it hopes will link to yours. It looks for people whose subject matches your business, judged by what they publish rather than by follower counts alone. It gives them a reason to write about you: original data, a useful tool, expert comment, or a guide worth citing. It contacts each one individually with a pitch that fits what they cover, and it records the mentions and links that result. The measures are the same as for other link work: which sites mentioned you, whether they linked, and whether those pages bring visitors.
The part that is influencer marketing
Sponsored posts on social platforms, product seeding to large numbers of creators, and campaigns measured by reach and engagement belong to influencer marketing. They can be valuable, but they are judged on different measures from SEO, and any link in a paid placement should be marked as sponsored in any case. If you need that kind of campaign, ask whether the company runs it or works with a specialist.
Two rules apply to the same arrangement
When a creator receives payment, free products, or other perks, the first rule concerns the audience. The Federal Trade Commission’s guide Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers says: “Disclose when you have any financial, employment, personal, or family relationship with a brand.” It adds: “If a brand gives you free or discounted products or other perks and then you mention one of its products, make a disclosure even if you weren’t asked to mention that product.”
The second rule concerns search engines. Google’s spam policies list, among the examples of link spam, “Sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link.” Google’s guidance on qualifying outbound links asks that links in advertisements or paid placements be marked as sponsored.
A disclosure to readers does not mark the link for search engines, and a sponsored marking does not tell readers anything. A gifted or paid placement needs both. Ask the company how it makes sure creators it works with do each, and avoid any arrangement in which products or payment are exchanged for an unmarked link. This is general information, not legal advice; a lawyer can advise on disclosure obligations for a specific campaign.
Checking how creators are chosen and paid
Ask the company which parts of creator outreach it handles, how it chooses creators, what it offers them, and whether anything of value changes hands. If it does, ask how disclosure and link marking are handled, and how both will be shown in its reports.