The Ultimate Guide to Combine Email Marketing and SEO

According to a study conducted by CognitiveSEO, an organization’s strength on social media platforms directly affected how high their site rank was. CognitiveSEO found that more shares on Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn meant higher search rankings for companies.

This means you definitely have to consider leveraging the power that specific social media sites have on your search engine rankings.

So, if you’re looking to combine your email marketing and SEO strategies, what you can do is include buttons in your email for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media pages you may have. This is always good practice, but especially when trying to extend the reach, or offer discounts in the email.

Social media buttons make it convenient for your subscribers, so they’re more encouraged to either follow you on your social media pages or share your content on theirs.

When multiple subscribers share your content across various social media, more and more people become aware of your brand. To get more information, they will likely do a search for you on, which will improve your SEO.

You can A/B test the placement of your social media buttons to see which one works best for your brand, but it is considered best practice to place them on either the head or footer of your email.

Keyword research is an integral aspect of your SEO campaign. Using the right keywords will not just increase your SEO ranking, it will also affect the readability of your site’s content, which includes your blogs and website copy.

Keywords aren’t just for SEO, though. You should also include relevant keywords on your email messages, especially long-tail keywords. These types of keywords consist of three or more words and are more descriptive. Long-tail keywords target a specific audience, unlike short-tail keywords that target all audiences.

For example, a short-tail keyword would be “shoes”, while a long-tail keyword could be something like “comfortable running shoes”.

When you do your keyword research, align your SEO, content, and email marketing strategies to ensure that you are delivering relevant content to your subscribers on all fronts. This will make it easier for you to convert them into paying customers.

So, how exactly does including the right keywords in your email help your conversion efforts? Here’s a scenario:

In the keyword example given above, assume that a subscriber is on a search engine looking for shoes. They need a specific type of shoe, so they type in the phrase “comfortable running shoes” and review what comes up.

In their quest to find the perfect pair of shoes, they read several product reviews, visit the websites of some brands that sell similar shoes, and sign up to the newsletters of the brands that interest them the most, one of which happens to be your brand.

You send the subscriber an automated welcome email with an offer for a discount on their first purchase. You send them another email after three days to promote your latest line of running shoes. The heading of your email contains the long-tail keyword and reads “The most comfortable running shoes you’ll ever wear”, which your subscriber sees and instantly recognizes. Since they saw exactly what they were looking for, and you offered them a significant discount on their first purchase, they decide to buy the product.

No matter how relevant, helpful, or insightful your email content is, it doesn’t impact your SEO ranking because it isn’t indexed by search engines. So, how can you leverage your email content for your SEO efforts? It’s actually an easy fix. Simply publish your email content as blogs on your website. This way, they can be indexed by search engines. Email marketing software is a great way to achieve this in a more streamlined manner.

If your keywords are aligned and you’re already using relevant keywords anyway, there’s no reason not to do it. Plus, it will be a much easier process since you don’t have to make significant tweaks to the content.

There are various strategies you can implement depending on the type of content you send out. 

After publishing your old newsletters as new blogs, the next thing you need to do is invite people to read them. How do you do this, you ask? By promoting your new content via email.

Your subscribers—even your most loyal ones—likely don’t visit your website on a daily basis, so it’s a good idea to let them know that you have brand new content that they might be interested in.

Email marketing is a great way to build links and improve your searchability. Here are some basic tips on how you can effectively build links through email.

Build your email list

Building your list is the first step you need to take. Quality email addresses are incredibly important to any email link building strategy. After all, you can’t send emails if you don’t have any email addresses to send them to.

On your website, you probably have subscription forms placed on different pages. In order to maximize these subscription forms and gather a ton of email addresses, keep your forms brief and ask for as little information as possible. Don’t forget to consider using templates that have already been tested for conversions.

In fact, you only need two pieces of information:

1. The potential subscriber’s email address
2. Their name — getting the name right is essential because it will help you in your email personalization efforts.

You should also let potential subscribers know upfront the frequency of your emails. On your subscription forms, you can include language like: Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Whatever frequency you decide on, make sure you follow it. Deviating from it might surprise your subscribers and lead to unsubscribes.

Share content through email

Once you’ve built a sizeable email list, it’s time to focus on actual ways to build links. One simple strategy is sharing useful content such as infographics and free resources. Ideally, they should be embeddable to make it easier for your subscribers to share. You can use DKIM generator to secure your email domain so your emails don’t end up in spam.

Connect with your active users

Filter subscribers who regularly engage with your emails and reach out to these subscribers. Search for their Facebook or Twitter accounts, their websites, or their blogs, and try and connect with them.

You could even leave a comment on one of their posts on social media or one of their articles. As long as you connect with them in a positive way, you are more likely to earn a link.

Your SEO and email marketing strategies can benefit each other, so it’s a must that they work in harmony. That said, it’s not just these two that can be integrated. To maximize your marketing, all your strategies must work together.

This includes social media, content marketing, and so much more. With the way digital marketing is currently evolving, particularly in the realm of video, your marketing integration strategy is only limited by your imagination.