Kaizen Newsletter – February 2021: Mueller rates Digital PR, Business Lending is Booming & January performance tops December

As we go into another year of new challenges and goals, we are always looking to offer more value and support from our services than ever before. We’re launching a monthly newsletter to offer regular insights from the work we do, the industries we work within, and the search landscape as a whole. Below are some news and findings that have kickstarted 2021:    

 

In the news – Combined SEO Approach Advocated by Google

In January, digital PR was awarded kind sentiments by Google’s John Mueller, a point of validation for many who had previously felt the industry to be somewhat siloed from the rest of the world of search. In a thread, Mueller stated:

I love some of the things I see from digital pr, it’s a shame it often gets bucketed with the spammy kind of link building. It’s just as critical as tech SEO, probably more so in many cases.

— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) January 23, 2021

For many years, digital PR has served a huge number of our clients as a great way of driving natural links to domains, with the byproducts of improved brand awareness and referral traffic as the added bonuses. Mueller’s recognition of the poor association this type of activity has with the more negative side of link acquisition nods towards there being more of a level playing field for different specialisms within SEO. He later adds to this point stating that there’s ‘no need to compare – It takes a lot of people with different skills & experiences to make something fantastic together’ showcasing the importance of an integrated approach to SEO that incorporates technical SEO, on-site work, and offsite activity. 

For many of our partners, our work continues to be both agile and multifaceted, using our tech and on-site facilities to inform our approach to offsite work in a more comprehensive approach to growth. 

 

In the industries – Kaizen report illustrates the best of the best in business lending

We are incredibly lucky to work across the many finance industries that continue to be disrupted, and in January we’ve produced a report analysing the biggest and best from the world of business lending. The report was an in-depth analysis of over 25 companies in the space, which was then whittled down to a top 10, ordered by their performance across both offsite and on-site activity. Below are some of the key findings from the report.    

• The average increase in referring domains was 88%, and those who scored higher than average saw more than a 100% increase in page 1 keywords
• Brands are focussing more on the high-value terms in their space, with traffic value rising by over 200% year-on-year for those in the top 10 
• The average domain rating for business lending companies in 2019 was 58, but this increased to 62 in 2020

Across the top ten, there are some incredible results from on-site and offsite activity but this is not without significant efforts from the brands themselves. In terms of activity, the last six months saw an average of 100+ new blog pages for all analysed, proving that brands are showing no signs of slowing down in terms of content to be optimised or outreached. The full report can be viewed here which shows all of the results as well as some useful tips and case studies of our own.   

 

In our work – New year brings welcome improvements to the news cycle

Each year, December is often earmarked as the problem month for digital PR with the festive period and varied working hours often stunting link-building efforts. Unsurprisingly, changes to lockdown rules as well as the aftermath of the US election meant that this year was even tougher for PRs to navigate. In our efforts to remain agile for our partners in our outreach, January has welcomed improved results as we move into a new year. Some of the key highlights comparing December to January can  be found here: 

• Content diversity – Adaptability has been key to our success with digital PR throughout 2020, with many of our partners now utilising our many additional PR services. Of all the coverage we have achieved so far in 2021, at least 17% of that has come from reactive work or thought leadership rather than just content campaigns. 
• Social Impact – Our impact is being felt more on social media, with double the number of shares across key channels. Kaizen now offers strategies and solutions for Social media, Paid Social and Influencer marketing which you can see more of here.  
• Tier 1 coverage – Our goal is to provide the best and most relevant coverage for our partners, to provide the most value, and January has seen 6 times the number of coverage in tier 1 publications than the month prior. 

Please get in touch to learn more about the array of PR services we are able to offer and hear about the value they can offer your business.  

 

Kaizen also offers services in Technical SEO, Paid Social, and Influencer Marketing – for examples view our case studies here. If there is an aspect of search, regardless of channel, that you are yet to explore, we as an agency are equipped to provide insight into the value it is able to provide to your business. 

Undoubtedly you and your businesses plans for the next quarter and the year ahead are beginning to take shape, and we look forward to supporting these activities in whatever capacity. If you require further information on the additional facilities in which Kaizen can support you in your efforts, please do not hesitate to reach out. Furthermore, please get in contact for more information on the above.