How Expert Comments Boost SEO and Build Brand Authority

Building reputation and being seen as an expert in your field is a key objective of many PR campaigns.

Offering expert comments to media can be a great way to do this and can also have the happy additional outcome of winning powerful backlinks from high authority media websites.

Expert comments are simply quotes from figures of knowledge and authority from a specific sector. They add credibility and insight to digital PR campaigns, and thanks to the backlinks they generate they can also help to enhance SEO.

At Motive, expert comments are one way in which we add authority to our PR campaigns and build awareness of brands through client representatives.

Whatever area of business you work in you already have expertise which will be useful to journalists who are writing stories about your sector.

To win media coverage you can simply prepare comments around issues that are happening in your sector and email them across to relevant media contacts. Or you can respond to requests from journalists on Twitter or on a subscription service such as Response Source.

As a first step you can proactively reach out to media covering your sector and just let them know that you are available to help and have knowledge of certain key areas - just go ahead and list them.

Offering expert comments to the press helps position a company or brand as industry experts or thought leaders. If you are able to backup digital PR campaigns by offering journalists a representative to give comments on a specialised area, those journalists are likely to come back to you when they need more insight or comments on the area of specialism.

This not only helps to build journalist relations but also positions your brand as the go-to trusted expert in the area.

In our digital PR campaigns, we have worked to position a number of our clients as experts in their field across a number of industries and gained coverage by offering brand representatives as gardening experts, cash saving experts and fitted furniture experts.

Our experience has taught us we are more likely to receive follow links from journalists when providing them with expert comments, especially when they are directly seeking out advice from one of our clients on a subject they are looking to get their teeth into. This makes expert comments an integral part of digital PR and building SEO performance for clients.

When NOT to provide expert comments:

It is important to understand that expert comments are not always appropriate. If there’s been a negative story impacting your sector you may want to think twice before offering a comment and having your brand associated with the wider issue. For the same reason it is never a good idea to try to win media coverage off the back of a tragedy or disaster of any kind. Always ask yourself if it is appropriate to comment before offering one.

To understand more about how you can be an expert in your field and gain high authority backlinks, contact us.