PCP Marketing: Rethinking Your Approach To SEO

PCP stands for proper company promotion. Some are touting it to be the end of search engine optimization (SEO). Is it really? No, and this article tells you why.

In the Beginning There Was PageRank

“Tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are,” said PageRank, Google’s first-ever ranking algorithm for search engine results pages (SERPs).

Your trusted digital marketing agency in Dubai can tell you more about the specific variables that made up this search ranking algorithm. For now, remember this. At its core, PageRank was a backlinks analysis function.

It scored and ranked websites based on how many inbound links they got from high-quality websites. The greater the number of reputable websites that acknowledged you with a backlink, the more credible and legitimate you appeared to Google. The more credible and legitimate Google deemed you to be, the higher you climbed on SERP rankings.

It was a game of “Tell me who your friends are,” played Google-style.

The underlying principle made sense, of course. It’s the same reason brands get celebrities to endorse them.

High-prestige, high-status individuals endorsing a brand can boost your confidence in that said brand. Similarly, high-ranking, high-authority sites linking to a website boosts Google’s confidence in a website.

Why a New Approach Is Needed

Backlinks have always been a ranking factor in search, so you can’t fault SEO specialists for putting a lot of stock in backlinks. Today’s (and yesterday’s) SEOs grew up learning that while content is king, backlinks are queen, and they were playing chess, not Game of Thrones.

However, in their quest to generate more backlinks, some went as far as purchasing expired “authority” domains on which to insert backlinks for client websites. Others paid for link placements on link farms. There were also those who spammed forums and comment threads.

They crossed a line and went against the spirit of PageRank and every search ranking algorithm update Google has ever rolled out.

Bad move.

Every search algorithm ever created had one goal: to help search engine users quickly find the information they need from somewhere in the interconnected world wide web.

Operationalizing this meant making an assumption. When many websites link to a website, that website must have valuable information on it worthy of sharing and linking to.

Based on this logic, the more backlinks a website has, the higher its rank. After all, it has all these backlinks because of its helpful and valuable content. Right?

Wrong. This assumption would have held water if everybody remained honest and linked only to websites that truly offered value.

When people started gaming the system, the algorithm failed. Black-hat link-building practices generated backlinks for websites regardless of relevance and credibility.

This obviously negated and broke the previously natural association between the number of backlinks and a website’s value. It was the beginning of the end for backlinks.

Do backlinks still matter? Sure. However, they’re no longer the be-all and end-all of SERP rankings.

Refocusing on Value

There’s a silver lining to this dark cloud. Go back to the start, particularly the whys—not the hows—of PageRank and every ranking algorithm that ever was.

Google counted backlinks because they were a measure of site value. A new approach to backlinking, therefore, requires using backlinks to prove value.

Eschew the practice of artificially enhancing a website’s link profile with backlinks that were made for search engines. Instead, focus on earning backlinks that can actually send traffic to your website.

That’s what PCP marketing is all about.

PCP Marketing: The Better Approach to Building Your Website’s Link Profile

Here’s the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article. No, PCP marketing is not the new SEO. It does not and will not replace SEO, but it makes it better.

PCP marketing is a new way of link-building, and it has the power to restore Google’s faith in your backlinks.

In PCP marketing, backlinks are more than a trail of crumbs search engine crawlers follow to a website. They are bridges that drive warm bodies–i.e., traffic–to your website.

PCP Marketing Activities

Examples of PCP marketing activities include offline events like contests, marathons, hackathons, community training, charity drives, and workshops.

You may also publish feasibility studies, reports, white papers, and expert roundups.

You can also make digital tools, such as calculators, readers, and templates, that people will want to share.

Just remember: Any activity or project that can earn you backlinks that induce clicks falls under the domain of PCP marketing. Anything that offers value can be PCP marketing.

It’s this value that leads a website or online publication to cover your activity or project and include a link to your website. Result: You earn a backlink.

It’s this value that drives those who have read the article or post to click on the link. Result: You earn traffic.

Ready to Earn Traffic-Referring Backlinks?

Backlinks had always been indicators of credibility and legitimacy. Through the years, their value has been eroded by artificial link-building strategies.

This is why Google has started qualifying its backlinking requirements with traffic. The new backlinking goal: Win backlinks that refer traffic. How? Proper company promotion or PCP marketing.

Your digital marketing agency in Dubai can tell you more.