Establish your brand’s entity and build trust with users to grow your E-E-A-T for Google Search and visibility in generative AI results
It’s not enough to create great content and have a technically sound website. You also need to represent your brand (or yourself) as a trusted source of information.
That’s authority building.
What many SEO providers call “off-page SEO” or “backlink building,” I describe more holistically.
In today’s world of machine learning-based ranking systems, backlinks matters less, but you still need a recognizable and trusted brand to earns users’ trust, clicks, and conversions.
Authoritative brands are also more likely to be represented in generative AI responses from chatbots (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude), AI answer engines (Perplexity), or RAG results (Microsoft Copilot, Google SGE).
I can offer authority building as a standalone service or as part of a holistic SEO strategy.
Authority building services may include the following:
- Entity building (structured data, entity homes, external sources, knowledge graphs)
- Third-party sources (customer reviews, testimonials, forums, other UGC)
- Demonstrating expertise (using authors who have expertise or experience and tying them to your content)
- Shopping graph (using Merchant Center or product schema to get free listings)
- Social media and video (creating SEO content that’s eligible for Google’s Perspectives filter)
- Digital PR (using experts associated with your brand to get mentions in industry press)
- Link-magnet content (creating digital assets with unique data or tools that can earn links passively)
- Branded content (about pages, company history pages, FAQs, and other content that can appear as entity homes for knowledge panels or branded searches, like in People also ask)
- Content distribution (using social media, email, and other channels to distribute content)
Building authority with Google and other search engines
Authority is how you’re seen on the web as a business, brand, or expert person.
Let’s look at each in more detail.
Entity building
Given the importance of entities and semantic search for SEO today, establishing your business and its people in Google’s knowledge graph is important for brand reputation management and awareness, both in traditional web search results as well as generative AI answers in OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini. I can help you identify and create the right types of structured data (and online profiles) to help build your brand’s knowledge graph entities and earn or enhance your Google or Bing knowledge panels.
Third-party opinions
Customer opinions also play an important role in how users perceive your brand or products on your site, as well as how you’re brand is portrayed in search features like product knowledge panels or Google Business Profiles. I can help advise on how to earn customer reviews, highlight them, and moderate your replies.
Expertise
Google today is rewarding more content born from real expertise or experience. This is at the crux of creating helpful, people-first content. In addition to dedicated SEO content services, I can help you highlight the reputations of your authors, building their profiles while enhancing the value of your content for users (and by extension the engagement signals it sends to Google).
Shopping graph
Google’s shopping graph is powerful and fuels a lot of features that can showcase your products or customer reviews in search results and other organic surfaces. I can help you manage eligible products in Google’s Merchant Center as well as use product structured data to be eligible for rich results, free product listings, and more.
Social media and video
SEO content isn’t just blog posts or product or category pages. It can incorporate every asset that shows your brand organically online, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube content that can appear in Perspectives.
Digital PR
The days of using guest posts for building backlinks are long over. Instead, digital PR is a way to highlight your brand and its people in relevant industry publications by contribution to media through press relationships. I can help advise on which opportunities to pursue, and how to maximize them for your SEO.
Link-magnet content
The audience for your blog content may not be the same audience that would link to it. One way to earn backlinks is by creating digital assets that are more likely to earn backlinks, such as reports with unique data insights or tools that users can use and share. I can help you find these opportunities to build relevant backlinks passively.
Branded content
Nothing is worse than searching for your brand and seeing an unflattering description as the first People also ask question on Google. By creating the right branded content, we can not only establish entity homes for your brand’s knowledge panels, but we can help influence how your brand’s reputation appears in organic search results.
Content distribution
You’ve created a great blog post or other content for SEO, but why limit your audience to people searching organically for it? With the right content distribution plan, we can use social media, email, and other marketing channels to increase the reach of your content, building awareness and even earning links or shares.
My pricing model
I tend to incorporate authority building services into my holistic SEO audits and strategies. However, every brand’s needs are different, and so each approach I take is 100% custom to your goals.
My rates are based on each project or project milestone. This ensures we can achieve our goals within your budget and not be limited by hours. That breaks down to around $100 to $200 per hour.
Why work with me?
I’m an independent SEO consultant with 8+ years at agency experience. In 2024, I started Ethan Lazuk Consulting, LLC with my wife, Dania, as a way to provide clients the types of SEO services that I believe work best today.
To share knowledge, I write blog posts about SEO regularly as well as create weekly SEO news recaps that share industry trends and updates.
In terms of my philosophy, I believe in a people-first approach to SEO, where decisions are based on helpful content and what’s best for users, always in support of your broader marketing, brand building, and business goals.
You can visit my about page for more information about me.
Get in touch today!
Feel free to visit my contact page or use the form below to share your goals. I’ll be happy to have a consultation with you and share some ideas.
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I look forward to helping you grow your reputation and authority online!
