From DR 0 to DR 63: How Digital PR Links Built SEO Authority for Gigworker
How we helped a gig economy platform achieve explosive domain authority growth through strategic Digital PR and thought leadership
Introduction
Gigworker.com is a one-stop shop for the gig economy. Their mission is to unite gig workers and companies looking to outsource their work. They not only provide gigs and recommendations, but they also offer the information, resources, and tools for success.
Company Size: Less than 10 employees
Project Duration: January 2019 – December 2020
Goal Setting
Initial Status
When Gigworker came to us:
- Their DR (Domain Rating) — a major signal of SEO authority — was 0 [Source: Ahrefs]
- They wanted to leverage Digital PR and SEO Outreach [specifically media exposure and authority backlinks to supercharge their thought leadership, traffic, and sales]
Thought Leadership Statistics
Sources: Edelman/LinkedIn Study, SurveyMonkey Report
Finalized Goals
Based on the above requirements, we came up with these goals for our SEO campaign:
- Devise a Performance Marketing based Journalist Outreach campaign whereby the client would pay for earned citations only (such a pay-for-performance model has been at the core of all our Digital PR and Offsite SEO endeavors)
- To increase Gigworker’s DR (domain rating) as it’s the main indicator of whether your website will be able to rank well on search engines
- To enhance the personal brand of Gigworker.com’s founder Brett Helling as a thought leader by publicizing his E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) within the gig economy, and digital media asset development fields. Helling is an entrepreneur, author of a popular gig economy book published by Loincrest Publishing, and the founder of several high-profile web properties.
Process
Our Strategic Approach
Keeping Gigworker’s goals in mind, our Pay-for-Performance campaign focused on earning high-authority and legit backlinks (aka Digital PR Links) for them, by sending personalized pitches to journalists using HARO or Help a Reporter Out (now known as Connectively).
Results
100+ High-Quality Digital PR Links via HARO
We earned links from the likes of:
| Website | Article Title | DR | Monthly Traffic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agility PR Solutions | 2019 reading list—10 books to check out before entering media relations | 76 | 25.9K |
| Referral Rock | 40 Marketers Break Down Their Brand Reputation Management Strategy | 80 | 54K |
| Techopedia | Job Role: Systems Analyst | 88 | 2.5M |
| Best Company | 10 Tips for Online Security | 72 | 87.5K |
Brett Helling Quoted in Hubstaff [DR = 79; Traffic = 211K]
Hubstaff is a time-tracking SaaS that enables companies to review and improve the productivity of onsite, offsite, and virtual employees/workers/vendors. It also has:
- a DR of 79
- Organic Traffic of 211,000
Thus Gigworker.com earning a backlink from Hubstaff was a massive win considering its high relevance to gig workers. To top it off Brett Helling being quoted on Hubstaff was an additional boost to Gigworker’s E-E-A-T, SEO, and PR visibility.
DR Boosted from 0 to 63
Here is how this impressive increase materialized in real time:
Domain Rating Transformation
45,000+ Keywords Ranked
Due to the authority increase powered by quality backlinks (and, of course, the potential if not probable impact of other contributing factors such as the client’s content team), the website was ranked for over 45,000 keywords within no time.
30,000+ Monthly Visitors from Organic Traffic
Gigworker.com also started to receive 30,000+ monthly visitors. This was ‘free’ organic traffic; no paid channels were involved.
Traffic Value: $58,000/Month
At the time this organic traffic was worth $58,000 (in terms of monthly PPC cost). In other words, to use paid channels (e.g. Google AdWords) to bring in this traffic, they would have to spend $58,000 each month.
But working with us at DMR.agency saved them a fortune.
Testimonial
Client Feedback
While Brett Helling doesn’t mention Gigworker specifically in the Trustpilot review below, he does describe how we helped grow another one of his web properties from 0 to 1.5M monthly unique visitors.
Summary
So as can be seen our pay-for-performance Journalist Outreach service delivered these benefits:
- Increased organic traffic (on a budget that wasn’t backbreaking)
- Massive boost in DR in no time
- Strengthening the personal brand of the brand’s top executive as a thought leader, expert, and authority within preferred industry and general digital media
Want Results Like These?
If your team wants results like this, here are the two smartest ways to work with us:
Delegate strategy, positioning, and outreach to us — we handle it end-to-end.
Learn the process, acquire the skills, and execute in-house without an agency retainer.
Not sure which path fits your team? → Get a recommendation