The latest blockchain phenomenon, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), are accompanied by a number of marketing difficulties. It can be tough to stand out and market your NFT collection in a way that will draw positive attention and boost adoption in a setting where there is a huge amount of mistrust and ambiguity.
But it can be done, and here today we are going to explain how marketing your NFT might not be as hard as you think.
What is an NFT?
If you are reading this post, the chances are you know what an NFT is, but for those who do not (or who only have a vague idea) here is a brief recap.
In fact, most people still aren’t too clear about what NFTs are. There is nothing that can make you wonder, “Um… what’s going on here?,” like a flood of blockchain news in general, to which NFTs are closely related. You may have felt that way while reading about Grimes receiving millions of dollars for NFTs or Nyan Cat being marketed as one. Or Jack Dorsey selling his first Tweet as an NFT for a zillion dollars (well, 2.9 million, but that’s still A LOT for a few dorky words.)
The acronym NFT stands for non-fungible token. The term refers to its nature as a trading item more than anything else. For instance, a bitcoin can be exchanged for another bitcoin to create the exact identical object, making it fungible.
However, a unique trading card is non-fungible. You would have something entirely different if you exchanged it for a different card. It exists in the traditional trading cards world. If you traded a Pikachu Illustrator Card (the world’s most valuable Pokémon Card these days) for 1909 T206 Honus Wagner baseball card (the supposed Mona Lisa of baseball cards) you would be getting something completely different.
The reason that NFTs make headlines in blockchain news is that although other blockchains have adopted their own NFT implementation, the Ethereum blockchain contains the majority of NFTs. Like bitcoin or dogecoin, Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, but its blockchain also keeps account of who is buying and exchanging NFTs.
An NFT’s data can be linked to digital photos, music, videos, avatars, and other content. They can also be utilised to grant an NFT owner access to a variety of tangible assets, including vehicles, yachts, and much more, as well as tickets to live or virtual events.
The way people see NFTs differs a lot, too. Some people see them as the future of fine art collecting. Some people see them as the new digital version of Pokémon card trading. Some people see them as a trend that will die out in a year or so, others see them as a way to make a serious investment to build wealth. But these are issues for a different blog.
What we are going to talk about here is how anyone who has decided to create an NFT – or NFTs – and attempt to sell them can (and should) make use of digital marketing and SEO to help do that. So, no matter what your NFT (or intended NFT) offering actually is, what we discuss here should be relevant.
Why Do People Buy NFTs?
So, why do people buy NFTs? Why would anyone create them, and thus need to worry about marketing for NFTS?
Here are a few of the primary justifications for NFT ownership.
1) It Empowers Creators.
It’s far too common for publishers, producers, and auction houses to coerce creators into signing agreements that aren’t in their best interests. NFTs enable artists to independently mint and sell their creations while retaining ownership of the intellectual property and creative control. Additionally, any subsequent sales of an artist’s work are eligible for royalties.
By avoiding the gatekeepers that now dominate the creative industries, NFTs have the potential to establish more equitable business structures. Many people choose to purchase NFTs as a means of empowering and financially supporting their favourite creators.
2) Collector Appeal
A 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie card that cost less than 5 cents to produce sold for $5.2 million. That Pikachu Illustrator card we mentioned? Logan Paul (yes, that Logan Paul) recently paid $5,275,000 for one that technically came from a pack that was sold for about $10.
These sales occurred as a result of the card’s heritage, scarcity, and supposed cultural significance. In many respects, NFTs are this in the digital era. NFTs provide a special opportunity for people who want to amass a collection of digital assets that has never before been available outside of the conventional collectors and art markets.
3) Investing
Some NFT owners just want to buy an asset with a rising value. In this sense, some collectors approach NFTs similarly to traditional art: as an investment. Need proof? Beeple, a well-known American digital artist, real name Mike Winkelmann, sold his Everydays: The First 5000 Days composite at Christie’s in March 2021 for $69 million.
Some people might find it unusual to pay this much, as that anyone can view and interact with the image. But there can only be one NFT owner, as was already mentioned. This suffices for some people. However, due to market volatility, investing in NFT carries a high chance of suffering significant losses. That Jack Dorsey tweet? The person who paid him 2+ million dollars for it tried to turn it around into a $48 million sale, but the highest bid was just over $300.
4) Community Creation
NFT Ownership also has social advantages because so many creators have developed dynamic communities out of their NFT ventures. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is arguably the best illustration of NFT project-related community building
Collectors have access to a members-only Discord, special NFTs, a say in the project’s future, passes to online meetups, and more. As a result, owning an NFT is a question of identity for many collectors and how they interact with peers. As a result, owning an NFT is a question of identity for many collectors and how they interact with peers. You can also use the Office 365 group calendar to organize meetings and gather your community around.
This is how a lot of more forward-thinking businesses, both large and small, are making use of NFTs. Marvel, DC, the collectible toy maker Funko, mainstream toy giants Mattel and even high-end fashion houses like Balmain and Dolce and Gabbana are all getting in on the idea of building communities around NFTs, and even smaller companies are having success in the field too.
However, the one thing that anyone who wants to create an NFT for any reason will need to do, if they want to sell them anyway, is market them.
The Problem with NFTs and Paid Ads
If you have ever heard anything about organic SEO you will often have heard it said that organic SEO is an alternative to, or can be a compliment for, paid advertising on platforms like Google Ads or Facebook. Which is true. For most things. NFTS however already present a problem as paying to advertise your NFTs is getting harder and harder to do.
Google, for example, while not yet placing an outright ban on NFT advertising via their platform, just made some sweeping rules changes that can make it very hard to try to do so. Facebook has never been welcoming of crypto ads in general, and that includes NFTs. Even TikTok is wary of them. So for most businesses and individuals hoping to market and sell NFTs, organic marketing and promotion is their only choice, and that has to include digital marketing and SEO.
Why NFT SEO is Different
Although the foundations of SEO and even digital marketing in general are the same for all businesses, there are specific search engine optimization and digital marketing tactics that NFT sellers, blogs and websites will want to concentrate on. Why?
NFTs May Affect Your Buyer’s Finances
Because Google is so stringent in the “Your Money, Your Life” (YMYL) search sector, you should take SEO seriously if your company is in the financial industry, like non-fungible tokens are. Google refers to web pages that it believes may have an effect on “the future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety of users” as “Your Money, Your Life” (YMYL) pages.
Because they may affect searchers physically, financially, or emotionally and thus have a greater influence on one’s life than, say, a post about how to design a dress, YMYL pages are held to a higher page quality standard.
YMYL websites can be found in the following niches (and more)
- Healthcare
- Online stores
- News sites
- Financial sites – which is where NFTs are usually counted
- Legal websites
NFTs Are a Difficult Topic
According to the Quality Rater Guidelines, E-A-T has also received more attention as a ranking criterion for Google over the last several years. In fact, the rules used by Search Quality Raters to calculate website page ranks contain the EAT acronym at least 186 times.
Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are abbreviated as EAT. Answering searchers’ questions with pertinent, correct information and presenting it in a legible, engaging manner are both good practices as far as Google is concerned and they reward good practices with SERPs boosts.
And while it is vital for every blog post to demonstrate competence, authority, and trustworthiness, NFT blogs and websites need to demonstrate to Google that they are authorities on the subject, that searchers can trust the content on their site, and they have legitimate status in the NFT community.
By offering precise, beneficial content, excellent internal linking, and high-quality backlinks, you can gradually increase your EAT rating. Search engine results pages will reward you if you can demonstrate to Google that you can guide users through the challenging world of NFTs.
EAT can also function as a feedback loop. You have more authority and can be trusted by Google and searches the more knowledgeable you are on a subject. The more authority you have, the higher you rank, the more backlinks you receive, etc., the more trustworthy you become.
Prioritising these three elements is essential, since they all produce a feedback loop that affects higher- or lower-rankings.
NFTs Have a Niche Audience
NFTs, as we previously noted, are still relatively new to the public and select businesses. The fact that you’re working on a niche issue is helpful for SEO even though it might imply that your search volume isn’t as high. NFTs will face significantly less competition than, for example, baking websites.
After discussing why search engine optimization is so crucial for NFT sites, let’s move on to how you should go about doing it.
1. Keyword Research
The foundation of ALL search engine optimization is keyword research. Any word or phrase that returns a page of results when typed into Google or another search engine qualifies as a keyword. They will direct every aspect of your SEO campaign, including your product listings, blog posts, link building, and landing page development.
You should use extra caution when selecting keywords for an NFT site based on the profile of your ideal user. Who are the investors looking to buy NFTs? What information do they require to move them closer to making a purchase choice, and how would they go about asking a question about them?
What stage of the customer journey you want to reach a consumer at is something else to think about.
By attempting to rank for “What is an NFT,” are you hoping to draw in visitors who are unfamiliar with NFTs? Are you addressing “Why are NFTs a smart investment?” to folks who are already considering buying? Or are you further along the road when people start asking you “Where can I buy NFTs?”
2. Provide excellent UX/UI
User experience and user interface are two distinct but related factors that affect traffic, bounce rate, SERPS results, and many other things. No matter how intriguing the NFTs are, users don’t want to use a site if the user experience is poor. Additionally, there wouldn’t be anything to experience without a solid user interface.
Especially when it comes to NFTs, SEO heavily emphasises UX and UI. People with some web expertise and expectations are likely to be the ones considering and buying NFTs. You’ll need to maintain a fast, user-friendly, elegant, and mobile-responsive NFT website since NFT fans won’t be interested in buying digital items from a slow, old, or inefficient site.
Experience isn’t the only aspect of UX & UI. It also has to do with accessibility. Websites must adhere to the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), an established set of rules for online accessibility that are overseen by the W3C, the global organisation for web standards.
Perception, operations, comprehension, and resilience are the four components of accessibility; all must be present for searchers to be pleased and for Google to not penalise your website. And regardless of whether users are searching on a laptop, desktop, phone, iPad, or any other device, all of these components must be available.
3. Optimise Titles and URLs
Although it may seem insignificant, optimising your URL, page title, and article can help you move up the Google results page. Because they affect how comprehensible and usable your site is, urls have a serious impact on SEO.
Like any company, Google wants to be as helpful as possible for its users, therefore if your URL structure is unclear, complicated, or simply difficult to read, it may result in lower ranks on Google’s search engine results page
Google offers some suggestions themselves, so this part isn’t rocket science. They say that your page and blog post names should be simple and unambiguous as you’ll want your URLs to reflect them as well. Both should, of course, contain the keywords you want to rank for on that page or article without being overly keyword-heavy.
4. Create Blog Posts That are Optimised
Write a lot and a lot! Due to the significant search interest in NFTs and the fact that this field is still relatively unexplored, there is a lot of search arbitrage accessible.
You may quickly rank on Google by creating blogs that are keyword-driven and search engine optimised. Everything we’ve already covered, including EAT, keyword research, and a positive user experience, must be included in optimised blog entries.
Making a blog post outstanding is one of the most crucial aspects of writing one. Accurate, educational, and beneficial information should be provided. It should be easy to read, skim, and contain useful graphics.
Google aims to provide users with the information they need, and the posts that do this will be those that do so in a concise and compelling manner.
Additionally, you want to confirm that the keywords you use correspond to the text. Whenever you write a post titled “What is cryptocurrency?” You need to be more direct because people who type that are probably less technically savvy than those who search, “Do other blockchains besides Ethereum host their own NFTs?”
5. Build Domain Authority
Every website should care about its Domain Authority (DA). The DA score you receive indicates your level of domain authority. The higher the number, the more credible Google views you as being, and the more likely it is that you will appear higher on SERPs (search engine result pages).
The New York Times, for instance, has a very high domain authority. As a result, they are likely to appear in the top search results, regardless of the topic of their posts. The less you need to prove to get there quickly, the greater your domain authority should be.
They will therefore likely rank higher than smaller NFT companies that are just starting their blogs if they make a piece about non-fungible tokens. Because of the stricter YMYL standard and the fact that it is still a “relatively new” topic for the general public, it can be particularly difficult for NFT enterprises.
But setting priorities is absolutely essential. You will likely receive more natural backlinks to your website and rank higher in SERPs if your domain authority (DA) is higher. The cycle (ideally) continues as more backlinks can result in a better DA, which can lead to higher rankings. Developing high-quality backlinks and producing great content will both aid in boosting your DA.
This brings us to…
6. Internal and External Links
Building your link network will be essential for NFT SEO, but it can also be one of the most challenging aspects of the process. Both internal and external links contribute to the development of your domain authority (DA), demonstrate to Google the structure of your site, keep visitors on your site for longer, and generally improve searchers’ entire experience.
Internal Links
These are the links that link every page and blog post on your website together. You should link back to a different blog post or web page you have on a given subject whenever you come across pertinent anchor text.
Look at it this way: You don’t want your traffic to return to Google to look up a topic you mention in your content but don’t explain. By pointing them to a piece that addresses that subject, you’ll keep them on your website.
Additionally, these links demonstrate to Google that your website is well structured and that you are an authority on a particular subject. You probably don’t know much about any of the subjects you write about if you write about everything under the sun. If you write frequently on a few subjects, you undoubtedly have a firm grasp (and knowledge and authority) on those subjects and can be relied upon.
External Links
Links that lead from your page to outside sources are referred to as external links.
Links to reliable external sources show Google that you are using reliable information when producing your article and that you can support it. Links to websites ending in.gov,.edu, or.org, as well as to websites with the greatest domain authority, will be stronger.
Consider it this way: if you cite an item from a tiny blog to support your claim, it won’t be as credible as information from harvard.edu.
Backlinks are links that go to your website from other websites. These links, which are HTML hyperlinks, point users to other websites. Google interprets links to other websites as a type of endorsement of your website’s content.
Backlinks are crucial, especially for new websites. They are at that point often the sole way Google can determine whether or not to direct searches to your website.
The most effective links come from websites that are in the same industry as you. When a website like that decides to link to one of your articles, it is telling Google that your articles are worthy of being suggested.
Backlinks aid in the verification and authentication of websites and aid in the promotion of accurate and reliable search results, much like references on a résumé or documentation on works cited.
7. Put security and privacy first:
NFT sites must prioritise privacy and security, especially if you plan to sell NFT products there. On any ecommerce site that doesn’t look and ‘feel’ secure, the majority of customers won’t make a purchase. As NFT buyers are usually very tech savvy they certainly won’t.
Additionally, Google wants to see a safe website that is simple for its crawlers to navigate. No matter how good your content is, if search engines can’t find your site, you won’t show up in the search results.
Installing an SSL certificate, which adds “HTTPS” to the beginning of your URL as compared to insecure site URL structures that only include “HTTP,” makes your site secure.
All data transported to and from your site is encrypted if your SSL certificate is active. It significantly lowers the chance of being hacked and acts as a ranking indicator because it denotes reliability.
8. Start Thinking About Other Marketing Techniques
A solid strategy for NFT SEO is a great start, but you’ll need other digital marketing ‘tricks’ up your sleeve too. What those are is likely to be niche driven – who are you marketing to? What are your NFTs anyway? – and will vary greatly from offering to offering. But there are some general ideas for marketing NFTs you can get started with:
Actively Participate in NFT Communities
One of the best methods to promote yourself and your NFTs and penetrate the right circles is to engage with the NFT community. The game is only getting started for a much larger number of buyers and sellers. If you join the right groups, your name, artwork, and reputation as a trustworthy merchant will begin to spread across NFT platforms.
Starting with social networking is a great idea. Social media sites including Twitter, Reddit, Discord, and Telegram have thriving NFT communities. You can offer your thoughts and take part in pertinent debates.
You can also ask for feedback from potential customers in these specialist communities to advance both yourself and your NFTs to a higher level of success. It takes time, therefore you need to learn how to appear sincere in these forums rather than someone who is only looking to sell “things” and make quick money.
Work With – Or Become – An NFT Influencer
In NFTs, celebrities and influencers play a considerably larger role than trend-setters in other industries. New businesses can collaborate with prominent social media influencers and upcoming celebrities. Despite the fact that A-list celebrities receive a lot of coverage in the traditional media, NFT fans frequently place more credence on influencers who are less well-known outside of their particular specialty. This results in NFT influencer marketing popularity and the demand for new content creators as well.
Here you have two choices: work with an established NFT influencer, or become one yourself. In an ideal world, you won’t make a choice though, you’ll do both. Whether it’s through forums, YouTube videos, TikTok, podcasts or blogging, if you are willing to put the work in, it can be done.
Get Help
Marketing your NFT isn’t easy, and it’s certainly time-consuming, so getting help makes a lot of sense. You’ll need the right help, of course. Not every digital marketing agency understands NFTs – or anything connected to blockchain in general, and a great many don’t really understand the finer points and challenges involved in SEO for NFTs either.
We do at Pearl Lemon though and are actually very involved in the space on both a client and company level (the fast-growing Pearl Lemon Games is part of our group, and the team there are NFT creation experts) So if you find you need help marketing your NFTS, we’re the first logical choice and will be happy to discuss just how we can help you.