Political Websites : What New Republican Candidates Should Understand About Promoting in the Digital Realm

by Ebony Trumble

Republicans are not leaving stones unturned in their bid to reclaim the House leadership they lost in 2018, with less than a year to go until the 2022 midterms, During the first 10 months of the Biden administration, an increasing number of potential GOP political figures have been showing intent to claim House seats currently occupied by Democrats. Although GOP’s super PAC donors are vowing to give their support in every red district, political candidate should not overlook the fact that there’s a new breed of voters today. Many will first find out about the policies every candidate supports before deciding on who to vote for as representative of their district.

Each new political candidate of course puts up a website in which to put information that their voters need and want to know. Yet having a political website is not enough when promoting one’s self as the best candidate for a government position. Just like any space in the digital realm, political websites must use tools and the best digital marketing strategies; not only to reach their voters but to get closer to them as well,

Digital Marketing for Political Websites

Developing a digital marketing strategy for political purposes is similar to developing a marketing strategy for a brand or business.

Still, new Republican candidates should consider the fact that after the Capitol Riot last January 06, 2021, tens of thousands of voters dropped their Republican affiliation. Now here’s the thing, once the results of the Democratic House Committee hearing on the January 06 event come out, the findings could further influence more GOP voters to support candidates whose political behaviors are not questionable. It is important therefore for new Republican candidates to let voters in their district know what makes them different.

Just like developing digital marketing tactics for a brand or business, more emphasis should be made on what the product or business can do to solve a common problem to consumers, or to at least improve their way of living. As a potential lawmaker, knowing the needs or problems of the majority will provide the bases on what policies a candidate will propose or support to better the life of the constituents who will vote for them.

Yet as it is, some incumbent Republican House Representatives are blatantly vocal about giving priority to the interest of their political donors, which contradicts the populist approach.
Still, regardless of the strategies used to promote a political candidate, political websites and blogs must apply search engine optimization techniques to make their content visible to the voters in their district. The content of a political website, even if relevant to the search term, will not appear at the top pages of the search engine results if location-based targeting was not used to optimize the page for organic search.

What is a Location-Based SEO Strategy?

Also known as geo-location targeting, it is an SEO marketing approach used to increase the visibility of a website content to Internet users of a specific location. That way, organic searches for information specific to a geographic location will appear as the most relevant response to a search query.

Supposing, voters in an Arizona district want to find out the climate change actions being taken by officials in their district, an Arizona political candidate whose content made reference to climate change actions in Arizona, has increased chances of reaching these voters if the content was geo-location optimized.

SEO professionals who knows the political climate are in the best position to know the inclinations of voters in the region, and are therefore more competent to handle the digital marketing and promotional strategies of a political website.