May 1, 2015: While many public relations practitioners ignore search engine optimization in their work — either because they don’t know enough about SEO or don’t think SEO is important enough — some PR practitioners have woken up to the fact that SEO can help transform an unknown startup or small business into a business that competes online strongly against much bigger competitors. These PR practitioners understand the power of a PR + SEO partnership, and the core capabilities of PR strategists prepare them well for integrating SEO into all their activities. Marketing agencies that offer integrated PR and SEO services and implement best practices from both disciplines can make the best progress for their clients.
Here are ten SEO PR tips from the experts at Didit and its Bridge Global Strategies public relations subsidiary for actually navigating the crossover between PR and SEO:
1. Get creative with keywords
It’s part of the core skill set public relations professionals have to identify and understand target audiences. This is a prerequisite for knowing what search terms potential customers are using to find a business that offers what yours does. These terms aren’t always visible. They include more than just the products or services you offer. To be effective in increasing the number of visitors to a website, search terms have to be accurate enough to reach people who are searching online to find a company like yours, and to differentiate your site from competitors’, but not so particular that very few people will use them.
2. Think long-tail keywords
Often, long-tail keyword (keywords that are very specific to your industry i.e white lace mermaid style wedding dress instead of white wedding dress) will lead potential customers who really know what they are looking for and are ready to buy straight to your website’s landing page where they can find that exact product. It’s also easier to improve your website’s Google ranking by using long tail keywords. Focus on these keywords when you optimize your website as well as while you’re developing original content.
3. Build content strategically around keywords
Keywords should be included in the headline and body of your press releases, blog posts, whitepapers, and all online content. Content shouldn’t be over-stuffed with keywords, though—Google spiders that search and interpret web content mark keyword-overloaded pages as spam, and your pages will automatically be kept from ranking well. It is important that you do think through your keywords when including them in your press releases. Editors and publishers will take into consideration those keywords when your story is picked up.
4. Develop and follow a blog content plan
The best business blogs demonstrate that the company has authority and expertise in its industry. Statistics shows that websites with blogs receive more visits than websites that just optimize their website pages. Creating a blog content plan involves scheduling the development of material that will engage customers and potential customers. Using your blog to overtly promote your company and its products is counter-productive. People don’t like to be sold to, but they do appreciate relevant, educational and interesting material. For your business’s website to maintain its search engine ranking and continue ascending, this type of content should be regularly produced. New posts should ideally be published a couple of times a week, but less frequent posts will help companies that haven’t been blogging at all to build more visibility.
If there’s nobody in your business with the ability or time to write this type of material, you can turn to creative freelance writers or agencies. Sometimes business people have trouble coming up with ideas for blog posts. Integrated marketing companies with public relations and content marketing departments can suggest ideas for content for your audience, built around your keywords.
5. Identify Social Influencers with blogs
Because your ultimate goal is a hard link that conveys SEO value, don’t chase after social influencers on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, who don’t actively maintain blogs (not all of them do). Limit your selection criteria to influencers who maintain an active, balanced social media portfolio. Research their quality score and Alexa rating. It is important that you are targeting those bloggers that Google recognizes as authoritative.
6. All content should reflect your company’s core messaging clearly and consistently
This is a major principle of marketing and public relations. When customers find your website, they’ll grasp quickly what it is you want them to know about your company. Do you have a content mission statement? Does this content mission statement include critical keywords? Businesses that are successful in their PR and SEO practice have a clear understanding of their mission statement.
7. Use analytic tools to track progress
Use tools such as Google Analytics to analyze which keywords are most effective; track your website’s progress in ranking higher for keywords; and measure how many potential customers have come to your site as a result of searching for your keywords. Analytic tools can also lead back to the online sources that bring people to your website. You can measure the success of online content that is developed by or for your company by the number of people who are referred back to your website from that content. Referrals to your website from articles or videos that mention your company and are produced by the media (“earned content”) can help measure the effectiveness of your public relations efforts. Analytic tools are very valuable in measuring which blog posts have been the most and least popular, which news releases attract the most attention and which content is the downloaded from your site most and least. Knowing these stats helps you focus future content on topics that are a draw and avoid those that are not.
8. Go where the reporters go
Journalists love Twitter because its real-time nature lets them jump on news events, develop sources quickly, and use content found there to populate their own stories. If your client is doing something interesting (for example, releasing a new data-driven report), make sure you notify the groups where reporters are most likely to be lurking. In addition, Twitter’s new partnership with Google tweets will now show up in Google search results. This is a great way of maximizing social media for SEO and PR.
9. Share the spotlight
Consider profiling people and firms active in your client’s industry via Q&A-style articles that highlight their achievements, unusual/provocative views, and insights. Share this content with your interview target before and after it’s published. Do an excellent job, broadcast the link to your social networks, and the chance of your client being an awarded an editorial link will be increased. Not only is this tactic a great opportunity to increase brand awareness but it also helps you to improve your real estate in the Google SERPs (search engine results pages).
10. Think beyond articles
Articles that are published on your client’s behalf may work as good link earning, but consider adding additional forms of content that provide more value, for example, eBooks and Slideshare presentations. Although you’ll have to put more labor into these high-value content types, you’ll be creating content that’s more link-worthy.
Both public relations and SEO are necessary parts of an overall marketing strategy. When PR and SEO are incorporated into one strategy, one plus one equals three. While SEO is only one part of a successful marketing strategy, without effective SEO, your website is at a significant disadvantage in vying with your competitors online. Your integrated marketing agency should be incorporating the rules of SEO into all of its PR work for you.
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