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The Marriage of PR & SEO
Posted on 20. Mar, 2009 by Boyd Norwood in Press Releaases, Search Engine Optimization, Space Monkee
PRWeb referenced a DMNews article saying that 99.5% of Press Releases aren’t optimized for the web. More and more journalists and others are going online to find news, 73% to be exact according to a May 2008 study from the Pew Internet Trust & American Life Project. SEO is designed to get your news in front of more of those viewers, so let’s take a look what SEO is and how it can help you in your online PR.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization is part of a wider strategy to draw traffic from search engines called Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Pay-Per-Click (PPC), commonly referred to as paid search advertising is generally the other piece of the SEM pie. But that’s a topic for another day.
SEO consists of four main parts:
- Researching phrases that your potential clients are using to search for businesses like yours
- Optimizing your web content to include those keyword phrases
- Getting keyword-rich links to your site with those phrases
- Tracking your results
SEO often requires an upfront investment of time and money before solid results appear, but this ongoing process can bring you highly targeted traffic over time. (For a more detailed overview of the SEO process see Search Engine Optimization Training)
How can SEO increase the Value my Press Releases?
When considering the SEO benefits your Press Release can have, there are two areas you must consider: The ranking potential of your website AND the ranking potential of press release itself.
A well structured press release can rank well in the news search engines, stays visible longer to those searching news engines and if it’s not time sensitive you can even rank in the normal search engine results with a little link building effort. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. To optimize a press release here are some guidelines:
- Include keyword phrases in the title of the release. On many sites the press releases end up on, the title of the release becomes the title tag of the page, this is one of the most important factors in helping a page rank well.
- Include the keyword throughout the release, but especially in the first paragraph.
- If you include headings, naturally try include keywords there.
Helping a Press Release to reach a wider audience via SEO optimization is smart. However, with a little coordination with your search engine marketing company or team, every press release is also a chance to help your website rank better. Know the following items:
- Target keywords & keyword clusters
- Target pages (urls) on site
- Current search rankings for those keywords
Each release should include two to three keyword-rich links to different pages on your site. Each page on your site should be optimized to rank well for a handful of specific, related keyword phrases, a cluster. The keyword phrases you use to link to those pages should be the same keywords for which they are optimized. This combination of onsite optimization for specific phrases and related offsite links pointing to that page help it rank well for those phrases.
With these pieces of data in hand, you are armed with the information necessary to help your press release bring in traffic AND to contribute to your site’s overall search engine rankings.
What Online PR Tools Are Best?
Recently TopSEOs.com listed the top ten PR sites (Thanks @NewspaperGrl). A the top of their list was PRWeb.com, a site designed to help you specifically optimize your PR for SEO to get the largest reach possible. PRWeb & others have tools to help you know how many people saw your press release. In addition to this you should also be monitoring your own site’s stats to see how people are arriving on your site. You can tell this through your site’s referral statistics.
How Do I Assess the Effectiveness of My PR?
Every Press Release should have a call to action in it, an offer or a special discount. This doesn’t have to be the main focus of the release, but make sure to give the viewer something to act on. If this is in place, it’s one of the most important measures of effectiveness that you can monitor.
Other measures include views of the release, successful interviews from local or national news outlets as well as website traffic.
The Wrap-up: A Case for SEO in PR
As was stated at the outset of this article, a large majority of Press Releases go out every day and are NOT optimized for visibility on the web, let alone to help a company’s search engine rankings. With a little effort, you can drive targeted traffic to your website with the help of online Press Releases.
I hope these thoughts were helpful. If you have any questions, I’d love to write more on this topic, just leave a comment or shoot me an email and I’ll get back with you with an answer. Call me too if you’d like us to come present to your company and share with you how we could help you increase traffic & sales. Follow me on Twitter @ioVspaceMonkee or get our latest blog posts and free workshop announcements @ioVentures
5 Ways to Mess Up Your Rankings
Posted on 25. Jul, 2008 by Boyd Norwood in Search Engine Optimization
5. Do Nothing
Pretty simple right? Search engines are smart enough to know how often you are updating your site, and how often links are coming in. They are in love with fresh content, and will reward you handsomely for constantly posting quality content on your site. Doing nothing will cause your rankings to drop, and drop they will!
4. Duplicate Content
Taking content from your website, posting it as articles on other sites and article directories is a very ineffective way to build links. It is better to rewrite your content so that it is unique when you submit it to other sites online.
3. Buy 1000 Links
Kind of like a "get rich quick" scheme, it just doesn’t work anymore. Sounds good though, right? Getting thousands of links overnight ought to increase your rankings… Well, believe it or not, search engines are smart enough to identify the quantity of links your site gets over time and Google is looking down upon paid links now.
2. Keyword Stuffing
So you want to get a certain keyword ranked? Why not just stuff that keyword all through the page you want it to rank for, get a few links pointing to it with that keyword in the anchor text, and wallah! Trust me, search engines don’t like to be manipulated. They will catch on real quick whether or not you are stuffing your page with a certain keyword. Vary the anchor text for heavens sakes!
1. Hire an Seo Firm
Wait a second! We are an SEO firm, why would I be saying that it will mess up your rankings? Ok, so maybe I need to be more clear. This should sound better:
1. Hire an SEO firm, WITHOUT doing your research.
Having a basic understanding of SEO, will help you to decide whether or not the SEO firm will really help your rankings. You’ll know what questions to ask, and what answers to expect. One important tip: If the SEO company tells you it will submit your site to search engines, stay away, stay far, far away! (Unless by "search engines" they mean "web directories")
10 Questions to Ask an SEO Company
Posted on 29. Feb, 2008 by Boyd Norwood in Search Engine Optimization
When choosing an SEO company you must be very careful and do your homework before signing a contract. Don’t limit yourself to just one option and make sure you are looking at the big picture (return on each dollar you invest), not just the price they quote you. I have compiled a list of ten questions you should ask your SEO company before signing a contract.
- What type of techniques do you use to achieve rankings?
- What type of risk is involved with this method?
- What will happen if our relationship is dissolved?
- Can you show me examples of past work?
- What was the client’s ROI?
- What type of volume increase in traffic is reasonable to expect?
- How long until I start to see results?
- What would you expect from our end to aid your work?
- What were some of your top search ranking achievements?
- Do you offer any other internet marketing services to supplement your SEO offerings?
Asking each of these questions should give you enough knowledge about the company and their services to make an educated decision. Remember, you are only investing in SEO to gain a competitive advantage in your industry; you need the greatest return that you can possibly get.
The Value of SEO to an Online Marketing Mix
Posted on 27. Feb, 2008 by Boyd Norwood in Search Engine Optimization
The Value of Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is a very relevant aspect of creating value in an online marketing mix. We all know that phone books are out and websites are in, but what is the secret to transforming a great idea into a world-wide must-have product? How can the little guy win the online battle against the Goliaths of big business?
The trick is to play smarter, not harder. These are four great ways to gain value from SEO:
1. If you can’t beat ‘em, join em. Every business wants to be the first hit on a Google search, but you can’t do it alone. Linking your site to other sites is one of the most important elements to search engine optimization. Google and other search engines weigh the relevance of the link and then send traffic, through higher search rankings, to the sites that best fit the query. Being a respected authority within your industry is an important part of online business. Linking is going to help you make connections with people that sell or deal with similar products. This connection can help you spread the word about your company and synergize with other websites, but most importantly, it’s a necessity for moving your business from page 50 in the search engines to a page someone might actually see.
2. It’s not what you know, but who you know. This rule of thumb from the business world is just as applicable online as Facebook, MySpace, blogs, and a variety of other social networks continue to attract record numbers of visitors. And the popularity of social marketing is not expected to slow down anytime soon. Peter Daboll, President and CEO of Comscore.com said back in 2006, “This is a phenomenon we’re seeing not only in the U.S., but also around the world. Social networks have proven to be a new, innovative way to spread the word about your company. Individuals both young and old are using these sites as a place to gain meaningful information.
3. A picture is worth a thousand words. How does a three-year old know to throw a fit near the Lucky Charms in the grocery store isle? How does your teen decide that she’ll die without a Hannah Montana t-shirt? The answer, of course, is brand impression, and it is the make-it-or-break-it difference that sells “yummy” to tots, “cool” to teens, and “reliable to grandma. SEO can help your market get a good impression of what your company represents. The benefits of brand impression come from exposure and a more meaningful experience on the net. With so much information on the internet, it is easy to have your brand mixed up with another company’s brand. Increased traffic and exposure will help clarify who your company is and why consumers should chose your product. The goal of brand impression is to be the first company the consumer thinks of when looking for a specific product. Having a strong company brand will raise sales and increase the overall value of the company.
4. Every little bit counts. You may think that if you can’t devote your life to search engine optimization, then it’s not worth spending time trying. Rome wasn’t built in a day, Michael Jordan didn’t become famous from shooting one basket, and Mozart’s first work wasn’t his greatest symphony. Thomas Edison is credited with saying that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. In the field of internet marketing, any advances you can make in driving traffic and customers to your site will put you one step closer to fulfilling your goals.
Search engine optimization is truly a new, innovative tool that will add value to any company. ioVentures has seen the value of SEO in a variety of companies. If your company is not taking advantage of these benefits, you may want to look into making an SEO investment in the near future. ioVentures would be more than happy to help you assess your SEO needs. This article from Google is also a great place to start your journey: