PR and SEO – 8 reasons to integrate

Posted by jameswdcrawford on September 1, 2010 under PR | Be the First to Comment

The link between SEO and PR is nothing new but recently everyone’s been talking it. More and more public relations and optimisation consultancies are starting to truly understand the interrelation between the two disciplines, although there are lots of consultancies who talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.

In both the SEO and PR industries there is widespread debate about consolidation between the two specialisms, and I expect over the next few years that the big PR groups will be acquiring SEO companies (in fact a few mergers, buyouts and even senior appointments of SEOs are already taking place).

Despite this trend, too many SEO and PR companies just don’t understand the other’s profession.

Some SEOs think that PR is submitting content to newswires, while there are far too many PR people that don’t even know what optimisation is or why an in-bound link has value, let alone more advanced SEO concepts.

Those of us in PR know that, while submitting content to newswires and article sites has SEO benefits, very few techniques can create high quality links like PR. And when I say PR I mean, good old fashioned media relations, never mind the ‘social’ side.

For example, can an SEO company get you a link on the BBC website? Only good old media relations can do that.

Likewise, though, can the average PR, fiddle under the hood of a website to optimise your site for search purposes, The answer is of course ‘no’.

The two disciplines need each other.

As illustration of the similarity between SEO and PR, during a recent PR campaign I analysed how many links were created and now pointing to a client’s site.

Over a third of all the links created were from press coverage or blogger engagement. And we hadn’t even been trying to build links; this was merely a by product of our work.

There are other metrics too, like site traffic and bounce rates, but it is the basics (link building) that many don’t understand.

In summary, SEO and PR are incredibly complementary for these eight reasons:

1 – 65 per cent of Google rankings are made up of off-page factors, such as in bound links
2 – PR campaigns naturally create inbound links, almost as a by product
3 – It is very easy to measure inbound links and prove that they were generated by PR
4 – Good public relations consultancies secure their clients links on high quality sites, such as the BBC, or other national newspapers. The sort of links SEO companies can only dream of
5 – SEO professionals can provide insight for PR campaigns, such as helping define key messaging or campaign targeting. PRs should work with SEO professionals where possible
6 – PR professionals can help with on-site SEO, by developing fresh content, rich in keywords (e.g. a blog, social content)
7 – PR activity can also help dictate the nature of the anchor text (which is another SEO factor)
8 – PR can also improve your social graph. (yet another contributing factor to SEO)

If you are still reading this post, and want to find out more, here is some further reading.
10 ways to make press releases more SEO friendly

There are tips galore on how to make your writing SEO friendly

There are plenty of articles on the best press release distribution services

The world doesn’t need another beginner’s guide to SEO either, but this one is pretty good.

Google Social Search makes Networking Even More Important

Posted by jameswdcrawford on January 28, 2010 under Social Media | Be the First to Comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYf5iSA6t6g&feature=player_embedded

I have been banging on about the importance of having a Google Profile for some time now, as it means that your blogs, images and other content can be profiled in your contacts’ Google Search results.

For the past few months I’ve been asking colleagues and friends if they’d noticed their contacts’ social content (e.g. blog posts or Flickr images) appearing in Google searches. No one had noticed anything.

Yes, people had seen Twitter results appearing in Google, but no one had seen personalised content from their own networks.

I had read about Google Social Search and thought that it was a great idea, but there was little evidence of it working and Google’s plans for when and where to roll it out were sketchy to say the least.

There were very few blogs on the subject. That was, until yesterday, when Mashable posted on the subject.

Google Social Search is brilliant as it is validation for any marketer who is encouraging their company or clients to use social media, as it means that once any given person connects with someone else, that their content will appear in their contacts’ search results. In other words, Google Social Search provides you with another incentive to connect with people because as long as you are linked, your blogs, tweets and other content will be front of mind, all thanks to search.

Here is a link to my Google Profile .

PR and Social Media Links – 16 January

Posted by jameswdcrawford on January 16, 2010 under Media | Read the First Comment

Here are a few links to interesting articles which I found this week

Excellent Resources Help You Create Your Own Social Networking Site
This is very geeky reading but there are some excellent tools, tips and plugins here for the digital and web savvy social media professional

How To Rank Top In Google
Nice summary of SEO, should you need to explain it to a client or marketing contact

List of The Top Free Press Release Sites — Moola Days
Public Relations professionals can argue whether news agencies are useful or not for securing press coverage, but what you can’t deny is that this blog has the most definitive list

20 Real-World Uses for Google Wave
What I like about this post is that it doesn’t get carried away and gives real, tangible uses. Any PR professional who has read up on Google Wave will have come across these uses before. However too often Google Wave blogs talk about the platform like it is a cure for cancer, while this post reiterates the most useful functionality

Google Goggles to revolutionise Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Posted by jameswdcrawford on December 8, 2009 under Media | Be the First to Comment

Google Goggles takes SEO out of the hands digital communications and into that of the product designer or anyone involved in the built environment.

The concept of functionality for a designer could in the future also mean consideration must be given to any design being recognisable by Google Goggles. A designer must no longer worry solely about form and ergonomics. Their remit will change to include SEO.

If a design is unrecognisable to Google Goggles, there will be in some cases problems, especially if the world becomes as reliant on Google Goggles as it is on Google Search.

And as a result the role of SEO experts will also change. So far SEO is a digital expertise which broadly falls under marketing or communications channels. However, will this in the future, and how will current SEO experts react?