In the old days of SEO, the impact of PR on page rankings was rather
straightforward: It was all about building links. A good PR strategy
centered around the goal of enticing just about anyone on the web to
link to the company’s site and/or press release.
Today’s campaigns are in large part much more complex, thanks to
Google’s ever-evolving algorithms. The current reality is that Google
cares about the quality of content and credibility over a sheer volume
of links and keywords. PR strategies must now cleverly incorporate the
social stratosphere as well, leaving the two departments of SEO and
Public Relations in a prime place to work together.
Successful SEO revolves around stellar content, and successful PR
equates to an enviable network. Since SEO needs that network to thrive
and PR needs great content to have something to crow about, the marriage
of these two disciplines is now a no-brainer.
Networking and Citations: The Keys to Success
Many companies focus PR around two main areas: press releases and social signals.
Both are critical to generating word of mouth, links, and overall buzz,
but at the heart of success lies the quality of your network.
The first priority of any PR professional should always be
networking. If your digital rolodex consists of a myriad professionals
in your industry, with credibility and author rank galore, you are off
to the races. It’s of course ideal to have journalists at national
publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times on your
list, but this just isn’t realistic for many. That’s OK; what’s most
important is that your network be brimming with experts in your niche
that will favorably plug your site through targeted citations, press
releases, and related content. Credibility is absolutely paramount.
In the world of SEO, Google has increasingly placed more emphasis on
author rank, and less on keywords. Why? Keywords can be manipulated, and
author credibility far less so. If a journalist with a significant
readership who consistently blogs about fashion trends writes about your
online jewelry store, you’ve acquired an ally worth far more than a
bundle of less-relevant links or mentions.
The Power of a Press Release
Once you have a network of trusted and credible professionals (which
admittedly is a never-ending task), it’s time to master the art of the
press release. Ted Ives from Search Engine Land intelligently outlines why putting the cart (press release) before the horse (your network) is an unwise idea:
“Let me start by saying that a press release written, issued and
leveraged properly, can result in word-of-mouth, articles paraphrasing
the release, and at a minimum, at least some backlinks. But, a press
release alone will get much less exposure than one coupled with outreach
to individual journalists and bloggers directly prior to issuing it.”
In other words, don’t just launch a press release and hope the
content is so engaging that the links will just start flooding in. Be
proactive about engaging your network before launching your your
campaign, and incentivize them to spread the word.
Writing an SEO-Friendly Press Release
One could write for hours about press release best practices for
writing headlines, placing keywords, calculating reader drop-off rates,
and crafting the ideal headline length, but these are really elements
where practice helps make perfect for your specific brand and message.
Instead, let’s go over the critical elements of a successful press
release, especially as it relates to SEO.
First and foremost, think long and hard about the topics you deem
worthy for a press release. Ensure they are truly newsworthy, and will
be seen as valuable and interesting to folks outside of your immediate
company’s sphere. There are many good reasons to send a press release,
including website launch announcements, new products or services,
executive hires and bios, survey or case study releases, and/or new
corporate partnerships.
Make sure your headline clearly defines the key problem or benefit,
or your SEO needle won’t move an inch. The headline of your press
release is in many ways even more important than the content itself; not
just for SEO, but to engage your network in linking back to you, and
entice readers to go deeper. A subheading should further emphasize the
point.
A great press release almost always includes credible quotes from
related professionals too. The higher up (or well-known) the party with
the quote is on the food chain or company you are discussing, the more
credible the citation will be, to both readers and Google.
Remember to include a press kit or link to images and artwork. If you
want others to link back to you, they may require company logos and the
like to do so; make this as easy as possible for your network. Finally,
ensure your company’s privacy policy, terms of use, contact
information, executive listings, and other related information is
current and accurate on your respective websites and release. This
sounds like a small thing, but mistakes happen more often than you’d
think, and for both credibility and SEO reasons, it’s an abysmal error.
Why PR and SEO Experts Should Work Together
As critical as it is to write a brilliant press release every time,
it’s obvious that fine-tuning individual pieces of content is by itself a
shortsighted strategy. PR pros should also be working hard to maximize
their company’s website and social reach. SEO these days revolves around
a user-friendly, content-rich website experience, so combining the
analytical mind of an SEO whiz and the social, networking mind of a PR
guru is a match made in digital heaven. Incorporating PR into SEO
strategies is a tactic most companies are currently not utilizing.
PR Newswire VP Sarah Skerik puts it this way:
“In most cases I’ve seen thinking about SEO starts and ends with the
optimization of a particular message, with the goal of getting the press
release itself to rank in search engines. In reality, we should be
thinking about how to help our brands’ web sites rank, not individual
messages. PR sells itself short when the focus on results is too
narrow.”
The moral of the story is simple: PR and SEO go hand-in-hand. Because
they each adhere to the same three critical strategies – links, social
signals, and citations/author rank – professionals from both disciplines
should absolutely strategize together. SEO rankings don’t reach high
levels without scads of social mentions, nor do PR campaigns. The same
is true for link building and for creating a credible network of quotes
and citations. By considering the big picture before you launch a press
release or SEO tactic, you improve your chances for both areas to enjoy
another bite of scrumptious success.
Tell us about your experience with press releases and your SEO success or failure in the comments section.
From sitepronews
How PR Affects SEO
