SEO Public Relations (PR); is this simply an additional variation to the discipline in the digital revolution? As technological innovations advance, it appears there are increasingly more areas open to digital exploration, reeling with benefits for the PRP who utilises them appropriately.
SEO when skilfully orchestrated through the use of specific short and long tail keyword phrases and quality link building from external sites can yield spectacular results. Not only does the level of external links to a client’s site play a vital role in establishing how useful it is but the use of algorithms enables the site to be ranked accordingly; therefore determining its position in Google’s search results. Equally content is identified by ‘spiders’ which analyse and ‘index’ site details to ensure the website and external links are legitimate.
For PRPs SEO PR is working wonders in improving client search visibility; generating higher levels of coverage and measuring ROI activity through analytics; a sophisticated tracking tool (Goodall, 2009). Metrics separate it from traditional mediums and provide a rich data set of visitors, conversions, geo locations and paid clicks. Google visibility is valuable, more so with the associated traffic which attributes to higher rankings. As the title of this blog suggests; “Google is a reputation management engine” through SEO. Those who are dubious in their link building techniques, can potentially damage client online reputation (Goodall, 2009).
“Good PR and the online practice of link building are natural bedfellows” since the dynamics of each are remarkably similar. McGaffin (2007) conceptualises the two; PR is the process of building an organisations reputation, largely through the use of positive media coverage and link building is the process of building a websites reputation by acquiring links from relevant and respected websites. Surely the two should go hand in hand as both strive for credible endorsements to formulate a positive reputation?
It is important to generate as many links as possible which can be extended across the key phrases chosen for the product, service or event promoted; these may be repeated in URL content, navigation and title tags to achieve maximum reach. PRPs need to gain an awareness of the key words used to search their organisation and/or brand; analytics provides the opportunity to track successful keywords, identify new keywords and improve conversion. Most significantly with 92% of journalists going online as part of their story research (Pavlik, 2008). It is a competitive industry and key words need to capture the story immediately to cut through the crowd.
For PR; traditional media remains a vital source for generating news stories yet the online medium enables information to be accessed years later, retaining public interest and continuing to drive traffic. For the PRP it is important the origins of content for news stories are accessible and links are generated back to the central web page (McGaffin, 2007).
In 2006, Waitrose generated over 300 stories on their new range of ‘ugly fruit’ online; fruit which was unconventional in appearance but still perfectly good and to be sold at a discount. However not one result originates from the central homepage, the BBC is an exception. Typing in to Waitrose’s search engine “ugly fruit” provides no results. With no story, press release, report or corporate blog post to generate links from other articles, Waitrose missed out on a great opportunity to advance search rankings as well as the number of visitors.
Likewise, press releases with publishable results of key reports can generate interest from journalists in search of alternative angles to a story; this can lead to maximum PR advantage resulting in more ‘clicks’ if the report is exclusive to the organisation (McGaffin, 2007).
Just as there are buzzwords in the real world that we associate with specific products, organisations, brands or public figures and equally how PR focuses on gaining credible links to reinforce the authenticity of campaigns; this can be applied through SEO. It is a tool that should be used to elevate the effectiveness of other PR tactics.
On a leaving note: I thought it would be interesting to type a few keywords in to Google based on my previous blog entry's. I typed in "harnessing interactivity" and here I am, top of the first page!
