A look at SEO services from a PR perspective
SEO – one of the biggest buzzwords in the industry at the moment, and even films are being made about it, but what is it actually all about?
In the second installment of the series, Cherish takes a look at the impact of SEO on public relations and why a modern-day industry professional should care about it.
Why does it impact PR?
PR and marketing have been perceived to be siloed disciplines, no longer is that the case and hasn’t been for a while. Traditionally PR is based upon editorial or earned coverage from executive interviews, press releases, contributed content and news media commentary. However, the modern-day PR professional should have their SEO hat on. The lines between the marketing, PR and SEO services are blurring. This is driving team collaboration and joint strategies to ensure correct brand management.
Why do search engines matter?
Search engines are continuously evolving their algorithms to ensure that users receive the most relevant search results in the quickest time possible. Link-building used to be the quickest way to boost SEO and were favourite amongst SEO services, but Google put an end to that with its Penguin updates. This caused a major impact, and now the aim of the SEO game for PR is to secure natural editorial links from authoritative websites. Relying on strong media relationships and a mutual understanding, the art of negotiation is important for PRs looking to ensure that natural editorial link is included within copy.
What about the content?
From the content perspective, as PR professionals we pride ourselves in providing perfectly curated content for our clients, but that is no longer enough. To be fully effective as part of the wider PR and Marketing mix, content needs to be written but taking into account keywords, anchor-text links and metadata titles. Each piece of content needs to tick every box on an ever-growing list to ensure it hits the mark.
In the next installment of this blog series we take a look at the impact of SEO on the media. One of PRs closest industry friends, we look at why some of the worlds’ media is spending time and money on SEO services.