What Role SEO Should Have In An Overall PR Strategy
Search engine optimization has evolved greatly over the past few years. With the explosion of social media and the ever-changing way people are receiving and consuming information, the world of SEO has been turned upside-down. Sure, the basic principles remain in tact, such as ensuring you content is relevant and you are utilizing the appropriate keywords, but the increasing prominence that search engines now place on social media outlets means that PR professionals must start incorporating SEO into their strategies in order to stay ahead of the game.
Recent numbers by Comscore estimate that there are over 130 billion searches conducted online per month worldwide. With search being the primary way people are gathering digital information, it’s imperative that SEO play a vital part in any PR campaign. In many fields, it’s not uncommon to find blogs and other online outlets repurposing a release word-for-word. A few years ago, this would be an undesirable occurrence, but given the digital landscape of today, this can often times be a blessing.
Very often, Google and other search engines are ranking blogs and other social media channels on the first page of search results. Should one of these sources misrepresent the facts of a brand’s message, the results can often trigger falsehood spreading throughout the web. Ensuring that a press release incorporate keywords and language that the general population is likely to use when conducting a search can play a huge part in controlling one’s communiqué.
Content syndication is also an important way of incorporating SEO on the public relations level. While YouTube may be the largest video network, it certainly isn’t the only one. Making sure that content used in outreach is placed on multiple video sharing sites can allow for greater control over one’s message as it relates to search engine results.
It’s also worth noting that in order for SEO to function ideally, all of these pieces must work together. Press releases should also live somewhere on a company’s website and include properly tagged hyperlinks. Any official brand presence throughout social media, whether it be on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, must also incorporate appropriate SEO techniques when necessary.
SEO was originally meant to increase quality traffic to a website but the evolution of the web and social media has caused that to expand. No longer does SEO fall in the realm of digital marketers. Every area of communications must have a basic understanding of SEO best practices and how they best fit into one’s respective field. If not, it will be very hard to preserve what little control is left related to a brand’s online image.
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