SEOs are from Venus and PRs are from Mars - will the planets ever collide?
A presentation for SAScon17th May 2012
FIRSTLY, LET’S GET OVER THE BASICS...
INDUSTRY ANALYSTS HAVE BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS THAT PR AND SEO WILL CONVERGE...
WHY IS SEO AND PR CONVERGING? PR CAN INFLUENCE ALL THESE SEARCH ENGINE RANKING FACTORS...
PR
PR
PR
PR
PR
PR
WHY IS SEO AND PR CONVERGING? TAKE A LOOK AT THE LINK
EQUITY OF THESE BIG ONLINE BRANDS
SOME OF THE HIGHEST VALUE LINKS TO EXPEDIA AND MONEYSUPERMARKET ARE ALL PR LINKSSEE BELOW
SO PR IS GOOD FOR BUILDING LINKS FROM AUTHORITY DOMAINS...
AN SEO DREAM
SO WHY HAVEN’T SEO AND PR JUMPED INTO BED ALREADY...
IS IT OUR PERSONALiTIES? OR DO OPPOSITES ATTRACT?
PRs
SEOs
CREATIVE
OPINIONATED
EGOTISTICAL
EXTROVERT
ANALYTICAL
TECHNICAL
PRACTICAL
COMMERCIAL
seo is grounded
in tangibility and
measureability.
pr less so.
IN MY OPINION, THERE ARE TWO DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRs and seos:
the skills gap
although intangible, ‘pr outcomes’, such as brand building and reputation, have a high perceived value with shareholders and boards of directors
the size of the uk pr industry
billion
for prs, brand and reputation is big business
however, inbound links sadly mean nothing to many prs. most don’t even report the links that they generate
they lack the skills / knowledge to do this
FOR MANY SEOs, measuring reputation and brand is outside their web analytics’ comfort zone
but measuring brand and reputation can be done. it is just expensive
SO how can seos and prs get it on13 actionable insights
Actionable insight
1.prs: if you don’t understand search yet then start learning now.
innovate or die(if you really are a beginner see appendix 1 for suggested links and further reading)
Actionable insight
2.seos: forget pr tactics and start by talking the language of ‘outcomes’ for brand, reputation, profile and measurement (tactics will follow)(see appendix 2 for some useful links)
Actionable insight
3.a new set of metrics needs to be created for seos and prs to really integrate
- track search metrics, opinions, brand, reputation metrics and the impact of these on shareholder value
Actionable insight
4. at the very least, learn to measure the basicsSEOs need to measure PRs need to measure
Enduseropinionsandsen-ment
andtheimpactonbrandand
reputa-on
Brandedsearchtraffic
Realworldmetrics,e.g.foo<all Domainauthority
Keymessaging Inboundlinks/linkequity
Shareofvoice Searchresults/conversions
Referraltraffic
SERPs
Actionable insight
5.as well as focusing on measurement, prs and seos need to get more aware of each other’s tactics
Actionable insight
6.seos need to think less about press releases and think more broadly about a range of tactics that can generate links
Actionable insight
7.be news-worthy (link-worthy)
create news-worthy content which has:- proximity- timeliness- human interest / novelty- conflict - eminence and prominence- consequence and impact- visuals (press photos, video footage)
Actionable insight
8. seos: understand appropriate messaging and use of controversy
Good Bad
Actionable insight
9. it is not just press releases that generate linksConsumer media Trade / B2B
Newsandfeatures Thoughtleadership
Stunts Guestposts
Features Research
Productreviews Contentmarke>ng
Compe>>ons Newsandfeatures
Advertorials Marketreports
Research
Actionable insight
10.provide a reason to link back to the website. link to further information / source of research in your release
train your spokesperson to mention the resource and link in interviews
Actionable insight
11.as well as using anchor text, write the url out in full
journalists often don’t cut and paste anchor text so the link is lost
Actionable insight
12.Less can be more. Don’t write 20 blog posts, instead spend the same amount of time turning this original content into one definitive industry report (link bait)
Then PR the content. (You can turn it into 20 blog posts later)
Actionable insight
13.PRs: don’t just be ‘white hat’. Manual link building works! A website which is visible to search brings traffic, aids social sharing and discovery by journalists
Let’s broaden our skills, the strategies that we deploy and what we measure
CONCLUSION
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Crawford is the Managing Director of PR Agency One and has a keen interest in the space where SEO and PR meet.
For more information about James and his business visit www.pragencyone.co.uk
Call him on 07793 441 6986
Twitter: @jamescrawford
thank you
appendix 1
PR beginners guide to SEO
How to create compelling content that ranks in search engines
Link building lessons for PR
SEGMENT SOCIAL MEDIA TRAFFIC USING GOOGLE ANALYTICS
appendix 2
Some good PR basics are in here (a bit basic in parts)
Link building lessons from PR
COI’s guide to PR measurement
AMEC guide to PR evaluation (A bit academic)
Why reputation matters
How to measure reputation
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