| Public Relations Management software providers | | | | content you publish by inserting keywords and links, |
| Vocus held a fantastic webinar on Wednesday 28th | | | | including: blog posts, press releases, news, PDFs, white |
| July 2010, including talks from five influential speakers | | | | papers, link and anchor text, interviews, newsletters, |
| from the PR, marketing and social media world: Deidre | | | | even comments. And don't forget about "digital assets" |
| Breakenridge, David Meerman Scott, Beth Harte, Lee | | | | such as images, video, podcasts and social media |
| Oddin and Brian Solis. | | | | interactions. If it's published, it must be optimised and |
| We thoroughly enjoyed the whole day of marketing | | | | promoted. Content distribution encourages linking, which |
| and 2.0 insights and we thought for those of you who | | | | also boosts SEO. |
| didn't get a chance to watch the speakers and get | | | | #3 - Know when PPC is a better choice than SEO. |
| involved in the live chat, we'd summarise each | | | | SEO is a long term process, ingrained in the content |
| speaker's presentation (and their scheduled chat | | | | and makeup of your website, building presence and |
| afterwards) and try to answer any unanswered | | | | links over time. PPC campaigns run on demand as a |
| questions from the chatrooms. Every weekday this | | | | more instant alternative to natural listings. There are |
| week, we will post a summary, following up next week | | | | times when PPC is a better marketing route, such as |
| with the chat questions. Enjoy! | | | | promoting a business change or new product, or to |
| Lee Odden - Lee Odden's presentation, "Top 10 SEO | | | | combat negativity with a realtime reaction in a way |
| Tips for PR" explained the basics of integrating search | | | | that SEO could not do so quickly. |
| engine optimisation into the public relations and | | | | #4 - Research your keywords. SEO generally starts |
| marketing side of business to maximise the potential of | | | | with researching which keywords you want to |
| your SEO. | | | | optimise to best promote your products, services or |
| Overview: | | | | website. Which words and phrases do people actually |
| The purpose of SEO is to make the content on your | | | | search for when they are looking for your specific |
| site easily found by search engines, and in turn, raising | | | | goods? You can't just rely on what keywords you |
| your ranking in their result pages. With PR, SEO can do | | | | already tend to use, or the ones you decide are most |
| the same optimisation to make your news content | | | | important - you MUST do your research in this area, |
| easily found by journalists and the media. As David | | | | and glean information from your competitors, search |
| Meerman Scott puts it: | | | | engines and keyword tools. Brainstorm, import your |
| I have received over 25,000 email story pitches over | | | | keywords into a research tool, check variations, |
| the last two years. Products. Solutions. Tech | | | | permutations, popularity, relevance, competitors and |
| innovations, etc. How many resulted in stories? None. I | | | | trends. Do a search and see what types of media |
| go to the web and search for information on the topic I | | | | come up on the first page - if there are a lot of videos |
| want to do a story on. | | | | that match your main keywords, it could mean your |
| Pitches do not result in massive media exposure. | | | | customers are looking for video answers to their |
| Researchers find their own stories, depending on what | | | | queries, and that's where you should be adding your |
| is trending, what is new, what is engaging. A journalist | | | | content. If a targeted keyword is highly competitive, |
| or researcher's path to finding a fresh story firstly | | | | consider long tail search terms instead. |
| takes them to a search engine. Next they explore the | | | | #5 - Maximise your on-page SEO. Use keywords in |
| results, find out facts, information and ideas to expand | | | | title tags, page titles, navigation links, body copy, |
| on. They will choose their content based on their trust | | | | keyword links, image alt text, URLs, meta tags and so |
| of those sources, whether they have a good SEO | | | | on. Organise your pages logically so bots can easily |
| ranking, if they are an authority on what they are | | | | find the content. Add content regularly and sort into |
| talking about. This leads to a media relationship | | | | categories or themes according to subject. Monitor |
| between the researcher and the source, with | | | | your page metrics and adjust if you're not getting the |
| journalists using their favourite, trusted sites for | | | | results you're after. |
| information again and again. Obviously, you want your | | | | #6 - Optimise press releases. Add your researched |
| site to be in that position - giving you instant media | | | | keywords into press releases and optimise your |
| coverage without having to pitch, cajole or fight for it. | | | | content, add a call to action, link to relevant landing |
| Balancing the Push and Pull | | | | pages, add media, post to your newsroom, pitch to the |
| Odden used a Push/Pull explanation to show the | | | | media and distribute via social media to get the most |
| difference between traditional PR and SEO-enhanced | | | | out of a single press release. Press releases can be |
| marketing. | | | | used as a powerful SEO tool to gain links and increase |
| The PUSH covers PR and its outreach approach, for | | | | rankings. |
| example using wire services, networking, pitching etc, | | | | #7 -Optimised your newsroom. Using software like |
| effectively pushing for sales. | | | | WordPress makes it easy to implement SEO into your |
| In contrast, the PULL is what your content does when | | | | newsroom or blog by adding tags, organising posts into |
| it is optimised with SEO, for example distributing press | | | | categories, inserting keywords and links, enabling RSS |
| releases, a newsroom or section on your website, | | | | or email subscription and site search, linking with your |
| social media networking and media coverage. | | | | social media networks and posting a variety of fresh, |
| Implementing SEO into your PR content will both help | | | | unique content including multimedia. |
| your site rank higher, and enable your important | | | | #8 - Build links and "electrify" content in search. Inbound |
| information and news to be found, shared and | | | | links boost your search credibility and will help you rank |
| distributed. | | | | higher. Earn links with great content, promote your site |
| The Basics | | | | and content socially, trade links with partners, link |
| The basics of search engine optimisation are easy to | | | | internally to other posts or landing pages, embed links in |
| take on board and put into place, making your PR and | | | | press releases, use keywords in link text rather than |
| SEO mutually beneficial. For example you can: | | | | "click here". Bear in mind that natural links are much |
| - Reach journalists and researchers with the content | | | | more powerful than a bought link. Grow your brand's |
| they are looking for. | | | | network through gaining email subscribers and |
| - Extend the reach of your PR and communications. | | | | followers and fans on social networks. |
| - Increase unsolicited media placements. | | | | #9 - Use social media. Optimise your social media |
| - Bypass media channels and deliver the information | | | | content for search - three of the top ten search |
| directly to consumers. | | | | engines are searching socially already and it is an area |
| - Protect your brand and online reputation. | | | | which is likely to become an integral part of natural |
| Why SEO is Important | | | | search. Social media can influence SEO and vice |
| By optimising the content on your website or blog, you | | | | versa: by optimising you are link building, networking |
| will assist your existing SEO, adding extra channels in | | | | and boosting traffic, including the expansion of your |
| which your content can be shared, linked to and | | | | social media presence. In turn, social media increases |
| distributed. A higher ranking on SERPs (search engine | | | | exposure, the amount of places your content is shared |
| result pages) lends credibility and trust to your brand | | | | and builds natural links, assisting with SEO. |
| and site - essentially showing that you are the Number | | | | #10 - Measure PR SEO. There are various ways to |
| 1 expert in your field. | | | | monitor your analytics, such as individual wire service |
| Having a beautiful and informative site is not enough - | | | | metrics, analytics for landing pages, site traffic, Google |
| if it isn't optimised, Google (or other search engines) | | | | alerts, monitoring RSS subscriptions, conversion |
| aren't going to find it and you won't be listed for the | | | | tracking, social media monitoring, amount of inbound |
| relevant search terms that relate to your products or | | | | links, pick ups on blogs/sites/publications and search |
| services. | | | | rankings. Compare yourself with the competition and |
| Odden gave the example of an Adidas site - full of | | | | see where you can improve. |
| strong impacting images of men's sportsware and | | | | Tips and Hints (from the live chat): |
| training shoes... but no actual text on the page - | | | | Beginners looking into some DIY SEO shouldn't worry |
| meaning that the site didn't make it into the top 10 | | | | about the differences in optimising for separate search |
| ranking pages for "men's running shoes". In contrast, he | | | | engines (eg Google or Bing). Analytics can give you |
| showed a Patagonia site, similarly image heavy, but | | | | clues and hints, but unless you are an SEO |
| also containing navigation content - providing search | | | | professional, you should mainly concentrate on |
| engine crawlers with plenty of informative text to help | | | | keywords, writing engaging content, link building and |
| them rank the site appropriately. Therefore Patagonia's | | | | increasing visibility. |
| site came up as the number one result for "outdoor | | | | Even text within Flash can be seen by Googlebots in |
| clothing". | | | | many cases. The best way to optimise this kind of |
| Top 10 Tips: | | | | text is to add it to the page where the Flash loads, eg: |
| #1 -Make your site searchable! Search engines need | | | | embed the Flash within the HTML of the page where |
| to crawl your site to gather the information they | | | | the text is published. |
| require to rank you accordingly. Certain files can block | | | | Great resources for learning search engine |
| the bots used to do this which results in your pages | | | | optimisation are abundant online, though nothing |
| being missed. Remove any barriers and make sure | | | | compares to first hand knowledge and experience. |
| your site is easy to navigate. Things to check are | | | | Get involved, go to conferences, network and |
| privacy settings in place to keep bots away while a | | | | research. See the resources below for invaluable |
| site is under construction or ensuring that you don't just | | | | sources online. |
| duplicate text such as title tags, and be sure to register | | | | Well, that's all from us today - thanks again to Vocus |
| and validate your site with Webmaster Central so they | | | | and Lee Odden for a great presentation. Come back |
| know your site exists! Search engines thrive on unique, | | | | every weekday this week for the rest of the webinar |
| fresh content, and need to know what your page is | | | | summaries, and check the blog next week for our |
| about so make it easy for them and optimise. | | | | Q&A session comprised of all the questions that |
| #2 - Optimise all content. Make the most of all and any | | | | couldn't get answered on the day. |