Public relations as a
function is concerned about getting a market presence for the client and with
both the customers and investors are spending most of their time online; it’s
high time to grab attention for the clients through the online portals. And, in
getting such attention, it is the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that helps
the PR firms the most.
Although
website management is not a thing that usually falls under the PR team’s
umbrella, whereas executing simple SEO tricks and techniques communicators can
improve the brand’s search rank. This, in turn, would bring greater market
acceptance for the client’s media stories as the market believes in confirming
what that is claimed in write up, and nothing is more valid than the
information available online.
Follow this simple
5-step formula to make the best possible use of SEO in your PR Campaigns:
1. Consult
with the digital or web team and ascertain some priority key term(s) or phrase
that hold the potential to bring forward the company’s name whenever
used or talked about in the PR Campaigns and accompanying news.
2. Make
it a point to use these designated keywords on the on-site content as much as
possible in the places like page title, page URL, first header (H1), copy text,
etc. But be careful while using the key terms as the overuse can lead to
penalization of the website.
3. Incorporate
these keywords into the traditional PR tools like press releases, pitch notes
and messaging material like you are doing with the on-site
content. Because, ultimately these press releases will get some media
coverage that have the potential to appear in search engine’s search.
4. While
pitching the media for your story, always remember to ask them for the inclusion
of client’s website link in their article. Because it is these backlinks
from the trusted media outlets that can create a much stronger impact on a
website’s search-rank.
5. Whether
it is the tweets, Instagram or the Google+ posts, they all are right there in
the search engine’s domain. So, to gain extra visibility for the brand make it
a point to incorporate the assigned keywords in the social media posts as naturally
as possible.