Cathy Planchard Authors SEO Article for PRNews

November 1, 2007 – Tempe, AZ

First Published by PR News Press in "PRNews: Guide to Best Practices in Measurement, Volume 2."

SEO AND PR: The One-Two Punch for Driving Sales

The function of public relations is constantly evolving. With an estimated 6.4 billion searches conducted on search engines in the US monthly, the role of online information sources as a key communications vehicle cannot be ignored. Gone are the days when audiences passively wait for a message to reach them. They are actively looking for information, seeking services, and making purchases—all online. As a result, PR professionals are incorporating traditional website search engine strategies into their media relations efforts. Not only are these methods proving successful, they can be measured and monitored down to the individual click.

As a PR practitioner, your job is to clearly convey key messages about your company. As a rule of thumb, these messages should be concise and easy to understand—not filled with industry jargon or hyperbole. The same principle applies to search engine marketing. Put yourself in the shoes of your ultimate target customer. What words would he or she use to describe your service? These “keywords” are ultimately what your potential buyer would be entering into a search engine to find a list of providers, and it is the same language that you should include throughout the body of the press release as the first step in your optimization efforts.

If you are part of an organization that has a dedicated online marketing team, they can provide you the list of top keywords. Otherwise, use common sense to derive at phrases, usually two to three words long, to describe your offerings. Alternatively, you can use free online tools that offer search term suggestions through Overture, Google, and Business Wire, among others. You should also add hyperlinks in your release, so that a reader who clicks on these key words is automatically sent to a certain area on your Web site.

Press release is in hand, keywords have been incorporated, now what? The next step is to choose your delivery platform. In addition to traditional media distribution services, there are numerous platforms that specialize in optimization and online placements. These services have honed their technology over time to ensure that your press releases are submitted to the major engines, that the links and keywords are included appropriately, and that your press release is archived indefinitely, so that it is not removed over time. Such platforms include PR Web, PR Leap, i-Newswire, and WebWire.

Measure. Tweak. Lather. Repeat.

Most distribution methods have significant tracking capabilities, such as the amount of clicks on your headline and press release downloads, which search engines/keywords were used, and the number of online sites that linked to your release. Additionally, traffic from your news release can be tracked through a microsite, forms submitted, or via a web trends analysis package that shows the number of hits to designated pages. These capabilities make PR content as measurable as other online efforts, including advertising and email campaigns. Stringent measurement also allows you to adjust future releases with different keywords, hyperlinks, and calls to action to compare your results and ultimately increase your reach.

Driving Sales through PR

By submitting optimized releases, whitepapers or newsletter content to search engines, your company’s website will be indexed more frequently and over time, your rankings will increase. But getting into top rankings is only a part of the battle. The ultimate measure of your PR success is increasing the number of hits to your site, generating leads, and closing sales.

55 percent of online purchases begin at a search engine. Consider these tips for using your search engine optimized press releases as targeted vehicles for driving leads, and ultimately, sales:

• Create calls to action in your release. What is it that you want the reader to do? Visit your Web site? Submit an opinion? Register for a seminar? Include a call to action in the body of the release and direct the audience to a specific landing page.

• Publicize your whitepaper availability. If you create content that is of ‘value’ to the reader/audience, they will willingly exchange their contact information to receive it. Use optimized press releases to publicize important information, such as resource guides, tips/tricks, pitfalls to avoid, etc., and include hyperlinks in your release to direct the reader to your Web site to receive the information. You can then elect to require the person to fill out a lead form to download the document, which can be handed off to your sales team as a prospect.

• Be selective when incorporating hyperlinks in your releases. Look at the page that you are directing your audience to objectively to understand what their ‘experience’ on the page will be. Ensure the reader is as few clicks away as possible to speak to a customer service representative, purchase through e-commerce, or request a demonstration.

The Best of All Worlds

Optimized press releases present your organization’s news to the media. But it also catapults the delivery of your message to additional audiences with whom you’ve never before been able to directly communicate. For example, you can now reach not only your journalists, but also the target market itself directly. That’s because your optimized press release shows as a search result when that audience is using an engine to find information or specialized services for your industry.

Second, the journalists that you have traditionally tried to reach—not always successfully—are likewise conducting the same searches for information sources. By having your company ranked high in search engines, you increase the chance of being included in a trend story, industry round- up, or as a general expert on a particular topic. Finally, these optimized releases have a higher chance of being picked up by blogs and other online outlets.

With breakneck speed, both journalists and consumers are turning to the Internet for their daily news. Optimization of press materials is a great equalizer, because the ranking of search results largely has to do with quality and timeliness of content. It gives organizations—regardless of size—the ability to have their messages heard like never before.

Sidebar:

Some simple rules to consider when incorporating SEO into your PR efforts:

1. To thine core audience be true. A press release is intended for the media and ultimately your target market. Do not compromise the integrity of the copy by inserting dozens of links, key words and phrases that dilute your news. Keep it simple. An optimized headline and keywords in your company or product descriptor are a good start. Remember, search engines are not the only way that people look for products. Traditional media, testimonials and events are also important!

2. Don’t overstuff. Blatant and obvious keyword placement, particularly when repeated ad nauseum, makes your release start to sound like an advertisement. Remember that relevancy is key.

3. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Avoid firms that send you unsolicited emails promising that you will be at the top of the rankings across “thousands of pages”. Concentrate on SEO basics for your next press release and measure the results. As Google warns on its site, “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.”

4. Think outside the press release. Consider other communications vehicles that can also benefit from optimization, such as whitepapers and newsletters. If a whitepaper is technical in nature, consider optimizing at least the headline, subhead, and summary.

5. Spamming doesn’t work with email, and it won’t work with search engines. Search engines may detect your spam techniques, and potentially ban your page from their listings. In addition, you run the risk of frustrating customers—which is word of mouth buzz that you definitely DON’T want.

6. Measurement is your new best friend. It’s difficult to abandon a traditional way of doing something. If you are having a difficult time explaining to your management team why this is important, show them the extent of variables that can be tracked with SEO distribution, and let the ROI do the talking for you.

Cathy Planchard is Group Director of Public Relations for Mindspace, a full-service agency based in Arizona. Mindspace offers integrated marketing strategies to deliver bottom line results for clients across a variety of industries, including technology, travel, real estate, compliance, construction, and consumer products.