Intro + History of Public Relations and SEO
It is hard to imagine PR and SEO being two separate entities. Prior to the Internet and SEO’S emergence in the early nineties, public relations strategies didn’t consider creating content that would be easy to find on the World Wide Web. For today’s PR professional, SEO and PR strategies are interconnected to gain maximum campaign value and position key messaging to targeted audiences.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is defined as a “methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) — including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.”
Ultimately, what does it mean to you and your business?
Google, the world’s largest search engine – has placed great importance for digital platforms to contain quality content that is relevant to the organization’s services, products, and industry. This importance is demonstrated through Google’s page ranking mechanism, which rates quality of the content, whether it contains relevant content, and if it has links to external premium sites. This means if you want your website/social media platform to appear in the top links in Google’s result pages – a SEO strategy is necessary.
When and why did SEO become prevalent?
To understand how SEO became such a pervasive element in the digital world, below is a timeline outlining its emergence.
Photo Caption: Timeline of search engine optimization, past practices and future of content marketing.
Photo Credit: Media Advisor Digital Marketing Specialists
Why is SEO important to business’s online presence?
Establishing a SEO strategy is crucial for any business’s survival in today’s digital age. Junto, a web development and traffic generation company has provided statistics on SEO’s importance based on consumer insights/behaviours in 2017.
Did you know?
- 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
- Google currently holds 5% of total search engine market share (up from 65.5% in January 2016).
- 57% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative.
- 81% of people perform some type of online research before making a large purchase.
- 47% of consumers view 3-5 pieces of content created by a company before talking to a sales representative from that company.
- 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic.
- 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines.
- 87%of people who own a smartphone use a search engine at least once a day.
- Mobile e-commerce revenue is projected to grow to 50% of total e-commerce revenue by the end of 2017.
- 40% of mobile website visitors will leave the site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
The goal of search engine optimization is to have the search engines not only find your site and pages but also specifically rank the page relevance so that it appears at the top of the search engine results. The process of optimization is not a one-time process but requires maintenance, tuning, and continuous testing and monitoring,Jon Rognerud, Entrepreneur Magazine
How does SEO work?
Incorporating SEO into your public relations strategies is a recurring commitment, not a single effort for instant gratification. Technological advancements are permeating every facet of our personal and professional lives. As such, it is a practice worth pursuing to ensure your business’s brand is accessible, relevant, and distinguishes itself among the billions of websites on the Internet.
Jon Rognerud, author of Ultimate Guide to Optimizing Your Website – outlines a simple four step process for building a high-performance website that will receive high page rankings on search engines.
- Step 1: Target Market Business Analysis
- Step 2: Keyword Research and Development
- Step 3: Content Optimization and Submission
- Step 4: Continuous Testing and Measuring
As mentioned in his Entrepreneur Magazine article, “The goal of search engine optimization is to have the search engines not only find your site and pages but also specifically rank the page relevance so that it appears at the top of the search engine results. The process of optimization is not a one-time process but requires maintenance, tuning, and continuous testing and monitoring,” says Jon Rognerud.
For more strategies that will extend the value of your public relations campaigns, please click here.
How does PR and SEO cross paths?
Effective and accessible communication is crucial in any public relations strategy. Creating content that allows your messaging to reach targeted audiences a sign of success. Continually aligning quality content, high-quality imagery, and links from prominent websites into your digital public relations strategies is necessary to stay on top of “your game” and search engine results.
As the future of SEO progresses, public relations campaigns will need to increasingly incorporate SEO practices and trends to deliver impactful results. Still curious about the world of search engine optimization and public relations? Click here for more information.
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