When SEO and web PR unite forces

Though different practices, SEO and web PR influence each other more than you would think. When SEO takes into account web PR tactics, and when web PR applies search engine optimization rules, good things happen for your business.

The Internet offers a great deal of opportunities to PR specialists. New businesses appear online almost daily. Older businesses begin using the web, in the effort of reaching new audiences. And they all need web PR and the expert intervention of specialists that know how to use this medium and its very specific features to the benefit of the business.

Besides building brand awareness by ensuring visibility on search engines, SEO strategies also, and perhaps more importantly, help generate traffic. When keeping SEO tactics in mind, web PR bears a strong hand to building online notoriety and increasing traffic, to reaching the right audiences and to offering them the desired content.

Conversely, web PR can support SEO efforts as well. SEO is the science of making websites rank higher in search engines results. It sounds simple, but it isn't. A comprehensive SEO strategy involves technical audits, clever copywriting, and netlinking. And what is web PR if not a shinier and more complex version of netlinking

Optimization tactics applicable to web PR

1. Press releases optimization

Being one of the primary tactics used by online PR agencies, press releases are the written fields where SEO and web PR can beautifully work together. A good online press release uses anchor text and includes images, videos, audio files, logos, online references and any additional resource to help journalists illustrate the article or find further information.

Though to some they might seem outdated, press releases are important for SEO because they easily provide links. And links are among the chief ranking factors used by search engines.

When written for the web, press releases should be created in accordance with the ways people read online. Research has shown people don’t have the patience to read very long paragraphs on the Internet. The online reader is always in search of the essential and his/her attention span is limited.

Good web press releases characteristics:

  • typically organised in short, separate paragraphs
  • each paragraph includes no more than one, clear idea
  • important information is emphasised by means of formatting and placement
  • includes subtitles
  • underlines key phrases
  • the style is natural
  • provides truly useful information for readers and journalists
  • links are inserted only when necessary, ideally on the brand's name

Simply put, brands that deploy genuine and constant efforts to create good, well written , user friendly and informative content, will probably also rank better in search engines.

2. Common semantic strategies

Search engines interpret websites and define their activity mainly based on text. They read the  content, “make sense”of it and proceed to classifying it correctly. Therefore, when building your brand identity and image online, you should pick your words carefully. Every text you write and publish on the web must be anchored in your semantic strategy. From press releases to advertorials, video descriptions or social media posts, they all have to reflect the semantic universe you have chosen.

Just like SEO experts and together with them, web PR specialists should use keyword tools to define their semantic strategies and chose keywords that best suit their common strategy.

3. Chosing authority websites: important both for web PR and SEO

“Tell me who your friends are and I'll tell you who you are.”

The image of an website very much depends upon the sites it links to. Where you publish is very important, both from a web PR and a SEO perspective. Ideally, it should be reliable, well known, intensely visited websites with high online authority and with an activity in close relation to your business'. To check the authority of a domain, you can use Open Site Explorer.

Also, press releases or advertorials should be published according to the target. Websites like Quantcast provide data about the traffic of major websites and the demographics of their audiences. Alexa also provides crucial insights on websites' traffic.

4. Measuring the results of web PR campaigns

Probably the greatest part with online PR is that you can accurately measure the impact a press release has on your audiences. Using Analytics tools you can follow key metrics that show you how your campaigns perform: the number of page views each publication generates, the number of leads and more.

The need for quality content

Last but not least, result oriented SEO and online PR both need quality content. Good content brings the notoriety desired by PR specialists and the online authority sought by SEO experts.

Basically, good content means informational content, content that drives the need to be shared, that engages audiences and determines them to take action. Ideally, it will be content that becomes reference material.