Planning your next public relations campaign? One thing you don’t want to overlook is search engine optimization (SEO). As digital PR campaigns take off, SEO is and will remain a cornerstone of a successful strategy.
For this reason, you’ll want to know where the two actually intersect and what SEO strategies your next PR campaign should use for the greatest success. That’s exactly what this post covers, so keep reading to learn more.
Understanding the Interplay Between SEO and PR
SEO and PR have a symbiotic relationship. One cannot perform well without the other. Some people say they’re like two sides of the same coin. Others say that they’re inherently related.
Each statement made here is true. SEO and PR are so closely intertwined that enhancing your PR strategy without SEO measures will not give you the visibility and reach you’re aiming for.
With this in mind, let’s briefly explore what each of these marketing strategies are and what the benefits of combined use will be for your next campaign.
What is SEO?
Briefly put, SEO involves all the key strategies to enhance your website, making it trustworthy and relevant in online searches. SEO does this by focusing on both owned content and earned media coverage.
Owned content includes your full range of brand collateral such as your company blog, thought leadership content, web copy (such as your “About us” page, case studies, and news), video titles and descriptions, social media profiles (e.g. LinkedIn company page and Facebook profile), etc.
Earned media coverage, on the other hand, can include broadcast interviews on TV, radio, the web, digital videos, podcasts, and more. Other examples include writing press releases and bylined articles such as op-ed pieces, which can gain third-party credibility.
One thing that’s relevant across all of these channels is brand consistency and securing valuable, high-quality links. That’s where PR takes center stage.
What is PR?
Traditional PR usually deals with reputation management through media relations to influence public perceptions. It involved reaching out to media outlets such as magazines, newspapers, and broadcasters to showcase your brand in a positive light to the world.
Today, digital PR is creating a storm in the online space as it uses elements of traditional media in combination with digital PR tactics to gain favorable online exposure and quality links in the digital sphere.
This can be achieved through press releases, creating shareable content like infographics, engaging in online conversations, developing relationships with and harnessing the power of influencers, etc.
How and where do SEO and PR overlap?
Whereas SEO focuses on building off-site domain authority aiming to rank higher on search engines, PR actively engages with those in the public domain by publishing content and aiming for the greatest amount of positive exposure. Both of these digital marketing strategies aim to get you better leads, improve customer acquisition costs, and boost brand visibility and sales.
Here’s a brief overview of how and where the two marketing branches overlap and work together.
- Both deal with securing quality links: Securing PR links is about aligning the content with a company’s image and branding and also building online relationships to help the business grow. With SEO, the aim is to build a diversified portfolio of links from high-authority websites. It’s a critical ranking factor for search engines. Despite these differences, both work to positively improve the online exposure of a business.
- Overall goals and target audience: Both PR and SEO aim to boost organic traffic and secure greater attention for and awareness of the business without spending on paid media. In addition, both can help a business reach a larger audience.
- Generating and disseminating relevant and high-quality content: Content is the backbone of SEO and PR. SEO focuses on optimizing the content for search queries whereas PR aims to disseminate valuable and newsworthy content as far in the public domain as possible.
Benefits of SEO for PR strategies and vice versa
Wondering why you should use SEO for your PR strategies?
Below are a few advantages worth considering:
- You know you’re presenting to the right audience, using the right content, at an opportune moment.
- You enjoy greater online visibility and exposure, higher search rankings, and more organic traffic.
- You can build a brand reputation online with a boost in brand authority and credibility.
- Enjoy strategic reputation management in search results.
- Align your brand messaging with your business goals.
- You can leverage the power of search and social media simultaneously.
- Create an awesome user experience with your brand.
- It is an organic, free (think: no pay-per-click ads), and ethical (non-spammy) way to build high-quality backlinks.
- Harness data-driven insights for targeted campaigns.
10 SEO-Friendly Content Strategies for Your PR Next Campaign
Launching your next PR campaign? Here are some great SEO-friendly content strategies you could implement for optimal results.
1) Define your campaign objectives
From a new product launch to managing a crisis or simply boosting brand awareness, you need clearly-defined objectives to guide your approach going forward. Gather your SEO and PR colleagues together and engage with them in strategic business communication that will help you narrow down your main goals.
2) Know your audience
Just like SEO targets a specific audience, your PR campaign should do the same. This is where you need to understand your audience demographics and interests, as well as concerns and even their typical online search behaviors. Create an audience avatar or buyer persona to help you create more targeted content.
3) Start keyword research
Irrespective of the keyword research tool you use, you need to find relevant keywords that are related to your PR topic. Consider criteria such as keyword difficulty, search volumes, keyword variations, keyword gaps, competition levels, etc. that will help you gain a deeper understanding of the competitiveness of your keywords.
Be sure not to leave longtail keywords out of your research process and analyze search trends to determine the popularity of certain topics in your industry. This can help you create relevant and timely content.
4) Narrow down your keyword research
Focus on keywords that have high relevance for your PR content. Also, consider the keywords’ search volume so that you can ensure greater visibility. When it comes to keyword difficulty and competition, it may be a better strategy to target less competitive keywords.
Also, make sure you are targeting accurate search intent. For instance, you need to differentiate between informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional queries.
5) Create your content
Leveraging longtail keywords and other relevant keywords, include these in your content. For example, if you are publishing a press release, you’ll want to include your target keywords in the headline, subheadings, and body text in a naturally flowing way.
You also need to make strategic use of your metadata such as your meta title and description and use schema markup for a more organized way to show search engines what’s important in your content.
You can use artificial intelligence writing tools to help you create the structure and outline of your content as well as optimize it for relevant keywords.
However, apart from catering to search engines, you first and foremost must cater to your human readers. Make sure your content tells a compelling story that drives engagement and social shares.
6) Don’t forget your visuals
If you use images and videos in your content, make sure you optimize them as well. Give them descriptive file names and alt text that features your keywords. Infographics are another key visual element that you should invest time and effort into creating to give your content greater visual appeal.
7) Internal linking
Don’t leave out internal linking in your PR content to other pages or blog articles on your site. This is essential for SEO purposes and it also keeps readers engaged.
8) Optimize for mobile and voice searches
You should also make sure that your content is mobile-friendly. For this purpose, you’ll need to work on technical SEO aspects such as website loading speed, responsive design, and links that are easy to click on. With proper mobile device management, you can create a great user experience for your audience.
Another aspect you should consider is optimizing your PR content for voice searches as these are becoming increasingly prevalent in terms of their growing share in searches.
9) Add social sharing buttons
Your main PR strategy aim should be to get your message read by as many people as possible. One of the best ways to achieve this is to enable your readers to share your content. This is also an SEO ranking signal and should not be overlooked.
10) Share and leverage media relations
Focus on building strong relationships with journalists and influencers, which can lead to securing high-quality backlinks from either news outlets or influential WordPress blogs.
Measuring and Analyzing SEO Success in PR
With SEO, you can’t just follow the “publish and pray” approach. Instead, you need to constantly monitor your PR content’s performance in search results. You should also monitor your domain authority (DA) or domain rating (DR) metrics. The higher the number, the better your chance of ranking.
Here, your PR content can play a key role in influencing this score by securing backlinks from reputable sites. Once you’ve generated key insights, you need to adapt the strategy based on what’s working. This can include changing certain keywords, refining your content, or even readjusting your entire PR strategy.
Apart from monitoring your DR/DA metrics, a few others deserve a notable mention as well. Below is a list of the most critical ones:
- Referral traffic
- Organic traffic
- Backlink quality and quantity
- Brand mentions
- Social shares
- Keyword rankings
- Engagement metrics (time on page, bounce rate, pages per session, etc.)
- Conversion rates
- SERP visibility (featured snippets, local SEO rankings, etc.)
Conclusion
The bottom line is this: if you’re planning to launch a PR campaign without SEO, you’re going to face an uphill battle. That’s why integrating SEO with your campaigns is so important.
Your digital PR campaigns will gain greater visibility and more traffic, higher rankings, and a boost in engagement metrics only if you incorporate proven SEO strategies into your efforts.
Without SEO, your digital PR campaign will be lost in the wide ocean of the web. To make sure you avoid this, follow the steps and strategies outlined here for greater success.
