Public relations and SEO used to be two very different disciplines—both equally important to businesses wanting to boost their reputation and reach, but unique nonetheless. These days, they work best when they work toward a common goal. PR impacts SEO, and SEO impacts PR—so it only makes sense to incorporate SEO into your PR strategy from the start.
The benefits of a combined approach to SEO and PR
When you incorporate key SEO practices into your PR strategy you can improve your company’s reputation, but as SEO exists in the digital sphere, you can also build trust and authority, increase sales, increase organic traffic, increase your search rankings, and expand further into your market.
Incorporate key SEO practices into your PR strategy
The offline and online worlds work in tandem. What happens on one will influence the other. That is why you must know the basics of SEO as a PR strategist and how you can better your personal PR campaign to boost your company’s search engine (SE) rankings.
Define your SEO goals
Everyone wants to get to the first page of Google. For most, this will not happen—at least, not with such a broad goal. Instead, you need to decide on what pages and keywords you want to target. If you work for a local NYC company, for example, then focusing on local SEO and ranking well on local search terms is how you will outshine the competition. Narrow it down from NYC, to the neighborhood, and even to the street if your business operates on a prominent avenue.
Create a unified target audience
A PR team and an SEO team can have two different target audiences. You need to work together to create a unified target audience. Who are they? What channels do they use? What are their interests?
Once you have decided on this target audience, you will want to create a Media Pack. This pack will contain all the key information about your company in a way that will appeal to your target audience.
Decide on a master list of keywords
Though keywords are very important for an SEO strategy, they are often not quite as popular in the creation of a PR campaign. This is a mistake. Marketing is most successful when repetition is involved. You should, for instance, align yourself with trusted link building NYC agencies, which will help you decide on a master list of keywords with potential.
Taking control over the narrative is standard procedure for a PR specialist, but if you use the same terms that you are building links for and focusing your SEO strategy on, then you reinforce these terms both online and offline. You will rank on the language you use, reinforce your brand, and curb a wayward press agency from damaging your business’s reputation.
Find the appropriate channels
A savvy PR specialist knows that a multitude of channels is necessary to get the word out there are and to manage the narrative that surrounds your company. That being said, every single online and offline opportunity can boost your SE ranking, but only when you strategize with your SEO team.
Focus on these key areas to avoid stretching yourself too thin:
- Leading Publications
- Social Media Influencers
- Key Bloggers
- Interviews
- Speaking Events
By using the same keywords and applying standard SEO strategies, you can do your job as a PR strategist and improve your SEO strategy.
For example, if you know that a transcript is going to be made of your interview, you can work in keywords appropriately. First in the beginning, and then several times throughout your responses.
Make use of opportunities
You cannot foresee every opportunity, but with a strong strategy in place and a firm grasp on SEO and how you can use your position as a PR manager to further your company’s SEO goals, you can make the most out of every new door.
Conclusion
PR and SEO work better together than separately. A PR specialist can further SEO goals, and SEO can reinforce your work as a PR manager. You need to work together to create a defined target audience and to create a master keyword list and then align your strategies together. Hold speeches about the content you currently want to rank on. Use the same keywords or quotations both online and offline.
Give your audience a seamless experience that reinforces who your company is again and again. Stay in control, rank well, and give value to users and algorithms alike.
