the not-so-odd couple: pr and seo

The Not-So-Odd Couple:The Union of PR & SEO

Ashley Halberstadt & Halie DavilaDigitalRelevance

Today You Will Learn:

• An introduction to media relations• Alternatives to a press release, and whether or

not they are relevant to SEO• A brief history of SEO basics• How PR and SEO work together for the best

results

About Us:

Ashley Halberstadt• Director of Digital Media Relations• Agency background – B2B and B2C

Halie Davila• Client Campaign Manager• SEO Content Strategy

Agenda:• Guest posts vs. editorial coverage• How to pitch the media• Press releases for PR• Press releases for SEO• Nofollow links• Introduction to SEO• SEO post-Panda and Penguin updates• A look at SEO today

Brand Awareness

• Brand awareness now impacts SEO

• Users more likely to click on your company in search results if they have seen it before

• How? Enter PR strategies and tactics

Intro to Media Relations:

• Guest Posting vs. Editorial Coverage

• Pitching the Media

• Press Releases

• Social Media

Guest Posts vs. Editorial Coverage:• Guest Posting

• SEO tactic to earn links for client keywords• Smaller, low-traffic sites

• Editorial Coverage• “Earned Media” – not crafting the article yourself• Larger sites, high traffic

• Paid writers/staff – less frequent contributed posts

• Bylined Articles• PR tactic, similar to guest posting• Transparency about who you are and the goal of the

article

Pitching the Media:

• Things to remember:

• Media are people, too

• What value do you provide?

• You aren’t the only one pitching them

• Show knowledge of their work

• Past coverage doesn’t earn new coverage

Pitchwich:

Bread slice: Greeting/Relevant tie-in (problem)Why are you sharing this info?

  Condiment: Introduction of product/service (solution)

How the client relates to greeting, a one-sentence statement of who/what the product/service is

Pitchwich, Cont’d

Meat: Key details on client’s product/serviceKey info on the client, including details that separate it from any competition

Bread slice: Closing and call-to-actionFinal statement on client, offer interview, product sample, additional information and/or images

Press Releases:

• Never the only form of outreach• Offer as a source of additional information• Don’t send unsolicited attachments

Alternatives:• Blog post• Social channels 

• No Follow Links • "Nofollow" provides a way for webmasters to tell search

engines• "Don't follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this

specific link"

• Is it newsworthy?• Did something big happen?• Does your audience NEED to know this?

• Purpose: SEO vs. PR• SEO = higher rankings and search visibility• PR = to provide valuable information to an audience

Press Releases Do Not Equal SEO

“Now, when you do press releases, it might get your Web site in front of the eyes of

bloggers, reporters and others, where what they write or link to may have an impact on

your rankings. But the links within the releases themselves, Google says—they

won't benefit your rankings.”- Matt Cutts, head of

Google Web Spam Team

If you’ve been using press releases for SEO, you might be feeling like this right now…

A Brief Intro To SEO The Big 3

• Architecture • Website architecture is an approach to the design and

planning of websites that involves technical, aesthetic and functional criteria

• Link Building• Link building describes actions aimed at increasing the

number and quality of inbound links to a page

• Content• Any marketing format that involves the creation and

sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers

Pre-2011

• Link Building • forum comments, spam – old school SEO• earned media, social – new age SEO

• Architecture • How a site is built: URLs, HTML, interlinking,

redirecting, robots.txt, alt-text, etc.

Post-Penguin & Panda

• Content Marketing • NO MORE KEYWORD STUFFING• Writing for real people (not just search engines)• Long-tail keyword optimization• The perfectly optimized page

• Social Media• User behavior • Zero moment of Truth• Brand Authority

Today!

• It’s not just about onsite content and links anymore

• It’s about being truly relevant and useful for users

Digital Relevance for Deserving Brands

Move The Needle

Move The Needle

Begin flexing your SEO arm by implementing SEO best practices to Press Releases hosted on your site.

• Change links to “no-follow” within existing press releases hosted on your site

• Do this for releases from the past six months to a year

Move the SEO Needle

• A better understanding of PR• How to craft a solid email pitch• When a press release is appropriate• Alternative ways to share news outside of a

press release• A brief introduction to SEO practices• A history of SEO evolution• Why SEO matters to PR and vice versa

Key Takeaways

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