A few months back, I wrote a blog discussing the many hats a PR practitioner wears. Given the variety, we have succeeded in becoming experts in many things. But one new topic that has come up recently is SEO. So, what is SEO and how is it impacting our industry?
SEO, or search engine optimization, was the buzzword of 2018, and as we enter a new year, the idea that PR strategy should be influenced by SEO is becoming more entrenched. I’ve seen the ways SEO has evolved even in the past year and now it affects almost everything we do. In reality, SEO has been around for years, but PR pros, advertisers and marketers are just beginning to understand the power it can give to a campaign.
Often when I discuss SEO with a client, they look at me like I have 50 heads because it’s something that many people are unfamiliar with. Keywords, domain authority, backlinks, sitemaps, website health and more can sound overwhelming, but they are simply tools leveraged to teach Google that your website has information that is valuable to the average searcher.
Google tracks the volume of a certain phrase or keyword search, and then crawls websites to find the webpages most pertinent to that search. The more times a searcher selects your webpage, the more weight Google will give to it, resulting in your continued movement up the search results page. More clicks turns into more people who know about your brand, which can lead to more media opportunities, and ultimately, more business.
You are essentially laying the foundation for your brand. By connecting your brand with words, phrases and keywords that a consumer is actually searching, you’re giving your company or product more opportunity to spread its message.
I’ve given you the super boiled down, elementary school description of what SEO is. There are still a lot of minute details to consider when building an SEO plan. Much of this has to do with the fact that Google doesn’t reveal its crawling methods to the public. So, a lot of planning, research and a little bit of trial and error are also part of the process.
We are now seeing “SEO agencies” popping up everywhere, but what I feel those agencies lack is an understanding of how closely messaging and branding need to be tied to an SEO plan. If you’re ahead of the game, you already have someone at your PR agency with a working knowledge of SEO and tools like SEMrush or Moz, to make building an SEO plan an integrated service you offer as a firm. Our industry and our world are quickly being dominated by all things digital. I believe SEO is a significant piece of the puzzle. The PR and communications industry needs to embrace everything SEO has to offer until it finally becomes just another hat that is part of the PR person’s job.
I’m proud to work at an agency that identifies. acknowledges and leverages changes and shifts in our industry. I am just one of many in our office who apply SEO strategy to the accounts I work on. I am excited to see where it takes us as an industry and to see the ways it will continue to benefit our clients.