Public Relations + SEO = Magic!
Twenty-first century PR is all about driving website traffic and social media engagement; making it an ideal complement to your online efforts. Most clients don’t come to us seeking PR, however our best successes happen when we are able to align Search Engine Optimization efforts with PR.
It’s logical when you consider: Both are driven by keywords, both are designed to intercept users while they are looking for related content, both build credibility, both are measurable and should be part of your long-term marketing strategy.
To execute properly, as with every marketing strategy discussed on this blog, you have to start with strategy. If you jump right in and start executing tactical ideas without thinking through strategy - you will fail.
The most effective PR requires good old fashioned relationships. You start by identifying media outlets important to your brand message and utilize relationships with key editors to vet your story angle.
Media editors provide knowledgeable insight to help you craft a message that is sure to resonate with their viewers/readers/followers. That direction on your message should be incorporated into SEO keywords and optimizing your content. When you build on those relationships by cross-tagging those editors in social media posts to promote the content, you will start to see the magical results.
One of the most impactful ways you can use PR and SEO together is with your website link building strategy. Capturing all your PR placements on a “news summary” page on your site allows you to once again use your keywords as page content, plus links to full stories on the media site. Those relevant links are a strong driver of organic site traffic.
Most clients don’t like our final recommendation, because it’s not the quick and easy fix most are seeking. In order to make magic with SEO and PR, your website needs to load quickly. It’s just the way the world according to Google works.
And it’s not just a Google mandate. It is what consumers expect. In a 2016 study, Google found that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load. Yes, 3 seconds. Consumers and editors alike are judging your credibility for every second they wait for your website pages to load.
I can hear your collective sigh from learning that you can’t market your way out of a bad user experience. Sorry to break this news to you, but you’ll have to work with your web team to deal with the techy stuff that bogs down a site like eliminating bulky content, consolidating data and analytics tags, reordering elements and selecting the minimum number of pieces to show above the fold first.
Consumer expectation for website experience is the number one reason website management needs to fall into the domain of marketing. We can easy fix page loading issues for our clients whose websites we manage, but many companies still don’t give their marketing teams control of websites or invest in website performance.
The bottom line is the combination of PR + SEO will make magic results, but you should make sure your website meets demanding consumer expectations to succeed.
Here’s your homework assignment: Find out how fast your site loads. Here are some tools to help.