Last week I attended the ‘Intersection of PR & SEO’ conference hosted by PR Moment which gave some valuable insights into how SEO could benefit from PR expertise to achieve the best results. Advances to Google’s algorithm have fundamentally changed the rules of SEO and earned media coverage is now one of the top Google ranking factors.
In fact, PRs have much in common with Google…
• SEOs mainly think about how to please Google
• PRs mainly think about how to please their audience
• Google cares about how to please its audience too
PR Agencies should therefore be better at one key element of SEO – AUTHORITY. This is one of the key pillars of SEO along with Technical and Content. Google loves expertise and authority so with our earned media skills and contacts, we PRs are in prime position to help our clients achieve higher page ranking.
So why is everyone so caught up about links? Well page ranking is still dependent on good quality ‘links’ which generally means you need to secure coverage on good quality sites with a ‘follow link’. But what about those ‘no follow’ links, do they count? Well, it seems they might or at least won’t do SEO any harm, no one seems to know for sure!
What we do know is that good quality content gives journalists and site editors a reason to link to it. That’s why guides, white papers, trend reports, infographics etc are so important. With our ‘storytelling’ expertise it also means that PRs could be best placed to create this content as the results will not only assist SEO but also have wider benefits such as increased brand awareness, positioning and audience engagement.
Apparently Google would love to get rid of links and this might happen one day but after a failed attempt when Russia tried it on their platform, this seems a long way off. The future though is voice search and some sites such as Amazon playing a greater role as their own search engine.
If you’d like to find out more about page ranking you can find lots of great info here www.searchmetrics.com/ranking-factors.
Thanks go to the speakers: Laura Crimmons, founder, Silverthorn; Lukasz Zelezny, Director of Organic Performance, Zoopla; Nick Wilsdon, Search Product Owner, Vodafone Group; Will Cooke, Executive Director Strategy & innovation, Golin; Heather Healy, Creative Communications Director, Stickyeyes, Dixon Jones, Global Brand Ambassador, Majestic SEO; Michelle Wilding, Head of SEO & Content, The Telegraph; Jim Hawker, Co-founder, Threepipe and James Crawford, MD, PR Agency One.