I recently spoke with Nadia King, manager of natural search services at Apogee Search. She described the relationship between SEO and public relations (PR), and how they can complement your online efforts.
Nadia began by stating that SEO can help your PR efforts to advance your brand, particularly through press release optimization. Press release optimization is incorporating keywords that are related to your business into your press release, and then using those keywords to link back to relevant pages in your website.
The first key to press release optimization is to select keywords that your target audience is likely to use in a search. The trick to good keyword selection is to use terms with high search volume and low competition. Be careful not to choose branded words as they may not have high search volume. Always include keywords in the title, subtitle, and content of the press release.
It’s crucial in press release optimization to have links back to your website. When your press release is picked up on other sites, the links are live, back to your site. Live links on trusted domains will give your site value through these links.
Tip: Submit a Google News Sitemap through Google Webmaster Tools. Much like an XML Sitemap, this informs Google about the press release or news pages on your site.
Distribution on traditional news wires has made press release optimization easier. For an additional fee the wire service will include live links in the press releases it distributes. Wire services enable sites that post your press release to easily link back to the service or product page, which will drive traffic to your site.
Tags: Natural Search (SEO), Public Relations, Search Engine Marketing
