How SEO complements your PR
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is part of your public relations (PR), not just some geeky addition to your website.
When I’m discussing SEO with a new client, understanding their wider PR campaign is essential to my planning. So why do so many firms see SEO as some website add-on, rather than a developing, often creative enhancement of their PR work?
I think it’s because SEO execs tend to be technology fiends, while PR
staff tend to be arts graduates with a passion for creativity – there
doesn’t seem to be much middle ground.
Yet it’s essential that
PR works closely with an SEO team to make sure both budgets are working
as hard as they possibly can and complementing each others’ work.
I've previously talked about how social media marketing should be looked at from both an SEO and PR perspective, but here are a few key ways in which PR and SEO working together can enhance a company’s online presence dramatically.
Five reasons your content is damaging your brand
Although many businesses now recognise the importance of regularly updated content to their search engine optimisation (SEO) efforts, not enough of them understand the importance of quality content.
This is apparent from many of the badly-penned blogs, rubbishy ‘news’
stories and plagiarised or simply stolen articles that the web is
gradually filling up with.
Many companies fill their sites with
scraped posts, barely literate articles and keyword-stuffed nonsense in
the hope of attracting Google’s attention, so I wanted to take
a look at just what this sort of behaviour is doing to your brand; how
it’s affecting the customer experience.
Why SEM isn't all that
You have to love a contentious headline. In this article, I won't be declaring search engine marketing (SEM) dead. What I want to explore are the various ways you should support this kind of marketing elsewhere on your website.
Where should you spend your online budget?
The amount spent advertising online has finally exceeded that amount spent on TV promotions. So, if you're planning to dedicate more marketing money to the web platform, where should you spend that cash?
People are spending more online, both shoppers and advertisers. That means your customers are on the web but it also means your competitors have upped their game.
So you probably plan to increase the amount you spend, but where should you spend that cash? Should you boost your email marketing or ramp up your paid ads?
How to successfully survey your visitors
Information is power. This is particularly true online, where having information about your customers' preferences allows you to market to them far more successfully.
Sometimes, you will have to go to your consumers and actively request their help answering your questions, meaning you'll need to run a survey. Unfortunately, these can be a real turnoff for consumers.
As a web entrepreneur, I've had to put a great deal of thought into gleaning my customers' opinions. Here are a few hints and tips I have picked up. As always, I'll be delighted if you choose to add to the list through the comments section below.
Why 'quality not quantity' matters online
Too often online marketing is characterised by quantity rather than quality. There's a pervasive idea that quality is too hard but sheer volume will have the same effect.
Let me give you a shining example of what I mean. I was recently browsing a forum when I found, without a doubt, the dumbest attempt at marketing I've seen in a while.
Ready for the end of recession?
Do you believe the economy is now ready to recover or that we're in for a double-dip recession? Have you been worried about your business's survival? Are you simply looking forward to consumers becoming happier to spend their cash again?
Whatever your opinions and concerns, it's time to give some very real thought to your online marketing strategy and what you will do once the economy does finally pick up.
Why I'm worried about Google Books
The internet's leading business is currently scanning and digitising millions of books. Dominance of the web is not enough, the search giant now plans to become, in essence, the world's biggest librarian and bookshop.
Now, regular readers of my posts and articles will know that I am usually onside with Google. It's frighteningly large and successful, but anything that invests so much time and energy into important projects like Google Earth is OK by me, except its plans for books...
How to optimise your website from the ground up
Although much of the search engine optimisation (SEO) work carried out by agencies like mine is ongoing, there are important elements that need to be incorporated in the early days.
It's quite common for clients to approach us once they have just paid for a brand new website design. This is understandable, even if it's frustrating for SEO professionals. As far as the company is concerned, they now have their shiny new site so it's time to start marketing it with an SEO campaign.
How to create buzz with an ethical campaign
If there's one thing the web excels at, it's uniting people behind a cause. A number of successful marketers are using campaigns to create positive change within their industries, highlight their firms' moral integrity and generate a hell of a lot of good publicity.
Whether it's an international price comparison site campaigning against unfair bank charges or a local pub campaigning to protect a village green, bringing people together to put pressure on the authority has the power to create incredible buzz and excitement.
If you lose, then that buzz and excitement was still worth a lot to your company. If you win then that positive outcome is not only good in itself, it's generated a great deal of good will for your brand.
Here are a few tips for driving a successful campaign online. By picking the right cause and the right message, your firm can market itself through good deeds...
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
