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.

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Posted 19 November 2009 11:02am by Kevin Gibbons with 13 comments

Eyeblaster: Video ads don't work in social media

Online video may be providing some much needed ROI for advertisers desperate to reach online viewers, but video ads do not work universally across platforms online. According to ad server EyeBlaster, video ads are not performing well in social media.

Why is that? Well, for starters, people don't spend enough time lingering on specific pages in social to view them.

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Posted 19 November 2009 10:10am by Meghan Keane with 3 comments

Will funding flow to the UK media sector in 2010?

The Great Recession has hit the UK startup scene especially hard. Funding has all but dried up for startups and just a few short months ago Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO of the National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts said that many startups faced an "unimaginable dilemma" in trying to survive.

But are things looking up for UK companies, especially those in the media sector? According to accounting and business advisory firm Grant Thornton UK LLP, the answer may be yes.

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Posted 18 November 2009 16:37pm by Patricio Robles with 0 comments

How can etailers handle the Christmas rush?

Over the past year, we've seen a couple of examples of well known e-commerce sites being unable to cope with traffic spikes, mainly caused by sales.

This time last year, Debenham's website went down for around 24 hours thanks to the weight of sales traffic, while the Next website had to implement a queuing system in July thanks to a traffic spike.

But what can online retailers do to avoid such problems?

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Posted 18 November 2009 10:30am by Graham Charlton with 7 comments

Google fights scammers with one strike and you're out policy

Malicious ads are on the rise and just as AdWords is an appealing platform for legitimate advertisers looking for a massive audience, Google's self-serve ad service is a juicy target for scammers looking for the same.

From ads that hawk scammy get-rich-quick products to ads that lead users to web pages infested with malware, malicious ads pose a significant threat to Google. After all, if users come to fear where Google's results (paid or unpaid) might lead them, Google risks losing one of its most valuable assets: the trust and confidence of its users.

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Posted 18 November 2009 09:35am by Patricio Robles with 5 comments

Coremetrics tries to lure Omniture customers post-Adobe acquisition

Adobe's recent $1.8bn purchase of analytics provider Omniture had many people scratching their heads. While Adobe's CEO called the acquisition a "no-brainer" and it just might turn out to be a very wise strategic move, it's certainly possible that some Omniture customers will ask questions about the future of the company now that it's an Adobe company.

So I was interested to come across a Coremetrics ad addressing the Omniture acquisition. It leads to a landing page designed specifically for current Omniture customers and wastes no time in making a sales pitch.

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Posted 18 November 2009 09:06am by Patricio Robles with 3 comments

3am site goes from swearing off SEO to keyword stuffing in 3 months

The Daily Mirror's 3am.co.uk gossip site has gone from disavowing SEO and promising to concentrate on building a loyal audience - to stuffing its HTML titles with as many keywords as it can think of. And then adding some more. Before finally making sure Britney is in there.

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Posted 17 November 2009 13:38pm by malcolm coles with 23 comments

Time tackles technology with Techland

It's a blogger's world and print publications just live in it. Thanks to the power of internet self-publishing, mini media empires have been built by small companies and passionate individuals working from their homes.  Increasingly, these online mini media empires have complicated the picture for print publications whose online presences have been forced to compete on less favorable terms for a more fragmented online audience.

In an effort to stay relevant, print publications are trying to sup up their internet efforts. The latest example of that: Time's new tech/geek blog, Techland.

 

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Posted 17 November 2009 12:00pm by Patricio Robles with 1 comment

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.

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Posted 17 November 2009 10:30am by Kevin Gibbons with 4 comments

Q&A: Andy Hobsbawm and James Alexander from Green Thing

Green Thing is a non-profit public service that aims to inspire people to lead a greener life. 

Founder Andy Hobsbawm and CEO James Alexander will both be speaking at Econsultancy's Online Marketing Masterclasses event tomorrow. (There are currently a few places left...)

I've been asking Andy and James about Green Thing's approach to marketing and social media...

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Posted 17 November 2009 09:45am by Graham Charlton with 3 comments