Search Engine Optimisation

Posted by: Hannah Elkes on: May 3, 2011

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Search Engine Optimisation  is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid search results. The website will appear on the first few pages of the search results from Google, for example. SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Why is this important? Because it drives qualified traffic to your site to engage with you.

With social media changing the face of public relations and the whole world, SEO is an important tool in an online campaign. To ensure you’re website and blogs are looked at, you must make sure they have SEO or your campaign may not reach your targetted audience and may be unsuccessful.

Once the website copy has been optimised, links from external sites back to yours play a vital role in telling Google and other search engines how important your site really is. Good public relations and the online practice of link building go hand in hand as they share some important features.

• Public relations is the process of building a company’s reputation, largely through the use of positive media coverage.
• Link building is the process of building a web site’s ‘reputation’ by getting links from relevant and respected web sites.

SEO PR?

So who better to get such valuable links than PR professionals?  They can use their existing knowledge and expertise to successfully use link building to make their online campaign or company a success. SEO PR combines skill sets from public relations and search engine marketing, and is really a cross over between search, marketing and public relations. It involves ethically communicating online material to news sites. The point of this is to raise the brand and profile of brands in the digital realm by making them more easily found in search engines and driving more relevant traffic to the site.

There are certain things that PR professionals need to know when trying to get SEO:

•  News stories stay online – your news item can still be read with great interest months after the event.
• The links the story creates not only bring people themselves but also boost your search engine traffic.
• Online stories can spread extremely quickly. A press release online can be taken up and commented on minutes after it’s issued.
• Smaller sites assume a greater importance. They’re read by people who are passionate and informed, not just interested, and the links they bring can be even more valuable than those from mainstream media.