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Using SEO Advice From PR Professional To Boost Your Site
By: Lee Odden

Over the next 10 business days I will be posting a series of SEO tips focused mostly on how to employ search engine optimization tactics for online PR benefit. This Top Ten SEO Tactics for PR Professionals series is centered around a presentation I am giving at the PRSA Digital Impact conference. If you're attending that event, you'll get the best of both worlds by reading this series as a compliment to the in person presentation.

Driven by customers and the consequences of not doing so, the public relations industry has warmed in recent years to the power of search engine optimization for growing the impact of pull based PR efforts.

Now more than ever, journalists, bloggers and industry influentials use search engines to find subject matter experts, research companies, locate past media coverage and to track topical trends. In fact, a recent survey on journalists' use of search by TopRank reports that 91% of those journalists, reporters and editors surveyed use search engines to do their jobs.

Traditionally, search engine optimization efforts have been managed by corporate marketing departments - either in-house or through an outside agency. However, will all the opportunities to create value in the form of increased online brand visibility, reputation management and internet based media coverage, public relations deserves a seat at the corporate SEO table.

To achieve that, it's important that PR professionals understand the foundation of SEO tactics as well as the business benefits for PR efforts as well as to the larger organization. The upcoming series of posts will outline SEO and PR tactics with the most impact, how to choose the best keywords, on page SEO and link building best practices as well as measuring the value of SEO to public relations efforts. It will also cover when PPC is a better fit than SEO, how to combine SEO and social media promotions and the finer points of selling the benefits of SEO to decision makers.

Corporate web site optimization projects require an equal measure of search engine knowledge, understanding of corporate messaging and ability to appreciate and acquire links from credible sources. By learning the fundamentals of SEO and the possible impact on public relations effectiveness, PR departments can demonstrate their competitive advantage.

To that end, here is the schedule of SEO for Public Relations posts that I'll be doing in the coming weeks:

1. SEO tactics - if I could only do one thing…

2. PR tactics that affect SEO

3. When is PPC better than SEO for PR?

4. How to choose the best keywords?

5. Basics of on-page SEO

6. Press release optimization tips

7. Newsroom optimization tactics

8. Link building fundamentals

9. SEO and social media promotions

10. Measuring & selling the value of SEO


Keep in mind that while these explanations and examples will be centered around PR and news content, many of the SEO and social media marketing tactics can be applied to any kind of content whether it be job listings, FAQ/Knowledge Base info or products/services. As each article is posted, I'll link to it from the list above.

About the Author:
Lee Odden is CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing and public relations firm in Minnesota that specializes in search, social and online PR consulting and training for companies worldwide. Odden has been cited for his internet marketing expertise over the past 10 years by the Economist, Forbes and U.S. News and contributed a chapter to the book, "Online Marketing Heroes" published by Wiley. For the past 5 years he has also been the editor of TopRank's Online Marketing Blog, a Technorati 100 favorite blog and one of the top marketing blogs according to Advertising Age.