Newsflash: SEO has changed in a big way. Google has demolished a lot of the old SEO tricks that used to be useful for climbing the rankings. In the last two years alone there have been over 40 changes to the search engine algorithm. Even with all of these changes one thing has remained the same, if you want your site to top the Google results you need a lot of people talking about your business online.
When people are talking about your business they link to it on their blogs, give it good reviews on Yelp and Google+, tweet about it to their friends and share it on Facebook. To top it off, when your business is buzzworthy curious reporters write articles about it and link to it in their stories.
These things also happen to be all the same clues Google looks for when ranking your business in search results.
You may be asking yourself, “that sounds great, but how do I get people to do that?” The answer my friend is PR. Yep, good old fashioned PR is the best way to get people talking about your business and get Google to give you that search engine love you so desperately need.
When I say PR, I’m not talking about simply press releases. I’m talking about taking it to the digital streets with a communication’s strategy. You first need to identify who your target market is, what communication channels they pay attention to, whose opinions matter to them and what your target market cares about. Next you need to devise messaging and branding that will resonate with them. Now you need to deliver that message through communication channels and influencers that they pay attention too.
A digital PR strategy like this will replace a lot of on-page and off-page SEO efforts.
How? Here’s a few examples:
- A good PR strategy using carefully researched messaging that strikes at the core of what your target market cares about will by its very nature naturally include the keywords your target market is searching for.
- A good PR strategy will make sure your website is on message and is a useful place for reporters and customers to find the information they want.
- A good PR strategy will broadcast your message through the digital channels and influencers that are important to your target market. These may include social media sites like Facebook, Google +, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube or digital news pundits and bloggers. This outreach will create social signals, backlinks and site traffic that will increase your search rankings.
To sum it up, a well-researched digital PR campaign will cover all the areas that SEO covers and not only will it help you climb to the top of the first page of Google, but it will also build your brand, build relationships of trust with your target market and get people talking about your business.
