PR SEO as a smart reaction to changing media usage and research as well as the fight for attention – Görs Communications article series “PR for SEO and SEO for PR” (Part 2)
Görs Communications: Integration of SEO + PR – PR SEO as a smart reaction to changing media usage
Today, it is obvious that classic, “traditional” public relations (PR) is a thing of the past. “Press relations” or “public relations” as it was done decades ago is becoming less and less important. Why? Because not only media usage behavior has changed massively ( = digitized), but also the media themselves and the research behavior of journalists and editorial teams. Everything is primarily digital – and at the center of the “digital tsunami” are search engines such as Google and Bing as well as social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Xing, LinkedIn and many more.
Whoever or whatever is not represented on the Internet, in the online media and the other digital landscape, does not receive any attention, remains behind or simply no longer takes place! Today, there are very few companies, organizations and individuals that do not have an Internet presence and are not active on the social web. Competition and rivalry on the Internet are fierce and the battle for the attention, trust, time and money of Internet users is becoming increasingly fierce. Public Relations (PR) and search engine marketing, especially search engine optimization (SEO), are appropriate and very helpful tools (“weapons”) in this fight for attention and other resources on the Internet. Nowadays, PR and SEO must be cleverly and adeptly interlocked to achieve maximum success in digital communication. PR and other communications and marketing campaigns must therefore be designed and executed as integrated digital campaigns optimized for search engines AND editorial teams AND media (including social media). With integrated PR SEO, image, reputation, brand, awareness and visibility can be built up and improved faster and more cost-effectively than would ever be possible with classic press and public relations plus classic online marketing with banners & co.
“PR strategists today must be familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) and take the PR-relevant rules to heart if they want their companies, organizations or customers to become or remain competitive in the digital space”, says PR and Marketing Manager and Consultant Daniel Görs. Google is and remains the number one search engine. A large proportion of search queries are conducted via Google; the pioneer Google dominates global online searches (in 2020) with around 87 percent market share in desktop searches. With its algorithm, Google determines which companies, organizations, individuals and brands and their content and offers are actually seen – and which are not (or only far behind in the search results). No matter how professionally PR, public relations and media relations are set up and carried out, if the “laws” of Google and search engine optimization are not taken into account by PR experts, there will be no top rankings – and thus no high reader and user numbers, traffic and reach – for the (press) texts and other PR content. But how can you compete in this rapidly changing digital (media) landscape? The answer is simplified: with content and backlinks!
The Google algorithm is constantly changing, as Google always wants to present the best individual search result to its users. Depending on the current Google update, the Google algorithm with its approximately 200 ranking factors is readjusted. But some basic “Google laws” do not change / hardly change. Thus Google will always honor current, unique and search engine optimized content and rank it high as well as evaluate the number and quality of links / backlinks / recommendations with backlinks to the respective content. Or just evaluate everything negatively, if the content and SEO factors were NOT taken into account accordingly.
Today, more than 50 percent of the ranking factors are outside the own website of a company, organization or person. This area of search engine optimization is called “off-page SEO.” This means that a website cannot rank well without other trusted websites pointing ( = linking) to it in some way. These can be signals from social media channels (so-called “social signals”, reviews and mentions, but primarily the Google algorithm evaluates the number and quality of backlinks – i.e. links pointing from other websites to own website. This linking ( = recommendation) from others will never be crowned with success, however, if one’s own content does not convince others and is perceived / evaluated as worth reading and thus “recommendable”. This shows the mutual dependence (interdependence) of content and backlinks.
PR SEO is therefore primarily about the optimal interaction of content and (back)links. In addition, there are also in the field of on-page SEO some adjusting screws and measures with which effective SEO for PR can be operated. These include, among other things, the strategic setting of internal links (which also helps the user guidance and the user experience UX), the correct use of relevant keywords and, of course, the search engine optimization of the PR/press area of the website as well as the content (in this context, each type of file can and should be specifically search engine optimized: Video SEO, spreadsheet and document SEO, presentation SEO, graphic/image SEO, voice/audio SEO). But SEO PR should first find ways and means to improve the (organic) visibility and visitor flows (“traffic”) of website presences. And for this, links are needed. But how do you get these links? The answer is: with targeted link building that takes into account the many ways of backlink building. There are probably as many link building strategies as there are consultants and managers using them, but some are smarter, more effective and faster than others.
We describe the complex process of gaining external links (“backlink generation”) and the central role PR SEO plays in this process in other articles in the PR for SEO – SEO for PR series of articles by the Digital and Public Relations Consultancy Görs Communications ( https://www.goers-communications.de ).
The consultancy for Public Relations (PR), SEO, content, marketing and digitalization Görs Communications (Lübeck / HanseBelt / Baltic Sea / Hamburg) ensures customer acquisition, better image, increased awareness and sales through Public Relation (PR), search engine optimization, marketing and media.
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The experienced PR expert Daniel Görs teaches PR basics and enables companies and organizations, entrepreneurs and self-employed people to carry out their public relations and public relations work themselves through “do-it-yourself PR”.