Why PR fails SEO

Dominic Litten – Lead, Interactive Marketing at Point to Point

2

About Point to Point.

| We don’t live in silos.| We say no a lot. | We have clients. | www.pointtopoint.com

3

About Me

| Recovering PR practitioner.| #humblebrag time.| I think I am hilarious. | I speak really, really fast (sorry).

Today’s nonsense.

| Organic SEO for PR practitioners.| Be measureable. | Be actionable.| That’s it.

4

Why SEO? Welcome to the pinhole.

5

Dominic. Nobody cares.

6

Why you care: PR should own SEO, like Social.

| PR + SEO = Good.| PR + SEO + SMM = Better. | PR + SEO + SMM + CM = Crazy

Delicious.

7

Why you care: This is how you’re found.

8

Why you care: Social alone isn’t enough.

9

Why you care: Higher rank, more clicks.

| No. 1 ranking = 42.1% of clicks| No. 2 = 11.9% | No. 3 = 8.5%| No. 4 = 6.1%| No. 5 = 4.9%| No. 10 = 3.0%| Nos. 11-20 = 10.1% (combined)| Nos. 21-1,000 = 1.2% (combined)

10

Why you care: More AGI for your agency/dept.

11

Why you care: Kumbaya with IT (or skip ‘em).

12

Why you care: You are replaceable.

13

Why you care: Everyone is a publisher, stand out.

14

Why you care: Be more accountable.

15

16

SEO is just one way through the pinhole.

| The intersection of need & want.

Links. Crawling. Profit.

cars.com

bluecars.com

redcars.com

pinkcars.com

17

18

The reality?

| Google’s algo has 1000s of variables.

Want to be be clear: Doing SEO assumes…

| Have. Know. Love. Analytics.| SEO matches existing goals. | Have a site that allows easy changes to:

| HTML.| Copy.

19

Four levels of optimization.

| 1. Indexable, crawlable site. | 2. Onsite keyword targeting.| 3. Know the link. Be the link.| 4. Smart social and content.

20

Step No. 1: Is your site ready to be indexed?

21

Where PR fails SEO.

| We pass the keys on to IT. Or worse, outsource.

22

Common errors.

| Content in flash? In PDFs?| Pages hidden from engines?| Site too flat?

23

Site/URL architecture. Like this.

cars.com

cars.com/ford/suv

cars.com/ford/truck

cars.com/ford/sedans

cars.com/ford

24

Site/URL architecture. Not like this.

cars.com/ford

cars.com/privacypolicy

cars.com/ford/truck/

f150

25

Back to the pinhole.

| Is my site developed in a way my audience can logically navigate?

26

Is your content spread out over URLs?

cars.com carsblog.com

stuff.cars.com

27

Is there duplicate content?

cars.com/

id=1234

cars.com/ford

28

PR/SEO Myth 1: Scoring software = All I need.

29

Indexing, Crawling Tools

| Google Webmaster Tools| Bing Webmaster Tools| SEOMoz Crawl Test| Xenu | Yes, Hubspot Website Grader

30

Into process?

| Before all site redesigns.| Before any content marketing analysis.| Before starting a blog.

31

Step No. 2: Keywords and onsite optimization.

32

Where do keywords start? Personas.

33

Where PR fails SEO.

| We take shortcuts.

34

35

Where else?

| Existing search traffic. Duh.

36

Where else?

| Your competitors.

37

Where else?

| Locality.

Remember the pinhole.

| Your keywords should answer the questions your audience is asking.

38

Keyword example: Save my ticker.

| Cardiologist? | Heart doctor?| Heart surgeon?| Cardiovascular specialist?

39

Where PR fails keywords.

| We think we can have any keyword we want.

40

Once we have keywords finalized?

| Do. Immediately.

41

42

That means everything.

| Not just what you like.

Onpage keyword infusion. Commence.

| Title tags.| Describes page to engines.| Be descriptive. “Home” vs. “Cleveland

PR Agency”| Less than 65 characters. | Unique on every page.

43

How it looks in Google SERPs. This is not ideal.

44

Neither is this.

45

This works.

46

Onpage keyword infusion. Commence.

| Meta descriptions.| 155 characters or less.| Unique on every page.| Call to action.

47

Again, this is not ideal.

48

But this works.

49

Onpage keyword infusion. Commence.

| Body copy. | Blog titles.| Page titles.| Unique on every page.

50

Write naturally. Don’t overdo it.

| Google knows. Trust us.

51

PR/SEO Myth No. 2: All SEO advice works for you.

52

Keyword, onsite tools.

| Competitive keyword software.| Google trends.| Google Adwords.| Existing PPC data.| Character counter. | Ranking software.| A URL chart.

53

Into process?

| Each piece of onsite content produced should include:| Title tag.| Meta description.| Page title (H1).| Copy.| Inventory everything.

54

Step No. 3: Link building.

55

PR/SEO Myth No. 3: Release distribution = Links

56

Link building is hard. Too bad.

| Link “cold calling.”| Research, then ask nicely. | Great onsite content. | Guest blogging.| Blogger relations.| Paying.

57

Where SEO fails link building.

| You’re already the best at pitching, why doesn’t PR own link building?

58

Pinhole.

| Which sites are most relevant to my audience and can I get a link from them?

59

Link building tools.

| Yahoo! Site Explorer.| SEOMoz.| Raven.| Majestic SEO.| Ontolo.| Your (my) big mouth/email.

60

Process?

| Yeah right.

61

No. 4 Content development and social media.

62

Good news? PR owns social media.

63

Good news? Smart content is SO pinhole.

| Fills a niche.| Attribute content to a place in the sales

cycle.

64

Good news? PR people are great writers.

| We can produce content out the wazoo.| blog posts| case studies| white papers| webinars| video

65

Bad news? The GOOG doesn’t care. Yet.

| Ranking factors according to 2010 SEOMoz Survey| Authority of domain (age, breadth of

site) 24%| Link popularity 22%| Anchor text of external links 20%| On-page keyword usage 15%

|Social graph 6%

66

Social often only ranks for low search. #humblebrag

| LinkedIn No. 1.| Twitter No. 2.| Ning No. 3. | Quora No. 10. | YouTube No. 11.

67

Bad news? Content alone does nothing.

68

Good news? Content + social does work.

| Blogs can account for 20-40% of organic traffic.

| Blogs can increase all traffic 55%.| 57% of businesses have acquired a

customer through their company blog.

69

First step. Optimize offsite assets.

| YouTube. | Twitter.| LinkedIn.| Quora.| Slideshare.| Other shiny objects.| Etc.

70

71

Next step. Get all editorial-y

| Develop an editorial calendar.

Content marketing tools.

| Editorial calendar.| Title.| Topic.| Keywords.| Posting where?| Additional assets needed?

72

For example, develop a process.

| Every press release.| Posted on Twitter?| Posted on Facebook?| Posted on company blog?| Posted on distribution site?| Video to YouTube?| Images to Flickr?

73

74

Wrap up. Quick tips.

| Onsite > Offsite. Twice on Sundays.

75

Wrap up. Quick tips.

| Test your theories. Always.

76

Wrap up. Quick tips.

| Do. Measure. Report. Do. Measure. Report.

77

Thank You

| @djlitten