WebProNews

There's an interesting thread at Performancing about SEO and PR, as in public relations, not page rank that offers different viewpoints on how search engine optimization and public relations work together and as stand alone tactics.

Search engine optimization and public relations are not mutually exclusive tactics as is alluded to in the thread.

This is a particularly interesting concept as I am involved with both a PR agency and a SEO firm. There is crossover on the vast majority of client projects and we perform cross training to leverage that. For example, this week our SEO and blog marketer extraordinaire Thomas will be providing instruction on RSS and tagging to several of our public relations superstars. That knowledge will help us serve our PR clients with improved visibility wherever journalists are researching topics.

Keywords associated with a client's business are used in contributed articles, in press releases and when media training is provided to client executives for interviews. They are also used when optimizing the client's web site, blog and any other electronic communications.

Implementing a keyword strategy across all messaging, particularly online communications, helps a client achieve relevant visibility in multiple channels. A prospect might read a story on a topic where our client is mentioned and often times that prospect will go to Google, or Yahoo News or Technorati to search on the topic and in each case, our client will have exposure.

Here's a personal example: During my interview with a journalist from The Economist yesterday I made sure to use certain keyword phrases that I know my blog and web site are optimized for.

Prior to the article going to print mid-March, I'll be sure to make relevant posts to this blog and several other blogs I write for using those particular keywords in the titles. I might also send out an optimized press release using those keywords in the right places and possibly get an article or two picked up on the target topic by one or two popular search marketing publications. Social bookmarks (del.icio.us, digg, furl.net) to those syndicated articles will not hurt at all. Top it off with a few IMs to one or two blogger friends and some momentum has been built.

Search engine optimization and online public relations go together just fine I think.

Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He's been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.