Ignoring SEO, at your own peril

Why PR fails SEO
Dominic Litten – Lead, Interactive Marketing at Point to Point

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

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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.
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Why SEO? Welcome to the pinhole.
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Dominic. Nobody cares.
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Why you care: PR should own SEO, like Social.
PR + SEO = Good.
PR + SEO + SMM = Better.
PR + SEO + SMM + CM = Crazy Delicious.
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Why you care: This is how you’re found.
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Why you care: Social alone isn’t enough.
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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)
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Why you care: More AGI for your agency/dept.
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Why you care: Kumbaya with IT (or skip ‘em).
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Why you care: You are replaceable.
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Why you care: Everyone is a publisher, stand out.
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Why you care: Be more accountable.
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SEO is just one way through the pinhole.
The intersection of need & want.

Links. Crawling. Profit.
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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.
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Four levels of optimization.
1. Indexable, crawlable site.
2. Onsite keyword targeting.
3. Know the link. Be the link.
4. Smart social and content.
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Step No. 1: Is your site ready to be indexed?
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Where PR fails SEO.
We pass the keys on to IT. Or worse, outsource.
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Common errors.
Content in flash? In PDFs?
Pages hidden from engines?
Site too flat?
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Site/URL architecture. Like this.
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Site/URL architecture. Not like this.
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Back to the pinhole.
Is my site developed in a way my audience can logically navigate?
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Is your content spread out over URLs?
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Is there duplicate content?
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PR/SEO Myth 1: Scoring software = All I need.
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Indexing, Crawling Tools
Google Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools
SEOMoz Crawl Test
Xenu
Yes, Hubspot Website Grader
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Into process?
Before all site redesigns.
Before any content marketing analysis.
Before starting a blog.
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Step No. 2: Keywords and onsite optimization.
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Where do keywords start? Personas.
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Where PR fails SEO.
We take shortcuts.
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Where else?
Existing search traffic. Duh.

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Where else?
Your competitors.

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Where else?
Locality.

Remember the pinhole.
Your keywords should answer the questions your audience is asking.
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Keyword example: Save my ticker.
Cardiologist?
Heart doctor?
Heart surgeon?
Cardiovascular specialist?
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Where PR fails keywords.
We think we can have any keyword we want.
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Once we have keywords finalized?
Do. Immediately.
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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.
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How it looks in Google SERPs. This is not ideal.
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Neither is this.
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This works.
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Meta descriptions.
155 characters or less.
Call to action.
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Again, this is not ideal.
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But this works.
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Body copy.
Blog titles.
Page titles.
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Write naturally. Don’t overdo it.
Google knows. Trust us.
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PR/SEO Myth No. 2: All SEO advice works for you.
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Keyword, onsite tools.
Competitive keyword software.
Google trends.
Google Adwords.
Existing PPC data.
Character counter.
Ranking software.
A URL chart.
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Into process?
Each piece of onsite content produced should include:
Title tag.
Meta description.
Page title (H1).
Copy.
Inventory everything.
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Step No. 3: Link building.
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PR/SEO Myth No. 3: Release distribution = Links
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Link building is hard. Too bad.
Link “cold calling.”
Research, then ask nicely.
Great onsite content.
Guest blogging.
Blogger relations.
Paying.
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Where SEO fails link building.
You’re already the best at pitching, why doesn’t PR own link building?
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Pinhole.
Which sites are most relevant to my audience and can I get a link from them?
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Link building tools.
Yahoo! Site Explorer.
SEOMoz.
Raven.
Majestic SEO.
Ontolo.
Your (my) big mouth/email.
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Process?
Yeah right.
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No. 4 Content development and social media.
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Good news? PR owns social media.
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Good news? Smart content is SO pinhole.
Fills a niche.
Attribute content to a place in the sales cycle.
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Good news? PR people are great writers.
We can produce content out the wazoo.
blog posts
case studies
white papers
webinars
video
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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%
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Social often only ranks for low search. #humblebrag
LinkedIn No. 1.
Twitter No. 2.
NingNo. 3.
Quora No. 10.
YouTube No. 11.
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Bad news? Content alone does nothing.
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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.
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First step. Optimize offsite assets.
YouTube.
Twitter.
LinkedIn.
Quora.
Slideshare.
Other shiny objects.
Etc.
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Next step. Get all editorial-y
Develop an editorial calendar.

Content marketing tools.
Editorial calendar.
Title.
Topic.
Keywords.
Posting where?
Additional assets needed?
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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?
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Wrap up. Quick tips.
Onsite > Offsite. Twice on Sundays.

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Test your theories. Always.

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

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Thank You
@djlitten

Ignoring SEO, at your own peril

by Dominic Litten on Apr 15, 2011

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Ignoring SEO, at your own peril — Presentation Transcript