1.
Using SEO as a PR Metric
Greg Jarboe
President and co-founder of SEO-PR
Measurement Base Camp Spring Session
May 3, 2022

2.
In early 2003, Katie Paine praised a new concept:
“Totally measurable results from your PR agency!”
• She wrote, “SEO-PR combines Jarboe’s
search engine optimization wizardry
and O’Donnell’s PR and writing skills
to get your product or firm top listed
in search engines and track the
results.”
• She added, “They use special Web
pages as well as data from WebTrends
and other tracking software to tell the
client not just how many visitors
clicked on a press release, but what
they did when they got there.”

3.
Most communications professionals still use a
model of communication developed back in 1939
• Harold Lasswell developed this model
at the beginning of World War II.
• As Chief of the Experimental Division for
the Study of War Time Communications
at the Library of Congress, Lasswell
analyzed German propaganda films.
• Lasswell said five elements impacted
the effectiveness of communication:
• Who said it?
• What was said?
• In which channel was it said?
• To whom was it said?
• What effect did it have?
Source: Greg Jarboe, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day, Second Edition, November 2011

4.
I was among the first to realize that Google News
had reversed the classic model of communication
• Who: Identify your target audiences,
including the public as well as the press.
• Seeks what: Find relevant search terms that
your target audiences are likely to use.
• In which channel: Use one of the press
release distribution services crawled by
Google News.
• From whom: Edit your press release -
particularly the headline and first few
sentences - and make sure that it actually
includes your target terms.
• With what effect: Add links intended to help
people find interesting, related content, when
applicable, and measure your results.
Source: Greg Jarboe, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day, Second Edition, November 2011

5.
Think about the words users would type to find
your release and then conduct keyword research
• Google’s webmaster guidelines say:
“Think about the words users would
type to find your pages, and make
sure that your site actually includes
those words within it.”
• Like consumer research, keyword
research can help you find out what
people think about your kind of
product, what language they use
when they search for the topic, what
attributes are important to them, and
what promise would be most likely to
make them buy your brand.
Source: Google, Webmaster Guidelines

6.
Here’s a list of a few places to find keywords and
some tools for conducting ad hoc keyword research
• Places to find keywords
• Google’s autocomplete feature.
• Google’s “People also ask…” boxes.
• Google’s related searches feature.
• Keyword research tools
• Answer the Public.
• Google Trends.
• Keyword Tool.io.
• Moz Keyword Explorer.
• SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool.
• SparkToro.
• SpyFu.
Source: Greg Jarboe, SEO-PR, “What is the best keyword research tool for SEO? (It’s your brain!),” Sept. 25, 2019

7.
Enter your brand name and up to 4 competitors
into Google Trends to see your share of search
• By default, Google Trends shows you
the web search trends for the past 12
months.
• Now, click on the Web Search tab and
select News Search.
• This shows you the news search
interest in these terms.
• Now, click on the Past 12 months tab
and select the past 7 days.
• Now, scroll down and look at the
related queries for these terms.
Source: https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US

8.
The engineers who developed the Google News
algorithm seem to have used the inverted pyramid
• The headline is the most important
SEO factor.
• Headlines should be clear, concise and
more than 2 and less than 22 words long.
• Subheads are weighed slightly more
heavily than body copy.
• Subheads must stay true to the story,
may contain relevant synonyms, and can
be from 50 to 160 characters long.
• The lead paragraph is weighed more
heavily than later paragraphs.
• Write press releases primarily for
readers, not for search engines.

9.
In addition to optimizing press release headlines
and subheads, optimize the lead paragraphs, too
• Search experts say the natural-
language processing algorithms scan
at least the first hundred words or so
of news articles.
• They say journalists would be wise to
include two or three of the most-
searched keywords that relate to their
subject in the first few sentences.
• “That’s not something they teach in
journalism schools,” said Danny
Sullivan, then a journalist and analyst.
“But in the future, they should.”
Source: Steve Lohr, The New York Times, “IDEAS & TRENDS; This Boring Headline Is Written for Google,” April 9, 2006

10.
Add links to help people find interesting, related
content on your site and measure your results
• The primary reason to add links to a
press release is to help people find
interesting, related content on your
site, when it’s available.
• But, you can also use Google’s free
Campaign URL Builder tool to help you
measure your results.
• This tool allows you to easily add
campaign parameters to your URLs so
you can track Custom Campaigns in
Google Analytics.
• You also have the option of converting
the long tracking URL to a short link.
Source: Google Analytics Demos & Tools, Campaign URL Builder

11.
You need to use a press release distribution service
or have a newsroom that’s indexed by Google News
• Several press release distribution
services are indexed by Google News,
including:
• BusinessWire.com.
• PRNewswire.com.
• GlobeNewswire.com.
• If you primarily publish press releases
on your site or within a particular
section URL of your domain, then it
may be crawled if your site is popular.
• For an example, take a look at the Kodak
Press Center.
Source: https://www.kodak.com/lk/en/corp/press_center/default.htm#

12.
I’ve used SEO metrics to measure the results of PR
campaigns for a variety of organizations since 2003
• This includes:
• $2.5 million in ticket sales for Southwest
Airlines from 4 optimized press releases.
• 450,000 unique visitors in 24 hours to
The Christian Science Monitor’s website.
• 36% increase in brand searches for the
Better Homes and Gardens website.
• 129,155 entries to the annual cover
photo contest for Parents magazine.
• Double-digit increases in delegates and
exhibitors for SES Conference & Expo.
• 27% of the leads for a new online
Master’s program at Rutgers University.
Source: SEO-PR’s Digital Marketing Case Studies

13.
On Jan. 27, 2022, SEO-PR conducted an A/B/C/D or
multivariate test for a product launch by SiteLogic
• SiteLogic launched a series of Digital
Marketing Certification Courses.
A. First version of our press release was
posted to their blog.
B. Second version of our press release
was distributed via Business Wire.
C. Third version of our press release was
distributed via EIN Presswire.
D. Fourth version of our press release was
used while pitching journalists,
bloggers, and podcasters.
• The four versions used different
photos, videos, and tracking links.
Source: Matt’s Blog, “SiteLogic launches digital marketing certification courses which feature more learning by doing, less watching video,” Jan. 27, 2022

14.
We added campaign parameters to URLs in our
releases to measure results in Google Analytics
Source: Google Analytics Demos & Tools, Campaign URL Builder

15.
Distribution reports listed scores of websites that
had confirmed online postings of our press release

16.
Business Wire’s NewsTrak reported 6,786 release
views, 654 multimedia views, and 164 link clicks

17.
When conducting keyword research, I looked for
Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How terms
• WHO
• SiteLogic
• WHAT
• Digital marketing certification
• Digital marketing certification courses
• What is OMCA certification?
• WHERE
• Digital marketing certification courses online
• WHY
• Is OMCA certification worth it?
• HOW
• How to get digital marketing certification

18.
Release ranks #1 in Google News and in top stories
on page one of Google for the keyword SiteLogic
Sources: Google News, Feb. 8, 2022, and Google, Jan. 27, 2022

19.
Ranks #1 in Google News and in top stories on page
one of Google for digital marketing certification
Sources: Google News, Jan. 27, 2022, and Google, Jan. 27, 2022

20.
#1 in Google News and in top stories on page one
of Google for digital marketing certification courses
Sources: Google News, Feb. 8, 2022, and Google, Jan. 27, 2022

21.
Ranks #1 in Google News and in top stories on page
one of Google for what is OMCA certification
Sources: Google News, Feb. 8, 2022, and Google, Jan. 27, 2022

22.
Ranks #1 in Google News and in top stories on page
one of Google for is OMCA certification worth it
Sources: Google News, Feb. 8, 2022, and Google, Feb. 8, 2022

23.
#1 in Google News and top stories on page one of
Google for how to get digital marketing certification
Sources: Google News, Feb. 8, 2022, and Google, Jan. 27, 2022

24.
Ranks #1 in Google News for digital marketing
certification courses online, but not in Google SERP
• SiteLogic, digital marketing
certification, and digital marketing
certification courses were used in
headline and first paragraph.
• What is OMCA certification, Is OMCA
certification worth it, and How to get
digital marketing certification were
used in bold subheads in body.
• Digital marketing certification
courses online wasn’t used in the
press release, but online marketing
was used in the third paragraph.
Source: Google News, Feb. 8, 2022

25.
New backlinks spiked when the press releases were
distributed to scores of third-party publisher sites
• Matt used SE Ranking, an all-in-one
SEO platform based in Ukraine, to see
what impact our test of press release
distribution alternatives had on the
backlink profile of his website.
• As the image to the left illustrates,
there was a spike in new backlinks to
www.sitelogicmarketing.com on the
day that two of the press releases
were distributed via Business Wire
and EIN Presswire to scores of
relevant third-party publisher sites.

26.
The tracking links in the releases were “nofollow,”
so the anchor text does not transfer “PageRank”

27.
But, organic search rankings improved for keywords
like OMCA certification and OMCP certification

28.
And, SiteLogic’s ranking for phrases like OMCA
certification courses have continued to improve

29.
Business Wire generated 16 new users, Matt’s Blog
generated 14, and EIN Presswire generated only 3
• More importantly, the test generated
almost 140 views and about 11 leads
every two weeks.
• That’s up from 42 views and 1 lead
every two weeks before the press
releases were distributed.
• And he had already converted 6 of
these leads into sales worth $2,950
apiece, for a total of $17,700 in
incremental revenue.
• Matt also got two invitations to speak
on podcasts at a later date.

30.
You’ve learned why search reverses the model of
communication and how to use SEO as a PR metric
• Some communications professionals
may be reluctant to use SEO as a PR
metric because they can be evaluated
by their deeds, instead of their words.
• But, according to Indeed:
• The average salary for a PR manager is
$58,566 per year in the United States.
• The average salary for an SEO manager is
$67,539 per year in the United States.
• So, being able to show your
contribution to the bottom line can
boost your salary by 15.3%.