Back in the days before the internet, Las Vegas public relations was all about improving corporate image in print and broadcast media. On a broader level, public relations often encompassed employee, marketing and shareholder communications efforts. As technology has evolved over the last decade, search engines and information channels have developed at breakneck speeds. And, finally, in recent years, the worlds of public relations and SEO have merged, delivering better, more targeted communications to audiences that matter.
Blending Skills and Working Together
The bottom line for both public relations and SEO is excellent content. Content drives stories, positive branding, increased traffic, and sales. When public relations specialists can blend their strategic and communications skills with the expertise of SEO pros, both the quality of the content and the search engine rankings improve. Tools like content calendars, which can help plan strategic content months ahead of time, can help both public relations and SEO professionals look forward to seasonal and holiday opportunities to get their message out.
Establishing Virtual Relationship
Social media and linking to reputable sites extend public relations and SEO dollars significantly. Simple searches on a major industry website, interest in a related trade article, or sharing on a social media channel are organic ways to pick up interest in your company or organization. By combining forces in both public relations and SEO arenas, you can leverage these sources of information to better target future communications and campaigns.
Learning to Play the Game
As SEO technology continues to evolve, companies and organizations trying to achieve higher rankings on search engines will look for ways to play the game. When SEO first began, stuffing key words randomly into a site boosted rankings. Over time, search engines and the algorithms developed to better judge and screen content, and today, top-ranked sites achieve their status because of unique, useful content and references from reputable, high-traffic referral sites. The role of public relations is to help develop those creative, strategic and targeted messages; the complimentary role of SEO is to get those messages seen by key search engine systems.
Establishing Newsworthiness
It’s the age-old challenge for public relations professionals: how to create newsworthy or blog-worthy stories that will be picked up by reputable third-party sources to spread the word by covering and linking your company, product or service. Start with studying your ideal media outlet, favorite journalist, or top blogger and see what is being covered. Use this information to propose a similar but unique article and provide everything from background to relevant interview sources to key statistics. Be helpful and persistent. Once the public relations work is done, the SEO efforts more naturally follow suit.
If you need some help with public relations in Las Vegas, contact GYC Vegas, a locally-based agency with nearly two decades of experience. Give us a call to learn how public relations and SEO can work together for you.