All this time, I really thought you knew me better.

In our more than ten year relationship, I’ve always been impressed with your abilities. How you pay attention to me and what I do. You’re always offering up some kind of related advice, some attempts at helpful suggestions that relate to our past experience. 

I was beginning to think you understood me and my needs,

SEO helps a search engine to do its job more effectively.

Search engines aren’t perfect – that’s why people in SEO are flourishing. People who write web copy often only consider one audience: customers, or analysts; maybe journalists. You should consider the extra audience of search engines.

SEO boils down to three elements: keyword research, site interactivity, and links.

1) Keyword research reveals the permutations and variations of the terms people are searching for. Start with the notion of what’s important and pop that into a keyword research tool. It comes back with multiple versions, ordered by popularity, so you can make smart choices about the words you use in your titles and press releases and articles.

2) The technical aspect of how a search engine interacts with your site is, in most cases, a job for your IT department.

3) With linking, go after quantity and quality of links, every day, for ever. You might be publishing good content, but no one will know unless you tell somebody. If you have an unpopular site – maybe because it’s new – use PRWeb online news releases and amplify them through social media channels.

Don’t be scared of getting it wrong – but don’t spam.

The dangers of getting SEO wrong are no worse than the dangers of, for example, using PR software without segmenting your list and blasting people with pitches. The thing to avoid is being overly aggressive and using what might be perceived as spamming tactics. Keyword stuffing, or engaging in linking tactics that Google considers unsavory, such as buying links from a publication – that’s a big no-no for Google. Earn your links: they’re forever, there’s no risk, and they’re more valuable.

SEO will not dominate PR, but it will improve it.

Search engines will never be perfect, and social media will never be perfect. Algorithms aren’t any smarter than human beings. There will always be a combination of technology and human intuition. I’m predisposed to looking for the middle ground. When you have these emerging technologies and industries, it’s usually the middle ground that becomes practical over time.

Learn SEO from TopRank Online Marketing:

Lee Odden will be giving a pre-conference 1/2 day SEO Bootcamp for Communicators at the PRSA International Conference Oct 17th, 2010 in Washington D.C..

The SEO Bootcamp offers a deep dive into the essentials of search engine optimization and social media, real-time search, content marketing, universal search and digital asset optimization.  The workshop offers strategies, tactics, exercises and case studies that will equip you with knowledge that will bring you to the front of the pack when it comes to SEO, online reputation management and search engine dominance.

Endorsed by the President of of the PRSA, Odden has over 12 years of Search Engine Optimization experience and has provided strategic guidance and training for companies ranging from HP to McKesson to PRWeb.

“The SEO team at TopRank has been a tremendous partner for improving the search engine visibility of the PRSA Jobcenter. I recommend TopRank’s SEO consulting services without reservation.”
William Murray, President and COO, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

All attendees will receive a copy of Optimize! Public Relations, documenting the top ten tactics for optimizing content to increase news traffic and online media coverage. Seating is limited for this high impact workshop so be sure to get registered today.

You can register for the SEO Bootcamp here.

Operating a small business can be daunting enough without having to compete against the already established companies in your industry. However, with online PR, you can quickly gain a firm footing and begin to assert your company’s presence. Despite their size, small businesses have several advantages over their larger sized counterparts:

• Small Businesses are much more nimble
• Online PR is best if done incrementally, doesn’t require large resources up front
• Creativity levels the playing field
• Online PR is still a relatively new field
• Success can come quickly, if you’re sharp

Being a Small Business Has its Advantages

The size of a small business should not be a reason for failure.  If anything it should be a reason to succeed. In the online world, larger businesses have more people who wish to have a say in making decisions – decision by committee. The CEO, the CTO, the CFO, VPs, and marketing directors all have a say in how the company operates online. A small business on the other hand can react and respond much quicker. Take for example a customer who may have had a negative experience, they voice their concerns on social media channels and so now all their contacts know about their experience. A large business is likely to have protocols for how they respond to customers online and may not get to do so within an acceptable time frame.

Since there is no decision by committee for a small business, they are able to decide what to do quickly and efficiently, address the customer’s concerns, and provide a more transparent form of feedback. The customer now knows their opinion is valued and is much more likely to become an evangelist for the company.

It’s Not What You Have, But Who You Have

In the corporate world there are departments on one side of the business who aren’t aware of what another part of the business is doing. When decisions are being made about anything in the online space, marketing, IT, and customer development departments all have a say in what happens. Consider the small business that may only have a management team of three each performing multiple roles and you have a much quicker decision making process.

An Even Playing Field

A lot of the strategies which work for the larger companies also work for smaller sized business. When thinking about the different internet marketing approaches such as social media, search engine optimization, and press release distribution services, there isn’t a marketing technique which is more favorable toward a large company than a smaller sized operation. In all of these areas, brains defeat wallet size, so if you’re a truly savvy small business you can dominate much larger players unwilling or unable to be as creative.

The Online World is Still New

There’s still a lot to learn about online PR, and as technology advances, larger businesses have no distinct advantages over the smaller sized business in terms of establishing a knowledge base. People who’ve been in the online world for years will tell you the only constant for the web is change. If a small business is prepared for change, there should be no reason why they have to fear or worry about not performing.

Potentially Quick Success Rate

Small businesses can quickly establish themselves with efficient participation in online PR. Defining success – whether it’s ranking high in search engines, selling more product items, increasing brand mentions, or receiving more traffic – is within your reach. The fluidity of a small business is often the catalyst to online success, propelling start-up companies to previously impossible levels of visibility and brand recognition.

Consider just 5 – 10 years ago where the Internet was far less populated and tradition media was the main form of ‘PR’. There was a much larger separation between large corporate entities and the smaller-sized businesses. Now, with a medium accessible by nearly everyone, that vast separation has been leveled.

PRWeb is a TopRank Online Marketing client.