Simple SEO applied to your writing can significantly improve the number of visitors to your article
Think about the lifetime of online articles – potentially years!

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Public Relations (PR) doing in the same sentence?

If we take the extreme view that Journalists simply copy and paste press releases as stories then it figures that the text being published (online) should be optimised for a search engine (ie Search Engine Optimisation). The logic is that an optimised piece of text will rank much higher on a search engine, and will allow your target audience to find that particular piece of text through a search engine such as Google.

In the example above it assumes press releases are simply copied or pasted, but in general this isn’t how the system works. Usually PR firms send their press releases and journalists look for newsworthy content that they can either add to, or change to fit their publication or angle. This example is much closer to the truth, so in this next example let’s assume that an optimised press release receives editorial changes of +/-30% to the original. This means that 70% of your optimised release is still being published, again you’re probably still sitting on a search engine optimised winner.

Following the rules of SEO while writing a press release in this example is a sure fired way to ensure you maximise the number of eyeballs on your carefully crafted message. This translates to more of whatever your object was when you wrote the press release, be it more enquiries, sales, awareness etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattsearles/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Isn’t SEO just for IT geeks?

This is where I think the topic gets really interesting. SEO has primarily been the domain of IT professionals who optimise websites to improve your ranking in Google, and also a bunch of dodgy email spammers who promise the world for only $12.95 a month.

However with standardisation of websites through things like templates much of the html (the framework for a website) has been optimised for you straight out of the box. In our example we are focusing on the content on sites that you have no direct power, so SEO for the frame work of HTML is pointless. So the only thing left for PR firms, Journalists and creative writers to focus on is what is actually being written. If you could look at all the information written on SEO in one sitting (which is impossible) you’d find that well over 40% of the suggestions made can be directly or indirectly applied to your creative writing, the hardest part is trying to find the information to apply directly to your own work. I look at SEO as a simple process, you spend a few minutes thinking about what you’re about to do, what you think will work and you begin the creative writing with this in mind. During the editing phase you spend a few minutes thinking over the guiding principles and again with the bigger picture/end result in full view you review your content and apply any finishing SEO touches to it.

How important is SEO to PR?

Very! The difference could be over 100,000 visitors(1)

This is a question of measurement, better put, what is the measurable performance benefit for the additional effort required? For the most part this has been unmeasurable, you generally do not  get a chance at writing two pieces of text, one optimised the other not and being able to measure the pairs of eyes that have read the article. Compounding the problem is that you don’t have the website statistics for your particular article on the newspaper website, and lastly what elements of SEO apply to writing a press release (this definitely isn’t taught in Universities that I know of – and if you can find a University that is willing, I’ll give a two hour lecture on how to optimise your writing for an online universe!).

Technology and measurement have come a long way in the last five years, for instance with a few clicks and a bit of cut and paste code you can measure the online performance of any text on your website. I am sure that Google Analytics has made a great many of people richer, and has helped an even greater many more deliver information to an audience that requires it.

What specifically do I need to understand about SEO and how I can apply it to PR?

You can optimise optimisation! Use the 80/20 rule to focus on the 20% of SEO that will deliver you 80% of the gain. The hardcore IT professionals spend their life refining their SEO techniques, but at the top end of SEO a 5% improvement can win them more business and a reputation. At the creative writing level if you have the beginners tricks under your hat then you’re 80% ahead of the pack.

Writing an optimised press release requires a slight change in how you think about crafting your message, although the actual change to the press release or text is generally so subtle that to the general reader there is no difference at all.

Here are some really basic points on SEO that most creative writers do not consider, and at their own peril!

Step 1. Complete before you begin writing. In defining your message and target audience, have you defined what they’ll be searching for to find this information? Create a list of five or so keywords/phrases that you think sum up your press release, think about what people will be searching for both sets of keywords/phrases should be the same/similar (if you need to decide which ones to use go with your gut about what people will be searching for – if you don’t know, simply sit down at Google and try and find the information yourself, look at what your searching and how you refine your search – get creative!). Rank them in order of importance.

Step 2. When reviewing your title of the press release, does it contain the top two keywords/phrases you selected from step 1?

Step 3. Does the first paragraph contain the top five keywords, with at least one of them repeated once.

Step 4. Your keywords and phrases can be reworded – imagine a keyword was ‘search engine optimisation’ repeat it throughout the first few paragraphs but reword it like ‘search engine optimise’

Step 5. You should be bolding a few of the keywords, not all of them, but at least one or two in the first two paragraphs.

Step 6. You should always always include an image. Again using the SEO example, make sure you have an image with a name like ‘search-engine-optimisation.jpg’, give it a caption with similar wording.

Step 7. Include (where relevant) a few relevant links to websites that Google ranks higly – this is simple, Google search the keyword, and look at the first page of results, these are obviously what Google considers search engine optimised for your selected keyword/phrase. If Google sees you’re linking out to those sites then the chances are they’ll think you’re more of an authority as well.

Step 8. Review your creative writing, look for new opportunities. As you wrote the press release you may have included new ideas, thoughts, products etc that have a whole new set of keywords, maybe this should be in another press release – Search engine optimisation is all about focusing on a few keywords (also known as keyword density)

Step 9. This is the last step – once you get published, send the link to any websites that came up when searching your keywords. If they link to that article then chances are Google will look at you and think that if the current authority on that keyword is linking to your article then you too must also be an authority and worth putting on the front page of Google.

Step 10. Include your list of keywords (also known as tags) at the bottom of your creative writing. This will assist Journalists and any online publication to tag your writing for you, using the intended keywords. If you leave them out then they’ll make them up for you and you’re at their mercy.

If you’re enjoying this article please take a few seconds to Digg this article so more people can find it! It’ll take 5 seconds and it’s part of social karma Click here

Is there a way to tell if my writing is SEO optimised for online publication?

With websites like www.ReversePR.com.au you can simply add your press releases, let it do the magic, and at the bottom of the press release you can review how many people have read the article, the higher the number of views the more successful it can be considered as being an optimised press release.

Experiment! Write a few different press releases, and release them to online sites and see how they go, does one go better than another?

One of the best examples I can find is this press release – http://www.reversepr.com.au/2009/09/21/1397/alex-fevola-in-temelli-jewellery-for-2009-brownlow-awards/

It was released right before the Brownlow Awards (this means there is going to be lots of search traffic about ‘brownlow awards’, ‘alex fevola’), it’s about a celebrity and I think the title of the press release, along with the image and the first few paragraphs nailed this one home as an SEO winner! What keywords do you think the writer used? The writer of this should receive a pat on the back but I think the sheer number of hits is reward enough!

I (Matt Schmidt) will be writing more on this topic over the coming weeks, however if you want a hand, have a question or need some advice feel free to drop me an email matt@mylifemynews.com.au.

Lastly, did you notice this article has been search engine optimised? If done well you shouldn’t have noticed!

(1) Depending on what site it runs on, how well you’ve optimised it and what you’ve optimised it for (topic, keyword, audience, time of day, event driven, and timeliness). Obviously there are a lot of other contributing factors but the point is you have the power to significantly improve the number of people who read what you want them to read.

Which business name is best?

Regularly I hear people discussing business names and what they should choose, the ensuing debates can become comical as people slander each other’s choices, but I digress. It’s not easy and it affects a lot of things, from website domain names, search engine optimisation, recall ability, how to spell it, business name registration and availability – the list goes on.

Well, what I’m about to write isn’t earth shattering and I know I’ve heard it before, however I think this technique is brilliant and really shows your willingness to let the customers and the data make the decision for you.

Below is what I believe to be a sure fire way to find a business name or product/service name that resonates with your customers:

1. Create a short list of your names, more than three and less than ten.

2. Get yourself a Google Adwords account if you don’t already have one, if you want to outsource it then try a Google Certified Adwords Professional – in Australia we have www.GoogleProfessional.com.au

3. Create an add for each business name you’ve selected – you can even test the slogan of each business name as the second line of the ad.

4. Using the Google Adwords keyword tools create a list of keywords against each ad. The ad’s can either go to an existing website, or register your favourite .com or .com.au for under $25 and point visitors to a blank page – at this stage it doesn’t really matter, you’re just testing.

5. Ensure you apply the same dollar value to each ad and the same dollar value for each click (this ensures that statistically each ad had the same chance). For 5 business names I think a budget of around $100-150 would give you a good indication of which names will be successful.

6. Give it about a week of advertising across a regular week and weekend, then review the click throughs percentages for each ad, also review impressions (if one ad has significantly more impressions than the others get a feeling for why – is it misleading, does it fit better with your industry etc).

You now should have enough data to determine your next winning business name – you’re starting as a customer driven business from day one.

I think this is a great way to determine what works and what doesn’t, and for those that haven’t used Google Adwords it’s a great way to dip your toe in the online marketing phenonemon that surely you’re new business will need to use in the near future.

Best of luck, and if you give it a shot let us know how you go!

After failing to last not even four weeks studying Dance Education at University Clint decided that it was time to get a “real” job but knew he wanted to work in the field of entertainment. In 2007 Clint was offered a role at The Harry M Miller Group as their receptionist. While making coffee and answering the phone wasn’t his idea of the ideal job he used this experience as a training ground and gave himself a six month time frame to get promoted. It only took three. Clint moved through the ranks at the agency and has now been an Agent with the company for the past two years.

Clint became restless after completing a Diploma in Marketing and wanted to get back into teaching dance so sat on his computer for hours looking to find a directory of dance studios in the area he had just moved to but besides the outdated Yellow Pages couldn’t find anything. This is where his next business idea came from.

In July 2008 Clint launched DanceLife. Australia’s only specialist directory and social network (community) for dancers and performers. Business owners can list their company or search for businesses in their comprehensive directory. Members can read up on the latest industry news through the weekly newsletter and blogs, stay up to date with the hottest auditions and jobs and create a member profile that promotes them as a Dancer or Performer. There was nothing like it in the market and with the dance industry growing rapidly in Australia it was the perfect time. Clint knew if he didn’t do it, someone else would. That alone inspired him enough to get the ball rolling.

It wasn’t all fun and games for this young entrepreneur. Clint’s setback came right at the beginning when he created this grand idea and had no real concept of how much it was going to cost. He met with a number of website companies until he found one that fell in love with his idea and vision. The challenge was the money. Clint applied for loans and got knocked back, didn’t get approved for the amount of money he needed etc. Clint’s mum ended up getting a loan and he got two smaller ones to start DanceLife.

Clint quickly realised that you can only think of so much. He has recently sat down with a few people from different areas including online marketing, SEO, experts in start up businesses. He’s a big believer investing the revenue DanceLife generates into growing the company. He also needed fresh eyes on the project, someone who hasn’t been living, breathing and eating it for the past nearly two years. His advice is to work out where you could improve or need assistance and ask for recommendations from others you know have been in similar situations. He thought for the initial 6 months that because he had invested all this money in a project and am passionate that he deserved a mentor. At the end of the day mentors are hard to find, everyone is busy. He says “You will need to pay for your advice but remember it’s not a cost, it’s an investment. You will end up making back more than what you paid for their services in the first place”.

Clint’s main piece of advice is to ‘get yourself out there and be known’. While he has been in the dance and entertainment industry most of his life, he was a no one to the big wigs in the industry so he emailed, called and told them all about his idea and that he would like to meet with them. “No one turns down a free coffee and the people that do aren’t worth being involved in your awesome business venture” says Clint. This touches on another one of Clint’s points – surround yourself with supportive people. Clint mentions “While questioning what you’re doing is great and your ideas should be challenged, the last thing you need is negativity”. Clint’s last tip is to believe in yourself. “Yes, this is the advice most people give and you think ‘it takes more than that’. You’re right, but believing in yourself is the first and most crucial element to a successful business. After the belief then you worry about everything else. If you’re reading this and have been sitting on an idea for a while now but haven’t made any moves… do something about it!”.

Blogs allow you to increase the number of readers and followers, increase your profile and show people that you are current. Once you have the followers, a blog can easily help you network between the groups and build relationships that you never had before. Having a link from your website to your blog, simplifies the process for clients and fans to connect with you.

A weblog, or blog, was intended to be a personal journal on the web. Weblogs express as many different subjects and opinions as there are people writing them. Some blogs are highly influential and have enormous readership while others are primarily intended for a close circle of family and friends. However everyone would have noticed that blogs are now being used by businesses to allow a continuing relationship with their potential, current and past customers.

The blogging phenomenon
A few years ago, web search was revolutionised by a simple but profound idea — that the relevance of a site can be determined by the number of other sites that link to it, and thus consider it ‘important.’ In the world of blogs, hyperlinks are even more significant, since bloggers frequently link to and comment on other blogs, which creates the sense of timeliness and connectedness one would have in a conversation.

The power of weblogs is that they allow millions of people to easily publish their ideas, and millions more to comment on them. Blogs are a fluid, dynamic medium, more akin to a ‘conversation’ than to a library — which is how the Web has often been described in the past.

The benefits of blogging
Your favourite thing about having a blog may be that they naturally attract search engine traffic. Blogs already have optimised site architecture. Most are set up with a clear navigation, where every page is set up to link back to the other main pages. They also have the inherent potential to be well-linked.

Increasingly, savvy companies are turning to blogs to complement their communications arsenal of press releases, sustainability reports and investor conference calls. What’s more, some start-up companies are forgoing press releases altogether in favour of blogs.

For a business, blogs also:
• Build your profile as blogging demonstrates expertise
• Allows you to shares information with customers
• Informs people about other things your business is doing
• Generate powerful referral networks
• Creates an opportunity to network and share information with people from around the world
• Permits the kind of conversations that are necessary to truly connect with modern customers
• Creates an opportunity to build relationships with your customers
• Search engines are attuned to finding blogs

How to blog
Starting a blog is easy. Several companies, such wordpress.com offer free blogging tools, and other Australian businesses like picaholic.com offer a website subscription service where you can add a blog through their proprietary Side Bar. The Picaholic Side Bar tool acts as a home for custom links and is prefect for your blog and social media sites. Upon rollover, text is displayed and which can communicate your current posts.

You don’t need to a technical whiz, they are take care of almost everything everything. It does take a little time to do the initial set up but once you have done that all you need is the story ideas and away you go.

What you write is up to you, but try to spark discussion and share experiences, ideas and relevant information. To build traffic, read other blogs and comment so that it links back to your own blog.

Tips for using a blog

1. Pick a topic for your blog that is related to you or what you do. Identify your focus so that readers can quickly decipher if your blog aligns with their interests.
2. RSS Feeds. Make it visible and also offer an email subscription form as a way of keeping track of your subscribers.
3. Profile. Tell them a little bit about yourself and include a photo so that readers can relate with you.
4. Add media. Visuals can tell a thousand words. Make sure to include images and/or videos to your blog to break up the text. This type of media reinforces your message.
5. Don’t ramble. Posts should be kept short and to the point. Otherwise make sure you use headings to separate block text.
6. Links. Link to other sites as this increases readership and lets people know you are writing about them, as they can see the incoming links in their blog. Blogs collaborate and link conversations, so make sure you also comment on other blogs that can be linked back to you.
7. Use categories and tags. Category lists and tags help users find posts that they are interested in.
8. Contact Information. Include a contact email as an alternative way of getting in touch with you. They may want to ask questions about your ideas, ask you to become an expert writer in your field for a magazine or offer you to speak at an upcoming conference.
9. Blog url. Make sure the url matches your name or the name of your blog. This will always make it easier for readers to remember you and your location.
10. Encourage Comments. If a reader leaves a comment, make sure to thank them for commenting. This shows readers that you are real and your posts turn into a conversation.
11. Regular posts. Make a schedule of how often you would like to post and stick to it. Whether it is daily, weekly or monthly, once you build a readership base, they will want to be kept up to date on a regular basis. It will help you build a greater community who will leave more comments.

Monitoring crisis situations through blogs
From a PR perspective it may be very important for you to see who is commenting on your business or your products. Certainly if you are managing a crisis situation you will need to monitor it, not only through the media, but now through blogs.

Tracking company, Technorati tracks the number of links, and the perceived relevance of blogs, as well as the real-time nature of blogging. Technorati automatically receives notification from weblogs as soon as they are updated, it can track the thousands of updates per hour that occur in the blogosphere, and monitor the communities (who’s linking to whom) underlying these conversations.

According to Technorati data, there are about 75,000 new blogs a day. Bloggers update their weblogs regularly; there are about 1.2 million posts daily, or about 50,000 blog updates an hour.

To search for comments in blogs, go to http://www.technorati.com/ and type your search terms.

Relevant links:
Monetizing your blog – www.problogger.net
Adsense (Make money from Google by displaying Google ads on your blog) – www.google.com.au/adsense
Measuring the traffic – www.google.com.au/analytics

Story contributions sought from Catriona Pollard @ www.cpcommunications.com.au and www.picaholic.com

About CP Communications
CP Communications provides public relations and marketing services that are vital to building your business. CPC offers truly strategic and creative solutions that achieve positive media coverage, increase brand awareness and improve sales results. P: (02) 9922 1063, cp@cpcommunications.com.au, W: www.cpcommunications.com.au blog: www.PublicRelationsSydney.com.au

About Picaholic.com
Picaholic (www.picaholic.com) is a web design service catering for the creative industry, Picaholic enables their members to establish a web presence on a subscription basis. Clients pay a low monthly fee then using basic computer skills, subscribers can edit the site and immediately deploy sophisticated, configurable, state of the art, flash website.

Public relations (PR) is an extremely efficient method of communicating with a target audience – and it doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. Business owners can choose from a variety of simple and cost effective activities that will help achieve their business objectives.

The reason that PR works is that it provides third-person credibility not obtainable through paid advertising. In fact, it is said to have 10 times the impact of traditional, paid advertising, placing you above your competitors as the “top of mind” choice for customers, investors and business partners.

Some common features of a PR campaign can include:

The foundations
Key messages – are designed to ensure that the target audience hear and remember the most important aspects of the business. Key messages are, in essence, a description of a business’ competitive advantage, and are commonly known as elevator statements.

It is best to have no more than seven key messages. Once developed, they should be incorporated into all oral and written business communications.

Target audience – knowing your target audience is one of the simplest ways to achieve your marketing communications goals and save money.

When defining your audiences, really drill down to specifics. For example, rather than “all small businesses in the north shore area” it should be, “businesses employing up to 10 staff, located in the suburbs of Neutral Bay and Mosman etc, in the industry areas of marketing and business consulting etc”.

Study the various segments of your particular market and develop strategies to reach each one.

Media program
Although developing a comprehensive media plan can be difficult, you can start with a few easy steps. Think about which media outlets your target audience gets their information from. Make a list of each media outlet and the journalist and start reading/watching. A well-defined media program which reflects the target market and includes realistic activities will be more likely to succeed.

Media releases
The most important element about media releases is not so much the quantity of them, but the quality of the stories, and ensuring they are written for the target media. Media release topics can include the work your business is doing, issues and trends in your industry, launch of new product, new office opening or a new contract win.
Contributed articles and editorials
Many publications are stretched for resources and welcome contributed articles, as long as they aren’t heavily branded by the business. They are also a very effective generator of sales leads as articles position the business as an industry expert.

Online PR
Social media has never been more significant than now, with the growing importance of blogs, podcasts and social utilities as a source of information. Blogs are ideal for businesses as they allow products and services to be marketed to readers through the information provided in posts. They also improve organic search engine rankings. Don’t forget to use twitter to link to blogs and let your follows see the work you are doing. The powerful viral effect of social networks and online communities builds on traditional PR strategies to have a positive effect on the brand.

Customer case studies
Case studies provide ideal opportunities to leverage business successes and reinforce the business’ key messages through “story telling”. They provide audiences, including journalists, an idea of how the business’ products actually work through the perspective of customers.

Sponsorships
Targeted sponsorships are an excellent way of building brand awareness in key markets. However, it is recommended that any sponsorship is very targeted. Two of the most effective sponsorship opportunities are industry awards and conferences.

Advertising
Advertising can be one of the most effective ways of generating sales leads and building brand awareness. It also can be the most expensive! One way of avoiding dedicating huge budgets to advertising is using vertical market publications, such as industry association and trade publications. It is possible to negotiate free editorial if paying for an advertisement in many of these publications.

These are just a few of the many ways to improve the communication channels between your business and customers using PR. These activities will increase sales leads, improve brand awareness and, ultimately, lead to business success.

Catriona Pollard - CP Communications

Guest contribution from Catriona Pollard from CP Communications www.cpcommunications.com.au

Editors notes – I couldn’t help myself, but everyone needs some insight on how online publications operate – I’m unsure if it’s been said before in this amount of detail, but it’s about time!

Some guidelines that will see your media release get to where it needs to go. The notes below have been written with online publications in mind, however most of the advice below is transferable to print publications. Remember, online publications have to think of things like search engine optimisation, you can help with this and increase your chances of getting your message out there.

1. Write an awesome press release – there is NO second chance
a) Look at your industry, do you see any trends? Why are these trends taking place? Quote on it, commit to your idea.
b) Be prepared to be ballsy – I’m looking for something interesting
c) Think about what someone searching online (Google) would search for when looking for the story – make sure those keywords/phrases are in the title and the first paragraph of your release
d) This is not required, but I always feel obliged to publish a story if I get a sample – again not required, but I can be bought fairly cheaply and so can most Journo’s.
e) Think of 2 or 3 angles of how I can use the media release – different story angles
f) At the bottom of the media release include a keywords list – this is a list of keywords/phrases between 5 and 10 long that you think people will search for when looking for this article (see below). These are also commonly known as tags. Each keyword/phrase is separated by a comma and all are lower-case – do not use generic words like ‘the’, ‘and’ etc.
e) When you email the media release
i) Make sure the word document is less than 2MB – any bigger and it takes to long to download etc.
ii) Don’t fax them!
iii) Don’t send PDF’s (PDF’s are uncool – formatting is terrible and copy and paste can be difficult – and I usually copy it to an editor to begin a story)
iv) Include the story angles you thought I could use – I might not use it, but it gets me thinking how you’re thinking – often I’m faced with a release and I wonder what it’s about, or how I might actually use it.

2. Get an awesome image – get creative – use Flickr if you have to (make sure you go the copyright free images!)
a) an image can mean the difference between getting run or not, the difference between front page or not.
b) never steal an image – it turns out badly for everyone
c) look at the size of the image on the websites – don’t send odd shaped images that won’t work on the site
d) DO NOT SEND 10 MB images – I’ll use an image up to about 80kb anything bigger kills browsers and I have to spend the time reducing the size.
e) JPG is the standard, however PNG and GIF’s are okay, anything else odd I don’t use – converting is painful and I’ll only do it if the picture is really worth it.
e) Name the file based on your keywords – the naming should look like this: media-release-naming-convention.jpg (see the use of keywords). This means I don’t have to rename your files, and they’re ready to go.. the more efficient your media release and image the more likely I’m going to use it (most people take the easy options over the harder ones – unless it’s super special). Most people don’t realise that the name of an image is used by Google (and other search engines). If the Title of the story matches the keywords in the first paragraph of the story which matches the description and caption of the image then chances are you’re onto a front of Google home run for those keywords – don’t over do it or you will be punished.

3. Call the journo
Okay this last one pained me to write, but only because so many people get this wrong. Firstly tell me your name, don’t tell me where you’re from I get these calls all day and I don’t remember stories by who sent them, I remember the story for the story (ie the topic of the story). Tell me what you want, remember I’m thinking about something else (like punching out a story in the next 10 minutes or what’s for lunch). Make sure you tick the golden boxes above.

Some preparation before calling (I know it can be difficult):
1. Give the press release about a day to get through the inbox and be digested, any earlier and I’m annoyed.
2. Be prepared to explain the release, and explain your angles

Make the call
1. Pick up the phone and call say your name, then make sure you start ticking the boxes the journo is looking for, like:
i) Unique content (don’t lie – has it been run elsewhere – there is nothing worse than duplicate content for online publications – short term gain – long term pain – you’ll be blacklisted).
ii) Explain you have a new issue/comment/product/service, new angle on an old issue (demonstrate newsworthiness)
ii) We have an amazing image
iv) I have a sample you can try
v) Remember you’re the 80th caller of the day, don’t be pushy – if you don’t get what you want there’s always next time.

Best of luck with your press releases! Matt Schmidt – Editor My Life My News.

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