By Mark Macias
There’s a lot confusion around PR and SEO. I hear it frequently from both clients and potential clients, as they co-mingle these two terms.
PR and SEO might seem similar on the surface but their approach requires a different strategy and execution. Both have different objectives, and that end-game requires a different pregame.
Let’s start with SEO. Google doesn’t reveal much about its search algorithm but they have revealed publicly that content plays a pivotal role in search ranking. Quality content gets a higher ranking with Google, moving you up to the first page. How you market that content also influences your ranking.
How do Media Placements help with SEO?
Media placements are another factor that influence SEO. Google places a higher value on websites that are mentioned in the news. For example, if your business is featured in the New York Post as the best law firm, Google’s algorithm will rightfully assume that your business has more credibility than a law firm that wasn’t mentioned. So in simple terms, the more media outlets that write about your business, the more credibility and higher ranking Google will provide.
One of the biggest misnomers with SEO is that you need a back-link to benefit from a news story. That’s actually a major misconception. Google changed the game after they realized SEO firms were cheating the game and buying back-links. And several years ago, Google even filed a patent that allows it to rank sites without the use of a back-link. In simple terms, if a news site doesn’t include a back-link to your website, your business still benefits with the ranking.
Do Press Releases help with SEO or Media Placements?
Reporters and journalists are smart. They don’t want to read an advertisement. They are looking for the news editorial value, which is completely juxtaposed to content marketing. If you’re trying to get news coverage from a press release, you should be thinking of the news editorial value first. If you want to improve your search ranking with a press release, you do the opposite and prioritize the most important keywords.
The best PR firms will leverage the news cycle by positioning the client into the news cycle – around an editorial angle, not a marketing angle. This is a crucial strategy that MACIAS PR applies to all of our campaigns.
Of course, this is a very high-level view of SEO, but it does provide best practices to improving your search ranking out of the gate. There are of course other tactics, strategies and approaches that apply to both PR and SEO.
Who is the best publicist in the world?
For example, if you type into Google: “who is the best publicist in the world?” – you should see a description about about Mark Macias. Now that involves a tactic that is neither SEO nor PR.
Want to see how we can apply these approaches to your business? Click on the green button at the bottom and message me.
We can also give you a PR estimate if you click here.
Marketing peers named MACIAS PR the 2017 and 2018 Strategic PR Firm of the Year. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the Financial PR Firm of the Year. The founder – Mark Macias – is a former Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. He’s also a frequent contributor with CNBC and author of the books, Beat the Press: Your Guide to Managing the Media and the Tao of PR.
