Public Relations & Social Media Insight

There is a lot of talk these days about social signals affecting Google Search Results, and many SEOs are feeling the effects for their clients, who are disconnected from the social world. The complexity of marketing your business on Google is rising as search success becomes increasingly intertwined with your social media presence and how you interact with your customers.

Your website content and external links are no longer enough to gain Google’s trust. Publishing fresh content on your site means nothing if no one is reading it — and it means even less if no one is sharing it to their social networks. As a business, your primary marketing goal is always to generate leads. Leads are certainly generated from dominating search results — but what if I told you that a solid content marketing strategy could get you leads, even if it didn’t result in #1 rankings right away?...

SEO is going away, at least in the way that most of us know it. What's taking its place is something exciting and better, but, like enlightenment, it can't be achieved directly....

What is the sound of one keyword clapping? Can Google itself create a site so large that it can't even be indexed? Can any marketer ever step into the same algorithm twice? These are the kinds of questions that philosophers worry over – or at least that keep those of us involved in search engine optimization up at night – but they may not matter very much going forward.

That's because SEO is going away, at least in the way that most of us know it. What's taking its place is something exciting and better, but, like enlightenment, it can't be achieved directly. Does that sound confusing? Read on, because here is what you need to know about Zen and the art of improving your search rankings in 2013: 1. There is no try....

Do one SEO tactic incorrectly, or too frequently, and you could be facing Google punishments that remove your website from their search results. This is not a gamble that most businesses can afford, as most consumers initially find a business online.

In fact, Inc.com ran a survey and found that 7 out of 10 consumers said they are more likely to use a local business if they have a social media presence and another 78% said ratings and reviews are important when deciding what to buy. Google has made some significant changes in the last couple of years when it comes to ranking your website in search results. Google Panda and Google Penguin are the two major updates you may have heard about, and many more are coming.

Here are some of the major abuse tactics that were employed by SEO’s and some workarounds that you should be implementing in their place....

If helping our clients be more visible is the heartbeat of public relations, then learning to integrate basic SEO skills into the work we are doing is key in keeping that heartbeat strong. SEO for PR is a “must know” skill. Every senior-level PR and content marketing professional should have a solid understanding of how SEO works and how it applies to their own work....

During the May #PRprochat on Twitter, we were lucky enough to have Ken McGaffin as our guest – former CMO of WordTracker and an expert in SEO. “The TOP 3 SEO SKILLS that PR pros should have are keyword research, link building and blogger outreach.” ~ Ken McGaffin Learning SEO for PR doesn’t have to be time consuming or intimidating; it can simply be the addition of a few new skills and tweaks to your normal processes....

For many people, ranking in Google was a lot easier a few years ago. There were many SEO tricks that could get your site on the first page of Google quickly. These SEO tricks worked great until Google changed the rules, beginning with Panda in February 2011, and followed by Penguin in April 2012.

So, what works now, post-Panda and post-Penguin? This article will cover some of the popular old methods as well as what you need to know to succeed with your SEO initiative today....

... The words we use can change how search engines find our content and whether or not they serve that content in their search results. When it comes to search engines, the placement of words in your blog posts can be just as powerful as the choice of the word itself.

Where to place words in your blog – a blog post glossary

Understanding the different components of a good blog post is as important as your mechanic knowing the difference between a radiator and an engine block. When the correct terms are used, it’s easier to follow the checklist of must-haves in every post....

Even though social media is often in the spotlight, business blogging is still vital to your marketing success. Original, high-impact content still needs to be the lure for your audience....

There are a number of ways to ramp up the reach and exposure of your content, including syndicating it on websites like Social Media Today and Business 2 Community and sharing it on the big four social networks—Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. Posting your content to popular social bookmarking sites, such as Digg, StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us, can be another source of increased exposure.

While taking these steps to promote your content will no doubt be beneficial, it is critical to address the issue at the core—ensuring that you produce the kind of content that compels a great deal of social content curation. If you can create highly shareable content, others will promote it for you. Publish relevant, information-rich and share-worthy content, and your search rankings will inevitably improve, as Google is increasingly informing their algorithms with social signals, such as +1s.

13 Google-Friendly Content Guidelines

To achieve maximum impact with your company blog, create content according to Google best practices....