Today at the PRSA 09 conference, it was a packed room for TopRank CEO (and  author of Online Marketing Blog) Lee Odden who gave a presentation on SEO for Public Relations. He started by explaining why SEO is/should be important to PR Professionals. In a 2008 Journalists Use of Search Survey by TopRank, we discovered that 91% of journalists use standard search to fulfill a component of their job whether researching a story or locating a subject matter expert. With journalists writing for more channels and with less resources making your content visible within search is critical.  Here are Odden’s 10 SEO Tips:
1. Number one thing to do?
Magic answer is that it depends on the problem.
However, if you choose one item to tackle make sure your website is crawlable. If the site isn’t crawlable, then really nothing else you do in terms of SEO will matter.
2. Understand and Optimize PR Tactics
The content that is likely already being created as part of the PR campaign is low hanging fruit in terms of SEO. Optimize the following content with keyword phrases (or those terms that journalists might be searching) to help your content become more visible: - Press Releases
- Letters ...
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 You’ve most likely heard of RSS feeds, but you might still be wondering exactly what they are. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” RSS itself is just the format for delivering regularly updated web content. Blog feeds allow readers to keep up with the newest info posted on different sites, and people “subscribe” to the feeds of their choice.
Enter the “Feedreader” For example, there are 25+ blogs out there that I enjoy reading on a regular basis. I want to keep up with them because they help keep me up date with all of the latest information in my niche. However, I don’t want to have to go out to the web and pull up each blog individually every day just to see whether they have been updated. The solution to this is to use a “feedreader” to see all of my favorite blogs’ latest content all in one place. Feedreaders allow you to access new content in two main ways: through the actual reader itself or via email updates. One of the most popular feedreaders and the one that I use is Google Reader. The Business Use Why is this important for marketing? Two reasons: 1—It’s a great way to stay current and educated on the things going on in your niche or market through ... read more >>
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Search engines provide tools to help you with the most essential SEO tasks: - Competitive analysis
- Keyword research
- SEO site auditing
- Link building
Competitive analysis is the first thing to do when planning a website and is also a continuous process you will need to often return to when building and promoting your site. In order to get on top of SEO efforts for your industry, you should know who is ahead of you in SERPs. Competitive research can basically include (though it is not limited to) the following steps (all of which are handled with the help of search operators and tools described in the guide): - Identifying how many pages in SERPs you are going to compete with for the given (core) term (i.e., the overall number of competitors)
- Determining who your direct competitors are (i.e., who to watch for, whose example to follow and mistakes to avoid)
- Evaluating the strengths of those competitors' websites: their site age, on-site SEO, and incoming links (i.e., your keyword difficulty), etc.
Keyword research is a complex but a very important process of choosing and implementing niche-related terms that comply with the following criteria: they have the highest . ... read more >>
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Today’s legal job market is tough. To succeed, you need to use all the tools you can. Some of these tools require new rules, although all build on old-fashioned approaches, like networking and building a reputation. So here are five tools to bring your job search into the world of online social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, and JD Supra.  Facebook is a social networking Web site focused on connecting people with each other. Many of us have now experienced the joy (and occasional pain) of (re-)connecting with people from high school, college, or law school through the site.
Many people have decried the negative aspects of Facebook in the job search, primarily the ability of potential employers to find personal information (such as drunken party photos, political/social leanings, etc.) out about you through the service. Although this can certainly be a problem for a naive individual, it should not keep you from using the service, provided you: (1) do not post photographs (or better yet, do not participate in situations) that you would derail your chances of employment (drunkenness, drug use, etc. - this is particularly true for legal professionals) and ... read more >>
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Last night, Firefox 3.5 crashed and I finally had enough …. didn’t even bother to start it again, today. I’m finding Firefox as a browser, for whatever reason, is so unstable, has crashed so often, no matter how much Firefox is updated, it’s become fundamentally unusable for me, and this has been the case of multiple computers and operating systems. Google Chrome, which I haven’t used much, performs much, much better and is far more stable - and boy, is it fast. Plus Google Chrome is now releasing extensions - see The First Google Chrome Extensions: Block Ads, Check PageRank, and Use IE8 Accelerators in Read/Write Web including Page Rank for Chrome and Cleeki, an extension that delivers the functionality of IE8’s Accelerators to other browsers, a list that now includes Chrome. Fast …. means a lot now. This week (I call it a task because it’s not the kind of activity one wants to do often) updating some Web Analytics site tracking code across 180 profiles in WebTrends was cut down to 1/8th the time to do and with much less effort and mental fatigue. That means a lot to me …. THANKS GOOGLE CHROME!!!! You want to know what I care about? I care about not ... read more >>
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Whether it’s your business or your personal brand, people always connect with people on a personal level. It’s all about engaging in a dynamic relationship. Brands are not logos or commercials, they are the perception and emotion of people built on trust and credibility.  A successful brand cultivates extensive user experience and encourages interaction that creates meaningful dialogues. In order to foster strong relationships you must be trusted. And to earn trust, you need to allow others to become aware of you. This concept also applies to the art of social networking, particularly with the shift from face-to-face communication to more online communication.
There are literally thousands of social media websites on the internet with hundreds more popping up every week. The strategy is to focus on the ones that suit your niche. Setup a blog I recommend setting up a blog if you don’t already have a website. Even if you have a website such as your company or product website, incorporating a blog will enhance your online presence because blogs are typically search engine friendly, and they allow for rapid content indexing on the internet. You ... read more >>
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Brandweek has an excellent article today on the changing job description of a CMO. Lynne Seid, a partner for the global marketing practices at Heidrick & Struggles, the recruiting firm and Tom Kline, chief scientist for the marketing firm Digital Scientists, interviewed 111 top CMOs in December about digital marketing. They say that the realization that data like searches, trackbacks and tweets add up to valuable marketing data is just hitting a lot of companies right now. That is true for PR too. As the online world changes the media landscape and what influences people, we find that we need new skills. One of those skills is understanding search engine optimization and search trends, so our nrws content gets seen in the right places. Google has a wealth of data and they make it freely available. All you have to do is learn how to use their tools. Why ‘fly blind’ when tapping into online data can give you insights into what people are interested in right now. Google Trends can tell you what search terms are popular, which are rising and which are falling out of favor. Here is a Google Trends graph for the phrase skin care. . ... read more >>
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The term ‘Deep Web’ is becoming more widespread. Just what is the Deep Web (or the Dark Web or Invisible Web as it is often termed): The Deep Web DefinedThe Deep Web is simply content available on the Internet that is hidden or undiscovered by search engines such as Google, Live and Yahoo. Typically search engines ‘crawl’ the Internet by following links (URLs) found on Internet pages being indexed. As an example, the page you are currently reading has numerous links to other pages. A search engine will follow the links and index the results of those linked pages.
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 WhosTalkin is a new search engine for the social media landscape. It searches across 40+ popular social media applications, providing in depth results not usually seen in the mainstream search engines. In their own words:
WhosTalkin.com is a social media search tool that allows users to search for conversations surrounding the topics that they care about most. Whether it be your favorite sport, favorite food, celebrity, or your company’s brand name; Whostalkin.com can help you join in on the conversations that you care about most.
Joe Hall asked me to beta test the system and aside from a few minor issues my first impressions are very positive. The Interface and Controls Top marks for making this simple and intuitive. Steve Krug would approve. My first choices are limited to a single search box, which gathers results from all their sources.
You can then drill down results by each source, listed on the left. These range from Twitter, Technorati to Bloglines and YouTube. Simple enough. My only complaint here would be the need to operate two scrollbars, one for the menu and another for the results. Even with the site at full screen, the design is limited by a fixed height. It would be goo... read more >>
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In October, I put together a Google Custom Search Engine to search the blogs of several online community thought leaders. Custom search engines are a great way to control where you search while restricting the search to a specified list of experts. I wanted to share another custom search engine for Industry Analysts. This is a way to find quick quotes and research on a specific topic just from the industry analyst sites specified below: - nielsen-online.com
- amrresearch.com
- onlinecommunityreport.com
- forumonenetworks.com
- illuminata.com
- redmonk.com
- idc.com
- forrester.com
- gartner.com
- the451group.com
Now, the question for you. Who did I miss? What other industry analysts cover online communities and social media? Sharing is good read more >>
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