Search Engine Optimization’s Secret Weapon: Marketing Publicity

Most companies have heard about the hot new topic of the day: search engine optimization. Until recently, however, the focus has been on optimizing the company website. But this limited view of search engine optimization rarely gets a company into the coveted top slot of keyword search results by itself.

Instead, marketing public relations firms - long charged with promoting stories for print – are now at the forefront of search engine optimization. Specifically, a few leading firms are properly optimizing and distributing news and feature articles about products and vaulting their clients to the top of major news and search engine rankings in a surprisingly short amount of time.

The reported payoff of this new approach typically includes an immediate and significant spike in website traffic, increased call-in leads and overall improvement in news and search engine results under the company’s major keywords.

“Before people are ready to buy, they research topics, products, and services by keyword,” says John W. Elliott, CEO of Power PR, a marketing public relations firm in Torrance, Calif. that now offers optimization services. “But to capture these leads, you must be on the first half of the first page of search results. That takes specific expertise that only a very few marketing PR firms have.”

Search engine optimization is based on understanding the complex, varied algorithms news and search engines such as Google and Yahoo! use to rank the relevancy of their results. Once the “rules” are understood, marketing publicity firms can craft the release to optimize results.

Instant Visibility through the News Search Engines:
The news search engines are now major players in the dissemination of news. According to statistics captured over the course of one month in mid-2004, over 27 million Americans searched Google and Yahoo! News for information. Combined, the two news engines outpaced CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post online news sources.

More importantly, these news engines allow for keyword searching and generate results in much the same way as the search engines. Therefore, an article that contains strategically placed keywords, can reach the top of news rankings.

“The news engines are powerful because they’re read by millions every month,” says Elliott. “If every reader using a search term relevant found your article, the impact on your business would be immense.”

However, news search engines naturally require that the article is timely. Thus, the release will only stay at the top of the news engine rankings for 2-4 weeks before “new” news replaces it. Still, a company that can churn out a fresh, optimized news article every month can effectively stay at the top of the rankings for a very long time.

Additional Visibility through Major Search Engines:
If news engines represent the possibility of an immediate response through marketing publicity and optimization, then the “general” search engines present a mid-term opportunity.

As these articles are distributed through major wire services and posted on key industry websites, the major search engines begin to locate and index the releases. If the article is properly optimized, there will be a corresponding increase to a company’s overall search engine ranking over the course of several months.

“That’s why these optimized articles are so critical,” says Elliott. “Search engine optimization techniques applied to marketing publicity provide a company with a major weapon to separate itself from the competition and reach the top of the news and search engine rankings.”

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For more info
Contact: John W. Elliott
johne@powerpr.com
www.powerpr.com
Phone: 800-757-3715
FAX: 800-504-9983