Bulldog Reporter Advanced PR Technology in Practice

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Bulldog Reporter - Advanced PR Technology in
Practice Boosting PR Visibility with SEO and
RSS March 2, 2007
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W H A T Y O U A L R E A D Y K N O W
Search engine results matter a lot.

• 77 of Adults in America are internet users. 1
• 87 of internet users use search engines as
  their primary means of finding websites. 2
• 62 of users select a result in the first page
  of search results. 3
• 90 of users select a result within the first
  three pages. 3
• 88 of search referrals are generated by ONE or
  TWO word keyword searches! 4

Owning keywords is important.
A June 2005 study conducted by market sentinel
found that a Google search for Coca Cola yielded
4 negative results in the first 10. Examples
included Boycott Coke and Killer Coca-Cola.
1 Pew Internet and American Life Survey. 2005 2
Market Sentinel and Weboptimiser Search is
Brand. June, 2005 3 iprospect Search Engine
User Behavior Study. April, 2006 4 iProspect
Natural Keyword Length Study. November, 2004
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W H A T Y O U A R E A B O U T T O K N O W

• Philosophy of Search Engines
• Understanding SEO
• How Search Engines rank pages
• How Search Engines view queries
• What you can do for SEO
• Building credibility
• Becoming relevant
• SEO and Press Releases
• How it works
• Case study
• What to look for
• Utilizing RSS
• Advantages of RSS
• How you can use it
• Tools and Tips

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P O S I T I O N I N G S E O
The Traditional World of Communications Public
Relations vs. Advertising
Public Relations
Advertising
Exhilarating, over the edge campaigns
rewarded. Scientific. Know when the ad will air
or print, how many viewers will be watching or
reading, and their demographics. Creative
Control / Control of Information. Taken with a
grain of salt by consumers because you paid to
put it in front of them. Can be effective as a
one-off campaign. Blatant commercial attempts.
Strategic restraint often necessary. Art form.
Balance and manipulate potential media outlets in
the hope of free publicity. Less data on actual
ROI and reach for your message. Little to no
control over final result / story. Viewed as
more credible by consumers because it is
presented by trusted members of the media, not
paid for. Requires constant effort and contact
with the media. No-nonsense news format. Content
is King.
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P O S I T I O N I N G S E O
The Web 2.0 World of Communications SEO vs.
Online Advertising
SEO
Online Advertising
Strategic restraint necessary in web design
less Flash animation, streaming video, etc. Art
form. Balance and manipulate multiple facets of
your clients web presence to influence
consumers, as well as the machine algorithms of
search engines. Little to no control over final
result / search rankings. Viewed as more
credible by consumers because they trust search
engines to deliver credible content. Requires
constant effort and vigilance over your web
presence and search rankings. Content is King.
Trickery for search rankings has very short-lived
success, if any.
Exhilarating, over the edge web design
rewarded. Scientific. Know when your ad will
display, how many people viewed it, clicked on
it, etc. Creative Control / Control of
Information. Taken with a grain of salt by
consumers because you paid to put it in front of
them. Can be effective as a one-off
campaign. Fun and creative ways to trick people
into clicking on banners and pop-ups are rewarded.
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S E A R C H E N G I N E P H I L O S O P H Y
What Would Google Do?
As of August 2006, there were 365 million Google
searches being conducted daily.1
If someone asked you a question, how would YOU
find the answer?
Phone a friend! (or a colleague, or a book, or a
website)

• When users query a search engine, they are
  asking it a question.
• The search engines objective is to provide the
  best answer.
• Given the volume of available content, search
  engines usually take a couple
• of stabs at the best answer. (SERPs Search
  Engine Results Page. The results returned for
  your search query).
• Google uses two primary means of determining
  which site(s) has the best answer.

1 According to estimates from Susquehanna
Financial.
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S E A R C H R A N K I N G S
Credibility Relevance

• How CREDIBLE is the source of information?
• How RELEVANT is that sources information to the
  current query?

Credibility
Relevance
Search Rankings depend heavily on a general
concept of importance for a given
domain. External or Backward Links play a vital
role. Having a long, well-established history is
helpful, but not critical and is becoming
increasingly LESS important. Google PageRank is
one of the most noteworthy measures of
credibility. Credibility is only part of the
equation. It is a much bigger part for Google
than for Yahoo!
Search Engines need to believe your page is
relevant for a given keyword. Including keywords
in positions of prominence is important. Keyword
Density is a critical, but not scientific,
pursuit. Backward Links from relevant Anchor
Text establish both credibility and
relevance. Remaining organic is critical for
both search engines and your readers.
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C R E D I B I L I T Y
Imagine someone asks you the answer to 22
PageRank 9/10
PageRank 4/10
Whose help would you trust?
OR
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Which sites are Credible?
Backward links play a primary role in defining
credibility.

• Links from other websites serve as Votes for you
  being the answer to a search query.
• Votes from highly credible websites count more
  significantly.
• Text/URL links count as generic Votes, but links
  with relevant Anchor Text are more significant.

• Suzy.com has the key term 22 linked to
  www.FIVE.com
• This serves as one highly credible Vote for
  Five.com being
• the answer to your search.

• Scott.com has the key term 22 linked to
  www.FOUR.com
• This serves as a less credible Vote for
  Four.com being the
• answer to your search.

Google is inclined to return Five.com as the
result for your search.
Unless
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C R E D I B I L I T Y C ON F O U N D E D
What if Sara agrees with Scott?
And so do Sol, Stacey, and Steve.
Sara
If all these other sites link the 22 to
FOUR.com, Google is now inclined to return
FOUR.com against Suzys vote for FIVE.com

• The most credible site in the world isnt always
  the right answer to your search query.
• Democracy rules in the end.

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K E Y WO R D R E L E V A N C E

• Just being a credible source of information is
  not enough.
• Your website needs to be highly relevant for the
  specific keyword being searched.

Factors that affect the keyword relevance of your
webpage

• Searchable Content

• Meta Tag Keywords

• Keyword Density

• Anchor Text of external links

• Keyword relevance of pages linked to

• Keywords in positions of prominence

Search engines need to believe your page is truly
related to the relevant keyword!
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B E I N G C O N V I N C I N G
Search Engines need to believe your website is
relevant for the keyword being searched.
Best Practices

• Create multiple, keyword-specific landing pages.
• Optimize each page for a well-defined set of
  keywords (no more than five or six).
• Link those keywords from within your website.
• Encourage bloggers internally and externally to
  link keywords to the appropriate pages.
• Send press releases for each individual landing
  page, linking your keywords back.
• Be strategic and realistic in the keywords you
  select for each page.

If you think youve figured out a way to be
trickydont!
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R E A L S I M P L E S Y N D I C A T I O N
Advantages of RSS

• Push technology.
• Additional backward links.
• Drives traffic from new channels.
• Make content more convenient for interested
  parties.
• Under your immediate control.
• More easily updated than your Web site.
• Feeds communicate more fluidly with search
  engines than HTML
• Can and should be regularly updated.

What YOU can do

• Incorporate RSS into your online newsroom.
• Include an RSS hyperlink within your press
  releases.
• Support your own RSS feeds internally.
• Use tools like Feed burner and Press Feed.
• Be creative! RSS is a good delivery mechanism
  for almost ANY content.

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R S S A N D P R E S S R E L E A S E S
All of the major wire services already offer RSS
feeds to their news.

• Journalists now compete on hourly deadlines, not
  weekly or daily.
• Bloggers, social bookmarkers, and Johnny Public
  now read your news too.
• RSS is highly customizable to the Beat or
  topic of your choice.
• Roughly 8 of access to press releases comes via
  RSS.
• RSS adoption is on the rise.

The all-important headline just became even more
important.
Most RSS readers display partial feeds with a
limited character count. Common filters also
limit RSS feeds to no more than the headline and
first few sentences before being clicked on.
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S E O A N D P R E S S R E L E A S E S
According to a study by HR Marketer on the
marketing trends of 2006, 64 of respondents
indicated SEO press releases were either
Important or Must Have components of their
online marketing campaign.
Why the hype?

• Highly effective method of creating backward
  links.
• Helps build both Credibility and Keyword
  Relevance.
• Immediate control of all aspects of Keyword
  Relevance.
• Inclusion in very high traffic websites.
• More pages on the web equals more views for your
  brand.
• Multiple delivery channels XML, FTP, RSS, HTML,
  Email.
• Search Engines have a preference for recently
  updated content.

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H O W I T W O R K S
SEO for Press Releases works by driving search
engine traffic through two channels
Press Releases
Corporate Site
Some press release distributors allow you to
include Meta Tags The headline of your press
release takes on the Title of the page it is
hosted on (Keyword Relevance) You have total
control over keyword density, as long as it
sounds organic. By linking your releases to
specific landing pages with high keyword
relevance, you can boost your search results even
further. People who find your press releases are
likely to click through to your corporate website.
Press releases posted WITH HYPERLINKS create
backward links from relevant anchor text. Public
companies get much more mileage per press release
distributed. Press releases often post to Tier 1
web domains (Yahoo!, AOL, etc.) The more
HTML-enabled news sites that post your release
with hyperlinks, the better your search
rankings. No other way to get multiple links
from highly credible sites that associate your
own keywords with your corporate site.
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C A S E S T U D Y

• Trek Bicycles selected highly specific key terms
  they wanted to target
• Carbon Fiber Bicycles
• Bicycle Design
• Cycling Footwear
• Paired Spoke Technology

Trek sent out a well crafted, SEO-enhanced press
release, targeted for these key terms.
Examples Carbon Fiber Bicycles moved from 21
to 3 overall. Bicycle Design moved from No
Ranking to around 300. Cycling Footwear moved
from No Ranking to around 100.
SEO-Enhanced press releases are a powerful SEO
tool, but they are NOT a comprehensive
strategy. Trek was able to use the base rankings
created by this press release to launch a
successful SEM campaign.
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D I S T R I B U T I O N
What to look for
If Search Engine Optimization is your primary
objective for issuing press releases, look for
the following in a distribution service

• High number of Web postings
• Distribution to top tier websites (Yahoo! has a
  list of sources that post directly)
• Hyperlinks posted on downstream websites
• Reporting that helps you in the future
• Ability to include Meta Tags in your releases
• Archival of your release on a dedicated, search
  engine-friendly website

For most press release distributors, web
distribution remains constant for ANY
distribution circuit. The least expensive
circuit offers the same SEO value as the most
expensive.
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T I P S

• Make sure your content is searchable.
• Avoid using Flash for your primary content.
• Use Meta Tags.
• Use Meta Tags that are specific to each landing
  page or press release.
• Place keywords in positions of prominence.
• Title/Headline, First paragraph, Navigation Bar
• Use convincing keyword density for relevant
  landing pages.
• - Between 2-5 is generally thought to be
  optimal. Ignore pronouns, words shorter
• than two letters, and, that, where, etc.
  Remember to still sound organic!
• Point your external links to keyword-rich
  landing sites rather than your homepage.
• This increases the time a visitor will spend on
  your page as well as Search rankings.
• Use keyword research tools to decipher what key
  terms are most popular.
• All links are not created equal.

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T O O L S
SEO / Keyword Research Yahoo! Search Marketing
(formerly Overture) - http//searchmarketing.yahoo
.com/rc/srch/ WordTracker - http//freekeywords.
wordtracker.com/ Google Trends -
www.google.com/trends Google AdWords -
https//adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExter
nal Apogee Meta Tags - http//www.apogee-web-cons
ulting.com/tools/keyword_tool.php Keyword
Density Analysis - http//www.keyworddensity.com/
RSS Feeds / Content Syndication PRESS feed -
http//www.press-feed.com Feedburner -
http//www.feedburner.com
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Paul Dyer New Media Specialist Market Wire,
Inc. pdyer_at_marketwire.com 310.846.3820 http//pdy
er.blogspot.com/