Leveraging SEO in your PR strategy can immensely increase your business’s online visibility, making your offerings more accessible to both current and potential new customers alike. One of the easiest ways to maximize your PR efforts through SEO is to utilize keywords.
SEO keywords are phrases in your web content that cause your website to show up with a relative search term. By embedding keywords a potential customer is likely typing into their search engine in your web content, your business will be placed higher in search results. Ultimately, the point of using keywords is pretty similar to a key goal of PR: to create awareness of your business by getting your website placed in the top results of search engines, ultimately driving traffic to your website and increasing sales.
Even if you already have an SEO strategy in place, the best beginning practice for integrating keywords into PR efforts is to audit which keywords you are already ranking for. You can either use an SEO platform or manually search on Google to see what combination of phrases triggers your site to appear. This will give you an idea of what your business is already ranking for and can inform your strategy for increasing your rankings.
There are typically two categories of keywords you will want to include in your PR content: basic and long-tail.
Identifying your basic keywords
Basic keywords are your tried and true terms that will rarely change. These are simple, one to two-word keywords that define your business and are directly related to your brand. They can include anything from your business name to a service you offer, your product, or your industry.
To help define these keywords further, put yourself in the shoes of your customers. A good question to ask yourself is “If I was searching for a product or service similar to what my business offers, what would be the first thing I would google?”
It is important to note that these straightforward keywords can be more challenging to rank for because they tend to be associated with a higher search volume. For example, if you were to google “luggage”, an extensive array of results would appear as opposed to if you searched a long-tail, more concise keyword like “blue carry-on luggage”, which would produce significantly less relevant results.
Exploring long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are a combination of three or more basic keywords. They can require a bit more specificity; however, long-tail keywords can offer great SEO value because they tend to have a lower search volume, making them easier to rank for.
Implementing these keywords in your PR approach is crucial to ensure that relevant and appropriate traffic is reaching your website.
When generating long-tail keywords, you can start with combinations of your basic keywords. For example, a long-tail keyword could include your company name + specific product + price. A good rule of thumb is to keep long-tail keywords between 3 to 8 terms to ensure reliability and accuracy.
Integrating keywords into PR content
Once you have your list of targeted basic and long-tail keywords, this becomes your guidebook. With this, you can start brainstorming ways to integrate these keywords directly into your written content. Op-eds, sponsored posts, paid press releases, and blog posts are all opportunities to strategically include the keywords your business wants to rank for.
Don’t forget to monitor and audit
Tracking the search volume of your keywords and monitoring their performance is an essential housekeeping task. This is especially important in PR because you want to confirm that your content and keywords are working cohesively to optimize impressions on your potential audience.
A simple audit can be done manually by searching the keywords you’ve selected to see if your site appears. Alternatively, specialized SEO tools and programs can be employed for more thorough analysis. If you end up restrategizing your target keywords, the good news is you will not need to scrap your initial list entirely. The fluidity of long-tail keywords allows them to be rearranged and reformulated, allowing you to adjust as needed.
The Takeaway
Selecting the right SEO keywords and integrating them into your web content, along with monitoring these keywords for performance, is a simple and effective strategy to produce powerful results for increasing your business’s online presence.
Need help creating a PR plan that works in tandem to maximize your business’s SEO potential? Reach out to us at [email protected]
