You have a pretty good idea of who your target audience is for your digital content. You can visualize them, and you know what kind of work they do and what they're likely to buy. You know for sure that they walk upright on two legs, generally.
News flash: Your target audience is not people, it's Google, which stands between you and those people you want to reach. Only if you create content with Google's search algorithm in mind as the first processor of your content can you reach human beings on the other side of your screen.
It's a professional mission of Mike Samec, director of digital strategy for Gibbs & Soell Business Communications, to make SEO experts out of PR professionals. Samec will be leading a PR News SEO Workshop on Oct. 10 at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, and as a preview offers four tips for PR pros to maximize the impact of content in regard to search:
1. Be unique. Your content must stand out from the millions of pages of content online. TIP: Check what your competitors are doing that is earning them top ranks and do something a bit differently.
2. Be targeted. Your content must be relevant to get in front of the target audience you want to reach, and it must be focused and structured properly (metadata) to give Google clear direction of purpose. TIP: Check your content structure once you have completed your content piece to ensure your focus didn’t become watered down through the review and approval process.
3. Be compelling. Google credits content that people link to and spend time with. This is where video, pictures and infographics hold a key advantage . TIP: Produce your content in a format that is different from competitors. If most are ranking through blog posts, try an infographic.
4. Be social. Share, engage, encourage others to share, post, link and comment . TIP: Make sure to promote your content via the channels your audience prefers.
Learn more from Mike Samec at PR News' SEO Workshop: What Communicators Need to Know Now About SEO, which will be held on Oct. 10 in New York.
Follow Mike Samec: @msamec
Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI