Communications executives already know that online content optimization involves way more than choosing keywords and embedding hyperlinks. It is a nuanced process that ties together strategies from PR and marketing, and—when done effectively—it embodies true integration of online and offline, SEO and SEM and marketing and communications.
Following up on last week’s feature, “Writing for the Web: Adapting Online Content to Improve Visibility,” the best practices below address ways in which communications executives can leverage SEO and SEM together to facilitate this ultimate integration and to reap the bottom-line benefits as a result.
â–¶ Analyze the competition. Keyword optimization is a critical piece of the SEO puzzle, as discussed in last week’s feature. The second part of this keyword development process is to analyze the competitive landscape to avoid choosing search terms that are already overused.
When analyzing SEO competition, Kai Blum, director of search engine marketing at MS&L Digital, recommends asking (and answering) the following questions:
• Who is top-ranked for your desired keyword phrases?
• Did they optimize their site?
• How many incoming links to they have? (Check www.backlinkwatch.com to find out.)www.backlinkwatch.com
• How difficult would it be to outrank them for the selected phrase?
As for analyzing SEM competition:
• How many competitors do you have?
• What is the potential cost?
• Have you overlooked any keyword phrases?
In terms of planning an SEM campaign, Blum offers communications and marketing execs a key guideline: “Don’t pay for the top position in paid ads, especially if your budget is limited. The third position is very effective.”
â–¶ Create SEO and SEM strategies that are symbiotic, not cannibalistic. SEO strategies, which center on organic search, are customer-centric, developed specifically with users’ search habits in mind. SEM, or paid search, is more marketing-minded (see sidebar for more on the differences between SEO and SEM).
However, both rely on keywords, which are chosen by communications and marketing executives. If these two groups don’t work in tandem with one another, they could inadvertently commit keyword cannibalization.
“Keyword cannibalization is when SEO and SEM [strategies] compete against each other,” says Robb Hecht, senior vice president and digital marketing strategist at imc strategy lab. “Ensuring that SEO and SEM work together will help prevent any overlaps and enable the creation of synergies that could have otherwise been missed.”
Because SEM costs money—specifically in the form of pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns—competitive strategies can be wasteful. Instead, “Use PPC to supplement SEO,” Blum says. “Investing in SEO will save you PPC money in the long run.”
â–¶ Don’t forget to follow through with evaluations of your conversion rates. Conversion refers to whatever goals you established for your various Web properties, including:
• Sales
• Requests for more information
• Subscriptions
• Downloads
When deciding how to revise and shape Web content, it is important to see which past strategies had the biggest impact on conversions.
“Invest in conversion rate optimization to increase ROI—your excellent search results listings will be worthless if you don’t pay attention to conversion,” Blum says. “Test different versions of your conversion pages with tools like Google Website Optimizer.”
â–¶ Marry online and offline strategies. As always, digital and traditional strategies can’t operate independently of one another. When they are two halves of the respective whole, you will end up with a sum that’s greater than its parts—for the better.
Keywords—the crux of optimization—are an ideal place to start the process of integrating your online and offline strategies.
“Know your keywords and use them online and off—in media training, interviews, fact sheets, etc.,” says Sarah Skerik, a vice president of PR Newswire. “Build traction for your brand against key terms.”
â–¶ Optimize all social media content. “Social media optimization and SEO are becoming inextricably linked,” Hecht says. “Develop tools, applications and properties to activate your brand advocates, allowing users to aggregate, tag, rank, share and comment on your content. Social input like tagging and ranking guide not only what information search engines present in response to user queries, but also the order and rankings of what they present.”
Whatever you do, Hecht says, don’t make your content all about you.
“To affect search results positively, give your customers tools and a reason to generate positive content about your brand,” he says. PRN
CONTACTS:
Rob Hecht, [email protected]; Kai Blum, [email protected]; Sarah Skerik, [email protected]