T H E C O N V E R G E N C E

IMPERATIVE Why PR is Positioned to Rule SEO

SEO IS JUST TECHNICAL

LET’S START BY DISPELLING A FEW MYTHS

GOOGLE HAS CHANGED

SEO IS NOT ROCKET SURGERY

IT’S NOT ROCKET SURGERY “ Google rewards sites that deliver great content and a compelling user

experience to their users

Tweet that, Fool

THE BASICS

(IN FIVE MINUTES OR LESS)

HOW GOOGLE WORKS

SEARCH STARTS WITH THE WEB. IT’S MADE UP OF OVER

60 TRILLION INDIVIDUAL PAGES

AND IT’S CONSTANTLY GROWING

HOW GOOGLE WORKS

Google navigates the web by

CRAWLING Software called “spiders” follows

links from page to page.

HOW GOOGLE WORKS

Google then stores the crawled pages in an

INDEX Capturing a wide range of information about the page

It’s over 100

million gigabytes

HOW GOOGLE WORKS

When a search is entered, Google uses

ALGORITHMS To rank the results and deliver users the most relevant results.

We use +200 factors to rank

the results

THE ROLE OF SEO

0.0%  

5.0%  

10.0%  

15.0%  

20.0%  

25.0%  

30.0%  

35.0%  

40.0%  

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  

Enquiro  (2007)  

Chi9ka  (2010)  

Slingshot  (2011)  

CTR BY POSITION

TO BE AN SEO SUPERHERO

GET MORE LINKS

GOOGLE: NO LONGER FOOLED

> In 2011, Google launched major updates designed to stop spammers

> As a result, SEO has become an earned media approach

GOOGLE LOVES PUBLIC RELATIONS

SITES GOOGLE LOVES

COMPELLING CONTENT

1

GREAT USER EXPERIENCE

UX 2

LINKS FROM TRUSTED SITES

3

TECHNICAL GEEKERY

4

PUTTING PR TO WORK

1.  Become a hunter 2.  Develop killer content 3.  Give it a home 4.  Market and promote the content 5.  Get the basics right

WITHOUT CONTENT, YOU DO NOT EXIST

Content is the currency for building social relationships that boost

earned media

“ @LeeOdden

WE’RE ALREADY IN THE

CONTENT BUSINESS

Messaging Press Releases Pitches Blog Posts Editorials

Guest Posting White Papers Social Media Events

SO, WHAT MAKES CONTENT “GREAT”

Original Simple Valuable &

Useful Entertains Emotional

ABOVE ALL, CONTENT MUST BE

RELEVANT

TO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

5 STEPS TO AN EFFECTIVE CONTENT STRATEGY

1 Content Strategy 2 Content

Planning 3 Creative 4 Distribute& Market 5 Analyze

> Understand your brand identify and positioning

> Core messaging > Personality > Curation strategy

> Audit existing content

> Governance > Plan & Schedule

topics > Staffing

> Copywriting > Design asset

production > QA Compliance

> Market across brand channels: owned, earned and paid

> Pitch to online influencers

> Gauge interest and engagement

> Use tagged analytics to gain larger view of trends

QUICK START GUIDE

Who is your audience?

Why will they care about you?

What are you doing to earn their interest?

What incentive do they have to share?

Finding Topics

>  Ask your sales team >  Map the buying cycle >  Q/A Sites – Quora,

Yahoo! Answers, etc. >  Mine social media >  Follow industry, peers

CONTENT PLANNING FRAMEWORK

HYGIENE  Low cost content designed to be regularly created and optimized to serve as inbound content for longer-tail search traffic.  

HUB  Content that is more involved in production and is designed to give a fresh perspective.  

HERO  Large-scale, high cost content that is designed to attract attention and serve as a basis for driving public relations outreach efforts.  

LATEST RESEARCH

Study: 83% of Web Content Unfit for Human Consumption

TELLING YOUR STORY

Marketing the Content >  PR should be involved from outset >  Ensure content aligned with audience >  Build and nurture relationships >  Custom pitches >  Utilize social media

PUTTING

IT ALL

TOGETHER

PR LEADS TO A

MORE HOLISTIC

SEARCH PRESENCE

WHAT WE DIDN’T TALK ABOUT TODAY

1

2

KEYWORDS PRESS RELEASES

ELASTICITY          +          THERE  IS  NO  FRESH  BROCCOLI  

“  Nothing worth having comes easy

- Theodore Roosevelt

FOUR TAKEAWAYS

SEARCH IS STILL

NUMBER ONE

THE DAYS OF

GAMING THE

SYSTEM ARE GONE

YOU MUST BE

WILLING TO INVEST

AND BECOME A

PUBLISHER

WITH A COMMAND

OF CONTENT AND A

ROLODEX, PR IS AT

THE VANGUARD OF

MODERN SEO

1 2 3 4

ANDREW

BARNETT THANK YOU

CONTACT @andybarnett

GoElastic.com

GET THE SLIDES! WWW.SLIDESHARE.NET/ELASTICITY