Search engine optimisation (SEO) relates to how well a website is set up to rank for the search terms a potential site visitor might use to find it. For many businesses, rightly or wrongly, Google is king. I’ve had clients hit by search penalties, Google updates or rival SEO surges loosing hundreds of thousands of pounds of revenue overnight.
Google is constantly updating its algorithms in a bid to improve the results for the person searching and push organisations towards buying ads in a bid to avoid the incessant peaks and troughs that come with the march towards this goal.
Agencies dedicated to search engine optimisation have fallen by the wayside as they’ve struggled to keep up. This is no bad thing – a few years ago, page one of Google was a mess of people gaming it in every way possible, going against Google’s emphasis on relevant search results.
It is, undoubtedly, a better place to find what you’re looking for now, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be ethically impacted. In every challenge there is an opportunity that opportunity sits nicely with public relations.
Opportunity for public relations
On the whole, businesses understand that links from authoritative websites will improve their search engine placement. And who has a history of getting client coverage on authoritative websites like, say, those of the national media? That’s right: public relations practitioners.
We should have the ability to come up with and relay relevant, topical stories or features to targeted journalists/outlets in a way traditional SEO agencies can only dream of. Often, like it or not, getting a follow link is all that matters.
In my mind, it’s less a phasing out of SEO and more a matter of convergence. The modern public relations agency or communications needs to accept that this is part and parcel as clients look for a more integrated digital marketing approach.
How to choose who you are targeting
The more links a client’s site has from other sites, the better. Google wants (of course, it’s algorithmic, so it wants nothing, but… come on, work with me) the best results for searchers. In simple terms, if a site has plenty of links, that’s a good thing.
But it’s not just the volume of links – quality comes before quantity. Quality in terms of links is measured in different ways, but industry-standards are Google Page Rank (check yours on www.checkpagerank.net / others) and SEOMoz’s metrics, Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA).
Page Rank’s out of 10 – new sites typically start at 0. Domain Authority is measured out of 100. The Telegraph’s website has a Google Page Rank of 8/10 and a domain authority of 96/100. I, and others I know, typically rely on Domain Authority over Page Rank.
A link from a site with a DA of 96 is infinitely more beneficial from an SEO perspective than a link from a site with a DA of 1. In fact, you really only want to target your efforts on sites with higher SEOMoz scores, both from a time-conscious perspective and because sites with lower scores will have less impact.
At my agency, we tend to put together relevant targets and sort by DA to create an ordered list, helping to prioritise our time, because after all – you want to get the best out of whatever time your client is paying for.
And how do you find what each site’s Domain Authority is? Easy: Open Site Explorer. Without creeping up SEOMoz’s backside too much, OSE is a brilliant – and free (with a paid Pro version available) – tool. SEOMoz also has an incredibly active forum and regularly updated blog, packed with the latest in digital marketing tips, so don’t miss out on that.
Using Open Site Explorer (OSE)
OSE comes in once you know which audience you want to reach for your client, and you have built a list of media sites and blogs to target.
When you add a domain into the search box, it returns a number of things – including the DA, Page Authority (SEOMoz’s explanation: “Whereas Page Authority measures the predictive ranking strength of a single page, Domain Authority measures the strength of entire domains or subdomains”) and helpfully and amongst other things, inbound links – allowing you to see which sites have linked to your search URL.
Do take a look at this – you’ll be surprised how many referrers you possibly weren’t aware of. Note: you can only run three reports per day unless you register for a free account.
Once you’ve got your filled out target list, you can then sort by highest to lowest DA, showing you where your effort is best spent. Again, you might be surprised to find certain sites are more beneficial from an SEO standpoint that you imagined. I’m constantly surprised by just how well certain blogs rank.
Compiling a target list is one thing – getting a follow link by providing the journalist or blogger with content their audience will actually appreciate is another matter altogether and one for another day.
