What does SEO have to do with public relations?

First off, unless you've done a great deal of web promotions already, you might not even know what SEO means. The acronym 'SEO' stands for search engine optimization. The process of SEO is to make it as optimally easy for Internet consumers and the search engine's "spiders" and "bots" to find your information. It helps with the rank your pages also can attain in searches. Think about what appears first on a Goggle search for a specific topic. Ever wonder how it got there? SEO is a big part of the reason certain information will appear first, above other similar pages.

OK, so what does this have to do with public relations? Remember before, when we discussed how the various tools of the Internet are means to ends when it comes to communication? Utilizing these tools on the Internet takes a bit more than just slapping a release up and hoping it gets picked up. To optimize your content, it means finding which keywords and phrases are the most popular and being searched the most (as they relate to your topic) and including them in the text of the pieces your are using the Internet to distribute.

For example, let's say you need to produce and distribute a news release about a new widget your company has developed. Using SEO tools like Google AdWords Keyword Tool, you can search for what is most popular around the word "widget." When I did a search, the most popular search term related to "widget" was actually the word "widget," with more than three million searches of the word per month. Ok, so we know we're on track with that word. It can and should be used in the release. An interesting fact: the second most searched term for "widget" was "Samsung widget." Looks to me like Samsung has been doing quite a bit of information distribution via the Internet about a widget related to their products. However, this term was only netting about 165,000 searches per month. Quite a bit less than the more general term.

Mind you, keyword optimization is just one part of the entire SEO repertoire and process. Take a close look at the graphic included in this post. Notice that it can involve everything from article submission and link building to social bookmarking (like Digg or Delicious) and blogging.

YOUR TURN
Again, take one of your previously created news releases. Think about the topic, the words used to describe it, so on and so forth. Using a keyword tool (whether you use Google's or another one is your choice), discover the keyword popularity of the words you've used. In your post, describe 1) what keyword tool you used, 2) why you used that tool, 3) what words you searched for, 4) the top five (5) most popular searches surrounding your searched words, and 6) how you could improve the SEO of your news release with this information. THEN, in the same document, show your fellow students (and I) the original version of your release, and the OPTIMIZED version of your release. Create a PDF of the overall document and upload it to the class forum for review.