SEO & Social Media

There was a time when experts at public relations (PR) often heard search engine optimization (SEO) professionals say that press releases help their digital marketing efforts, and that they require a lot of them. The SEO press release also gave the PR people a newfound significance, as they were responsible for issuing all of these press releases.

When these digital marketers discovered the correct procedure, the Internet was filling up with press releases that were not newsworthy. Everyone was suddenly posting press releases here and there, in as much as thousands per day. While cyberspace had no problem holding all of this content (considering that it can and will hold limitless amounts of data), this outpouring of press releases actually defeats the real objective of a press release.

The press release is written to let the public know about something newsworthy – simple and straight to the point. The sad thing was these straightforward articles were not utilized well during this era that was controlled by SEO. They were flooding the online landscape because companies only wanted them to drive and market traffic to their corporate sites instead of offering information.

The entire landscape of online PR environment and SEO was once again shaken by Google updating its link scheme definitions. Officially known by the name of Google Panda, this update is designed to bring down the rank of “thin sites” or websites with low quality content according to a list of queries that most individuals subconsciously utilize to analyze websites. This basically means that using an SEO tactic of composing many short articles on numerous web pages may cause your ranking on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) to go down.

The question now is: can press releases work for you? The lazy answer to this would be to stop making use of press releases. The problem is that this response is usually incorrect. There are certain times when businesses must disseminate information using this manner.

For instance, public firms are bound by law (at least in America) to let the public know about their activities. In this case, mass dispersal of press releases is needed. Aside from this, private companies that intend to work on IPOs (Initial public offerings) must not artificially blow up their future values during the “quiet period”. Therefore, if two press releases per month have been posted worldwide, issuing three or more of these will break the rules.

When they are applied in the right way, press releases can still be invaluable. Those truly newsworthy articles will always be an important component in the marketing and communications program that has to have social media and blog posts. Publicly traded businesses must still provide news releases due to regulatory prerequisites. Press releases can also efficiently secure placements in regional media. Finally, these pieces act as documents about newsworthy and official announcements that can be archived and show up in organizational sites.

The truth is that most website owners do not operate sites which have pages filled with poor quality content. This does not mean that they should take Google Panda for granted. Of all the updates released by the search engine giant, Panda is an honest effort to gauge quality.

It will not ask the webmaster how his or her site reached its present rank in the SERP (this is a typical genetic fallacy issue). It basically asks if the whole site and the current page deserve to be in that position according to human quality measures (even if this is not perfect). Most importantly, the webmaster must make it a goal to build a website that complies with Google Panda’s metrics (even if the search engine giant did not exist). A website that scores well with the questions in Panda is more than merely being safe from the scrutiny of an algorithm update; it means that users will experience a website that performs well.

Keep this in mind when you are working on your digital marketing strategies: You do not “do” SEO. This optimization method is not “magical” or made out of a “bag of tricks”. You do not “SEO” anything and just expect it to work. If your press releases are only being used to get links and not offer valuable information, you are attempting to cheat Google. If your articles are simply stuffed with keywords and are spun, you are attempting to cheat Google. Please stop doing this, because you are not performing SEO but spam.

As a whole, the Google Panda 4.0 update is basically working hard to remove useless junk on the Internet. Everyone from internet marketers to webmasters and users noticed these trends. And while Panda has hit many sites since its implementation, it has good intentions overall.

Now that you have read this, ask yourself this question: can press releases work for you?

For other online marketing tips that could help your link building efforts, follow and visit Viiworks Google+ page.

We are getting a lot of questions about SEO from clients and we thought of compiling them here as reference to everyone who has similar questions about SEO.

Client: What tangible results can you give me from onsite-seo?

By definition, onsite SEO is fixing a website to make it search engine friendly. This is pretty technical and is not done for search engine compliance alone but also to drive results.

Here are some question guidelines to see if your website is optimized to be search-engine friendly:

1. Is your website using the right keywords to be found by search engines and be seen by your potential customers?

2. Is your website taking an enormous amount of time to display videos, photos and content? Onsite SEO can optimize content so it will be search engine and user friendly.

3. Is your content original, worth reading, and viral worthy with the right keywords in place?

Google has expert eyes to see if your website has relevant content. If Google finds your content spammy, has plagiarized content (with no credit or hyperlink to actual source), or of less quality, you should not expect your website be found on search engines.

Client: Why should I get SEO services?

SEO work is not a one man or two man’s job. It involves a team of experts working on different aspects of SEO. Team members are a copywriter, an SEO strategist, a proofreader, a linkbuilder, a data entry specialist and more.

You can think of an SEO team as a 24/7 marketing team which continues to work after office hours. Traffic from potential customers continues to go to your website. Building quality articles especially for highly competitive niches such as travel, food, health, real estate, etc. will take a lot of articles to be written, posts to be shared strategically, linking to other websites, referring traffic to your website, etc.

More so, search engines update their rules from time to time. It is the same with user behaviour’s online activities. Having your own reputable SEO company work for you will eliminate all guess work on how to overcome this changes and continue your increase in ranking in search engines.

Client: What benefit will I get form it?

Everybody uses the internet to research for a service or product before making a commitment (purchase). Having the right internet presence would surely direct customers and profit to you.

According to a Nielsen global survey,

… the Internet is an important influence on consumers interested in buying new products in categories like electronics (81%), appliances (77%), books (70%) and music (69%). The trend is catching on in consumption categories too—such as food and beverages (62%), personal hygiene (62%), personal health/over-the-counter medicines (61%) and hair care (60%)—with respondents in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle East/Africa most engaged in online decision-making. More than half of all global respondents consider the Internet important when it comes to purchasing new clothing (69%) and cars (68%).

Client: What effective keywords should I use for me to rank number one?

Onsite SEO provides keyword research for you. To rank #1, paid ads can be used to give quicker results. For offsite SEO, it will take longer time to build traffic organically especially for those belonging in a tight niche or market (e.g. hospitality, health and wellness, travel, etc.)

Client: Why is SEO expensive?

As answered previously, SEO compromises a team of experts doing their function to give results.

Imagine paying a team of 5 or 10 people in a month (wages, benefits, plus all the motivational schemes to make their creative juices running), plus all the tools used to create, maintain and monitor your website’s search engine rankings.

However, if you compare the expenses of traditional media costs like in TV, print, or radio commercials which are shown in a limited time, and add the costs of producing these advertisements, you can benefit more with SEO which drives long term results and is one of the most affordable and effective marketing strategies.

Client: Why does it take so long to get results (for 6 months)?

Offsite SEO is the organic way of increasing search engine rankings. Of course it will take time to write contents, build an audience and links to drive enough traffic.

For faster results, you can opt for PPC. However, it can be pretty expensive especially if done constantly to retain rankings.

Client: What ROI will I get?

The more internet searches where your website would appear means more traffic, more people knowing your company, more potential customers. Next step for every SEO company is converting this leads into traffic. Data derived from analytics due to increased web traffic can also help your business make good decisions into where to focus your marketing and sales efforts.

Do you have inputs regarding the article above? Do you have an inquiry about SEO? Or if you are interested to avail of our SEO service, you can: