What is all this about Google killing PR? If anything the Google Webmaster update has made it more important than ever for marketers to consider PR agency selection and recruitment to help boost SEO.
Shock, horror they have done it again. Google have put another stop to a loophole that cheeky techies have been using as an extra tactic to boost their website SEO.
Normally this wouldn’t ruffle the feathers of marketing professionals but this time the algorithm update has made a special mention to online PR (well, actually only to ‘press releases’).
The facts of the update
The update was implemented by Google to remove and identify unnatural link schemes. The mention of keywords and links in press releases in the Webmaster Rules are in reference to anchor text rich links that were previously used as a quick tactic to increase SEO by distributing optimised press releases in newswires.
An article by ZDNet caused a ripple of discontent among PR professionals who have since spoken out against a supposed ‘death of online PR’. The article claimed that press releases are now irrelevant thanks to the new update and this will make online PR a thing of the past.
That would be true if this was how PR was conducted online – which it is not. Generally speaking a PR will write a press release with the audience of journalists and bloggers in mind. Hyperlinks will be descriptive rather than using anchor text and abusing key words in copy. The content will also be informative and part of a wider campaign that will increase the exposure of their client organically.
PR professionals’ are of the opinion that, if anything, the update has increased the importance of online PR in a battle for SEO value. We second this opinion and expect to see an increase in PR agency selection requests in the wake of this update.
How does PR boost SEO?
Many PR agencies will offer SEO as part of their agency service but do not use a black hat method of optimising client content with keywords and backlinks as ZDNet described. SEO value is generated from PR’s producing sharable and newsworthy content for their clients. The PR efforts that see an SEO effect are from the careful planning and publishing of relevant engaging content.
One of a thousand recent examples of great online PR is Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stolenburg’s pre-election PR stunt posing as a taxi driver. The You-Tube video generated over 463,000 views in one day and reached global news channels. A buzz of activity was created around the campaign thanks to the creative thinking from the PR agent. As a direct result the campaign will no-doubt boost the party’s webpage SEO from published articles and repeat sharing of the content.
Google have a knack for weaselling out the SEO cheaters. To stay ahead of competition in the fierce online arena marketers should now focus their attention on PR agency selection to secure a strong marketing team to SEO their brands.
PR Agencies we want to hear from you!
One comment that caught our attention was from Joshua Lachkovic, digital marketing executive at Hotwire. Lachkovic spoke out against ZDNet claims in his blog post ‘Google didn’t kill PR agencies; it helped them’ saying:
“Google didn’t kill PR agencies, all it did was kill spam – and it’s been doing that for years.”
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