As part of a series, I am exploring what skills the next communications professionals need to have in hand to succeed and lead. We once thought search engine optimization (SEO) was a technical, geek activity. Get the guys and gals who talk in 'algorithms' and meta-content together and they'll fix you up. Enter the social web. Now for all the reasons we know too well, SEO is a critical public relations function.
The reasons again:
- 80% of Internet users in developed markets start their online session at a search engine (In North America that is either Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or Ask.com)
- Put another way: The Google search results page for your brand is your new home page
- Social media - blogs, reviews, Web 2.0 content, social networks - return really well in search engines
- Despite the algorithms behind the scenes, the key to great search results is great content that is socially connected
- SEO is more than technology and 'advanced SEO' is at the heart of brand and reputation management
I now love Tadeusz Szewczyk. His SEO blog is so simple and straightforward - no, not just the design, but his writing too. He defines very clearly a great definition for 'advanced SEO'
"In basic SEO you just want
- to rank
- get found
- or garner huge traffic.
In advanced SEO you make sure the traffic is viewed as people, customers, multipliers.
In SEO 2.0 people out there do not hate SEO, they don't even notice it because it just perfectly fulfills their wishes. Advanced SEO is not about cool programming skills only, it's about social skills."
The Future PR Pro has mastered the critical parts of advanced SEO:
- creating content that is authentically valuable to people (stakeholders, audiences, users, publics)
- syndicating, distributing and sharing content to encourage linking and mash-ups
- building partnerships to gain access to new networks
- creating multimedia content for universal search
- engaging with WOM 'relayers' to build more 3rd party content and links
- integrating SEO with SEM efforts for a complimentary 'boost'
- user experience design to ensure owned Web properties follow the prime directive: be useful and in sync with best-practice SEO design
Resources to help understand Search Engines and SEO:
How Search Works
How Search Works with Social Media
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