Tag Archives: content optimization

Content We Love: Mt. Everest of Optimization

Posted on May 31, 2013 by | Leave a comment

mnr memory“Content We Love” is a weekly feature written by a team of our content specialists. We’re showcasing some of the great content distributed through our channels, and our content specialists are up for the task: they spend a lot of time with the press releases and other content our customers create, proof reading and formatting it, suggesting targeted distribution strategy and offering SEO advice. In Content We Love, we’re going to shine the spotlight on the press releases and other messages that stood out to us, and we’ll tell you why. We hope you find the releases enjoyable and the insights gained from discussing them enlightening.

Writing a modern press release can seem like a climb over Mt. Everest. With search engines reading for a human element, modern releases need more than a who, what, when, where, why baseline. To reach the summit, you need optimization.

  • Optimization is a buzz word you may hear a lot. “Make sure your content is optimized!” Yet many are left wondering what exactly that means.

Optimization is forming content to be received in the best possible way. Transforming a story to an optimized press release is a feat; so when Fusion-io boldly announced the peak ascend of Mt. Everest using optimization, my interest was more than piqued.

Fighting Alzheimer’s at Altitude: Scale the Mt. Everest Memory Challenge

Headline: Headlines are paramount. With search engines indexing only the first 65 characters and this being the first introduction to your story, it needs to stand out. Not every release will be literally climbing Mt. Everest, but generating the same buzz and interest starts with the headline.  This headline is short, pithy, and combines the main objectives together: Alzheimer’s, Mt. Everest, and a Memory Challenge.

Social Media: This release featured a custom hashtag: #MemoryChallenge and included a feed to see tweets with the hashtag. This presents a steady stream of information that is constantly updating (because twitter is continuous) on the release itself. Not only does including this cross platforms and channels to share the story, but it guarantees the release stay relevant.

Links: The connective tissue of the web, search engine spiders  are so named because they crawl across web sites and content, following links and gauging relevance and popularity . Connecting related content to your press releases via  a link or two provides your readers with more information, and when the readers follow the links you share, it sends an important signal to the engines – this is good stuff, people like it and are seeking more information.   This release is a good example of smart linking: instead of a slew of links at the very bottom, this release features information throughout!

*Be wary of being “spammy.” Less is more when it comes to linking.  Try to limit links to just a few – one or two are ideal.

Multimedia: Whether it takes looking at a release as “branding” or sending a story, including visuals is imperative within our modern world. Plainly: audiences are looking for more than just text.

Setting the stage (or base camp) are visuals of the mountain and the details of the impressive trek. Instantly the viewer is drawn in because it is interesting. Images are inherently interesting!

Telling a story via press release can be dull or empowering. The power of optimization is at fingertips’ length and the difference can be truly breathtaking.

 Big thanks to Fusion-io for a mountain-top experience with a great release.


http://www.multivu.com/players/English/60918-fusion-io-climb-for-memory/

Author Emily Nelson is a Customer Content Specialist for PR Newswire. Follow her adventures on www.bellesandawhistle.wordpress.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/emilyannnelson.

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Content Marketing Case Study: It Sure Looks Like PR to Me

Posted on October 29, 2012 by | 5 Comments

Wordstream’s infographic that supported their campaign generated fantastic results for them. (Click on the image to see the full size version.)

A blog post on search engine authority SEOMoz titled “How I Got a Link from the Wall Street Journal” offers some real instruction for PR pros on linking content – and public relations outputs – with measurable, top-line business results.

It’s worth noting that the author of the post – and the content marketing campaign discussed – is Larry Kim, the founder and CTO of Wordstream, a search marketing firm.  (There’s another link for you, Larry – I know you’re counting.)  In short, he is a data-driven quant, C-suite denizen and SEO guru.  And within his case study is some very important guidance for public relations pros.

Think strategically (and holistically) about online pickup.

The first lesson to be derived from Larry’s post is this:  PR should think more deliberately about the value to be had for the organizations we’re promoting in the online mentions and “pick up” we generate — and not just in terms of PR outcomes.   In this day and age, the content we publish digitally can provide a variety of benefits to an organization.  The content, for example, can be mapped your customers’ buying process by your marketing team, and re-purposed.  And the content can generate potent search engine visibility – if you manage the language and linking correctly.  Optimizing press releases and other content can certainly help, however, it’s important to think beyond one granular message, and think instead in terms of how messages can improve web site search rank and provide content that aids potential customers as they make buying decisions.

Defining SEO benefits

What do I mean by “good link” and “significant SEO benefits”?  Search engine optimization is the art and science of fine tuning a web site’s content (among other things) so it shows up on the first page of search results for specific, targeted keywords and phrases.

A “good link” is one that includes one of those target terms, and links back to related pages on your web site.   Here’s how Larry defined his objective of garnering a “good link” from the WSJ.

“Real, editorial links from the WSJ. But not just any link. Ideally, links in an article that:

  • In some way mentioned WordStream (my company) so that we could get a bit of media exposure out of this effort
  • Links to both our homepage and contained to a deep page on our site with relevant anchor text.“

Now, as we all know, the sort of placement Larry in talking about – real, editorial placement – is right in PR’s wheelhouse.   How many of us are working with our web marketing teams and thinking about search terms and deep links when we’re developing our PR campaigns and planning our tactics?  Anecdotally, from the many conversations I’ve had with PR teams over the years, I’m going to venture to guess that the answer to that question is “Not many.”

A good link from a high-profile, high-authority news site – whether it’s the Wall St. Journal or an important niche publication – can provide lift in search rankings for your web site, which is a proven driver of business results, as well as fuel for social conversations.   The content we publish, and the results it generates across the enterprise – is all connected.

Newsworthy content & a good news hook

As one continues reading Larry’s post, it reads more-and more like a modern guide on how to get more PR pick up. He emphasized the need for newsworthy, unique content that was written for the WSJ readership, not a bunch of search experts.

Further on in the case, Larry also addresses the vital necessity of a solid news hook, and how he went about identifying the hook for his “content marketing” campaign.

Finally, by now we know that press releases with multimedia generate better results than plain text.  Larry knows the power of visuals too, and made an infographic central to his campaign.

This *really* sounds like PR now, doesn’t it?

The importance of high-value links & a new definition of “pick up”

I’m prepared to argue that generating high-value links from credible media and blogs should be a key goal of many PR campaigns.   This is a new facet to that old standard in our business – achieving editorial “pick up,” and it’s one that our peers in marketing are really good at measuring.  The teams who manage web marking, in particular, generally have really good insight into the performance of different web site content in terms of the generation of qualified traffic and leads, conversion rate and search rank.   There’s no reason why the content PR deploys can’t be tweaked in order to work in tandem with other content deployed by the organization.  This ‘tweaking’ isn’t onerous.  It just requires a little collaboration with the web marketing team, getting organized, and then being sure to use target terms in PR content, and linking those terms to relevant web site pages. In addition to synching publishing strategies, the same should also be done for measurement at well.  It’s not unreasonable to imagine a scenario in which a press release, for example, is measured in terms of resulting high-value media links, leads generated and search marketing value.

Borrowing a few pages from Larry’s playbook is a good idea for PR.  Simply put, we can leverage the press releases and other content we produce, publish and syndicate to impact far more than the goals set for the PR department and the outcomes the organization usually expect from the public relations team.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media and has written extensively on how public relations, content marketing and search intersect.

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The Cross-Platform Consumer: New Communication Imperatives

Posted on September 3, 2012 by | 6 Comments

A new study titled “The New Multi-Screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior” from Google suggests that reaching your audience on one device isn’t enough.  The research reveals that 90% of people use multiple devices – mobiles, PCs, tablets, smart phones, TVs – to accomplish a goal.

The study concluded there are two modes of multi-screen media consumption:

  • Sequential – where we move from one device to another to accomplish a goal.  An example of this would be researching a destination for a day trip at your PC, and then using your smart phone once you got there to make decisions about which restaurant to visit. According to the study, 9 out of 10 people use devices sequentially.
  • Simultaneous – when we use two or more devices at the same time.  The simplest example of this is watching TV, and tweeting about what you’re watching on your tablet. 77% of people watch TV with another device in hand.

 So what does this mean to marketers?  If anything this underscores the necessity of increasing our clock speeds and adopting an agile approach to engaging our audiences.  This reality is central to why PR Newswire has long advocated a multi-channel approach to distributing press releases and multimedia content.  It’s simply not enough to rely upon a web site or two any longer.

Additionally, Google makes several important conclusions about how consumers interact with information across devices:

  • Search is the connector between devices.  People use search engines to “pick up where they left off,” according to Google.
  • Turn “spur of the moment” activity into valuable opportunity.  The study suggests that 80% of searches from smart phones are done at the spur of the moment.  A great mobile presence can be instrumental in converting that opportunity into a sale.

Imperatives for communicators:

  • Ensure that your web site is not only search friendly, but formatted for mobile devices too.  Be sure your phone number, location and other information people access most frequently on your web site (business hours, menus, products, special offers, etc.) render quickly and prominently for mobile users.
  • Coordinate online and off-line campaigns.   One famous example of a brand failing to do this is the Snickers campaign that featured made up words such as “hungerectomy” printed on a Snickers wrapper.  This campaign was purely analog, appearing on billboards, the sides of busses and in print.  However, the ad’s creators overlooked the fact that offline messaging drives online behavior.  They have any digital presences designed to capture online interest in the campaign, and they didn’t buy search engine ads against the very words upon which the ad campaign centered.  Understand that offline messaging will trigger online activity, and plan accordingly.

The Google study is interesting reading and underscores the connectedness of our audiences and how the advent of mobile devices has significantly changed the decision making process.  It’s critical for brands to develop intelligent presences everywhere their audience is going to look – from search engines to social networks and from print to mobile.

Author  Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the free ebook Unlocking Social Media for PR.

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How the PR Team Can Boost Web Site Ranking with Twitter

Posted on June 7, 2012 by | 1 Comment

According to a ground-breaking study (“Revolutionary study: We prove that tweets do affect rankings”) performed by UK digital agency Branded3, there is a strong positive correlation between the number of tweets of a URL, and its corresponding Google ranking.  The study suggests that a web page’s search rankings start to improve when its URL has received 50 tweets, but the real benefits start to accrue after a web site is tweeted more than 1,000 times.

Because much of the content an organization publishes originates with the public relations team, it’s important for communications pros to pause for a minute and consider how they can build rank and visibility for their organizations’ web sites by fine-tuning their Twitter strategy and integrating more strongly with their web marketing teams.

Organize and align PR, social media and search.

Taking advantage of Branded3’s findings to build search rank for a web site will take some planning and organization, and may require some organizations to develop more tightly-integrated communications plans as well as a more well-defined approach for sharing and tweeting press releases and other content on social networks.

  • With your web site marketing team, develop a list of key commercial web site pages your company wants to promote, along with the target keywords the web team is using in their optimization and SEM strategies.  These “target URLs” and “target terms” will need to be incorporated into the content you share socially.
  • Develop a solid Twitter presence, combining content curation with active social interaction and engagement.  Research (and stay current with) hash tag trends and usage in your particular area of interest.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (i.e. RT and mention generously.)
  • Commit to using target terms, related hash tags and related URLs in press releases, press kits, blog posts, backgrounders, pitches and any other communications that could be tweeted or shared.

Make tweet generation the focus of strategies – and outcomes.

Organizations serious about increasing traction on Twitter for their messages will need to make a committed effort in order to achieve success.  There’s a lot more to this exercise than merely establishing a Twitter presence and tweeting the odd press release here and there.     Spending some time developing an understanding of what content your audience values (and will eagerly share of their own accord) is an important first step.  Other important approaches that can help your efforts include:

  • Tweet the target URLs consistently.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Generating 50 tweets (from your brand’s accounts, as well as followers and other industry denizens) won’t be too difficult, but getting to 1,000 and beyond will be another matter altogether. However, if you use the target URLs consistently, while also building engagement online, you will get there.
  • Make “ease of tweeting” a central tenant of your strategies.  When you e-mail a pitch to a journalist or blogger, be sure to include a link they can tweet.  Have your webmaster embed social sharing buttons in your online newsroom (and elsewhere on your web site) to encourage sharing.

Keep an eye on the tweet stream.  Thank and RT people who tweet about your brand.  Keep track of them and build relationships.

Tweet the content your organization produces creatively and consistently.  One press release might contain several different story angles or facts.  Tweet them all, uniquely, staggering them over time and using different (but relevant!) hash tags (if appropriate.)  You will increase the lifespan of your message, and the different tweets will appeal to different constituents.

Generating higher search rankings is a proven way to build sales, increase credibility and drive web site traffic for a brand.   The role of Twitter in determining search rank provides public relations professionals with another opportunity to deliver measurable results that will benefit the organization’s top line.

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and is the author of the free ebook Unlocking Social Media for PR.

We’ve just announced The Crowd-Sourced eBook: The Definitive Guide to Social Influencer Engagement and invite you to contribute.

Image via Branded3.

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Google’s Knowledge Graph Of ‘Things’

Posted on May 17, 2012 by | Leave a comment

On May 16th Google announced their Knowledge Graph, a change to their search engine results pages that  is, in their words, ” a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do.”

The post talks a lot about “things,” nouns, entities, and their relationships to other things, and that is at the crux of the paradigm shift that Google is making. Mixed in with the search results we get back from Google they will be providing not just other phrases that are similar to or in some way related to the phrase you searched with, they’ll be making lateral links to ‘things related to the thing you’re searching for.’

There is  already much being written by others covering what to expect in the SERPs, so I’m not going to rehash that here.  The question I have about this is, what does this mean to content creators working in PR and marketing?

If you’re in content marketing or PR, should Google’s new way of looking at the information on the web change what you do?  And how do we optimize for this?

I don’t have complete answers, but perhaps I can contribute a little insight to move us towards an answer.

Press releases have always had the potential to be good quality search engine fodder: they’re reasonably well structured; they’re a good length; they’re often written by people who can; they’re fresh; they come with images, videos, links, and…. lots and lots of THINGS.

Press releases are packed with things and, importantly, they provide strong signals for Google to understand the relationships between those things.  Here is press release issued by PR Newswire’s parent company UBM plc.

Business4Better Comes to Anaheim, CA to Transform Community Involvement & Engagement

Entities in the Business4Better press release

Entities in the Business4Better press release

The release is about a new conference and exhibition that will help businesses and nonprofits work more closely together for their mutual benefit. In the release there are brands, companies, organizations, places, dates, people, quotes, logos, websites, etc. that all have relationships with one another.

From this release a search engine could learn that UBM plc is a company:

  • that is led by a person called David Levin,
  • is partnering with organizations called OneOC and City of Anaheim,
  • and that owns the Business4Better brand,
  • which is hosting an event in Anaheim CA.

And so on.  Here’s now these entities and the relationships between them might be categorized at a an abstract level that could be used by software:

Press release entity relationships

Press release entity relationships

So if I’m writing a blog post, or a product web page for my site, or a press release, does this all mean I have to do something different?  In the short term I’d say that if you’re writing good quality content that is clear and useful for your  audience, then no.  Everything you do will support Google’s attempts to understand the meaning behind your content.  In the long term all those good things you’re doing will continue to pay dividends, but new content strategies may emerge based on the G-Graph.

What about optimization? How do we optimize for the Knowledge Graph? Basically it’s too early to say.  Not every entity mentioned in every document on the Web will get a Graph, but patterns and best practices will emerge.  For now it’s a case of ‘steady as she goes’ and keep creating content your audience wants to consume and tweak it for search.  If I were to hazard a guess at the best long term strategy though, it would include content that clearly communicates the relationships between entities, and high levels of clarity consistently achieved over the long term.

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