Boosting PR Results with SEO

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Boosting PR Results with SEO

• Jamie ODonnell
• Co-founder of SEO-PR
• November 10, 2006

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How press release SEO can help increase
publicity, traffic and sales

• Why news search engines matter to PR
• Basics of press release SEO
• Power of press release SEO
• Southwest Airlines
• SuperPages.com
• Christian Science Monitor

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Why news search engines matter to PR Changing
news landscape

• Audience that gets news online jumped from 0 to
  31 of Americans
• Audiences for
• Local TV news dropped from 77 to 54
• Nightly network news dropped from 60 to 28
• Newspapers dropped from 58 to 40
• Radio dropped from 47 to 36

Source The Pew Research Center for the People
and the Press, July 30, 2006
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Yahoo! News is 1 US news and media site and
Google News is 7

• Yahoo! News has larger market share than The
  Weather Channel, CNN.com or MSNBC
• Google News has larger market share than New York
  Times, USA Today or BBC News

Source Hitwise, July 2006
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When you conduct a news search, youll often find
releases in results
Source Google News, September 14, 2005
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Press releases leading source of information for
knowledge workers
Source InformationWeek, June 6, 2006
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Press release SEO reverses the classic model of
communications
Sources Harold Lasswell, 1939, and Greg Jarboe,
1998
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Who Online research is also top information
source for journalists

• Online research is the number one source for
  journalists to obtain additional story
  information, with 75 indicating they search the
  Internet for previous stories on their subject
• When looking for additional information,
  contacting a PR professional is choice of 57 of
  media polled

Source Bennett Company, Aug. 5, 2005
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What Variety of tools can tell you which news
search terms are used
Source Google Trends, October 29, 2006
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Channel Weve tested the major press release
distribution services
Source SEO-PR test for MarketingSherpa,
July-August, 2006
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Whom Even The New York Times staff has undergone
SEO training

• Algorithms scan the headline and at least the
  first hundred words or so of news articles
• So, do keyword research to determine the two or
  three most-searched words that relate to (your)
  subject and then include them in the first few
  sentences

Source The New York Times, April 9, 2006
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Effect Measuring success in optimizing your
press releases
Source MarketingSherpa, Search Marketing
Benchmark Survey, August 2006
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Southwest Airlines generated over 2.5 million in
airline ticket sales

• Southwest Airlines with SEO-PR won 2005 Golden
  Ruler Award for You Are Now Free to Link PR and
  Sales!
• IPR selected our case study because it provided
  a solid example of using new media and new
  techniques to tie public relations to sales

Source http//www.instituteforpr.org/index.php/ip
r/awards/2005_golden_ruler_winner
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Herb Kelleher went nuts when he saw cheap air
fares in his release
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So, we optimized for low fares to Philadelphia
(29 to 99 one-way)
Source Google News, February 13, 2004
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Press release generated 42,000 in ticket sales,
then over 80,000

• Unique tracking links in press release werent
  used by The New York Times, Washington Post, or
  other major media
• Unique landing pages enabled Southwest Airlines
  to track clicks, sales, revenue and passengers

Source The Measurement Standard, April 6, 2004
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SuperPages.com generated over 1,286,000 searches
for florists

• Although were reluctant to share this secret
  with too many PR competitors, we have been amazed
  at the improved positioning that SuperPages.com
  has received as the result of the optimization
  services provided by SEO-PR.
• Mary De La Garza, Director of Public Affairs for
  Verizon SuperPages.com

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We optimized draft news release for relevant
terms like flowers
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Unique tracking links measured 3,229 visits to
special landing page

• 3,229 visits generated 2,715 additional clicks to
  other pages on the site
• Thats SuperPages.coms definition of
  conversion
• Thats 84 conversion rate from a press release
• Sites normal conversion rate is 30 of visits

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1,841,272 searches for florists on
SuperPages.com from Feb. 6 to 14

• Searches for plumber had grown 62
• 8,485 Feb. 6-14, 2004
• 13,730 Feb. 6-14, 2005
• Searches for florists increased 438
• 342,478 Feb. 6-14, 2004
• 1,841,272 Feb. 6-14, 2005
• 1,286,459 more searches than benchmark

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The Christian Science Monitor generated record
visitor traffic

• With a fascinating story and a broadcast deal
  with ABC News, the editors at The Christian
  Science Monitor knew their online multimedia
  package, Hostage The Jill Carroll Story, would
  generate a lot of visitor traffic
• But, even they were surprised by exactly how much

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Optimizing press release required adding Jill
and Christian Science
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The series and release generated 1,813 news
stories and blog posts

• On Monday, Aug. 14, over 450,000 unique visitors
  flooded the site
• New visitors rose to over 7 times the daily
  average in July
• Much of the visitor traffic came from CNN, Yahoo,
  Google and AOL
• Canadians and the British showed strong interest

Sources CyberAlert, Sept. 7, 2006
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The Huffington Post generated 3.4 times more
traffic than ABC News
Sources The Huffington Post, Aug. 15, 2006, ABC
News, Aug. 14, 2006
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Three tips you can use on Monday to optimize your
first press release

• Use Google Trends to find two or three terms that
  relate to your subject
• Include these terms in your headline and first
  two paragraphs
• Add hyperlinks to help people find interesting,
  related content