TopRank Internet Marketing News

SEO helps a search engine to do its job more effectively and Public Relations can increase the reach and influence of the brands they promote by optimizing news. Recently the good folks at Vocus interviewed TopRank  Online Marketing’s CEO on the basics of search engine optimization for public relations. The following post comes from the interview with Lee Odden of TopRank by Chris Pilbeam of Vocus.

Search engines aren’t perfect – that’s why people in SEO (Editor: like TopRank Online Marketing) are flourishing. People who write web copy often only consider one audience: customers, or analysts; maybe journalists. You should consider the extra audience of search engines.

SEO boils down to three elements: keyword research, site interactivity, and links.

If you know TopRank, you know we talk a lot about news optimization and leveraging Public Relations for SEO and Search Engine Optimization for PR goals. Online PR has been a core service offering of our agency for over 8 years.

There aren’t many authorities in this area and recently, Maile Ohye from Google began speaking on the topic at search conferences. She’s also recently posted this video giving specific advice and insight into how Google News works.

Other useful articles on news optimization, press release optimization and integrating SEO, Social Media and PR can be found here: “Top Ten SEO Tips for Public Relations“. Scroll to the bottom of the post for 10 articles and a PowerPoint deck.

Danny Sullivan recently posted a story on Search Engine Land about a similar topic: “Under The Hood: Google News & Ranking Stories“.

Despite company marketing and PR budgets being in a state of ambiguity, many marketing and Public Relations organizations are focusing on social media, trying to figure out “do’s and don’ts” to improve online reach. At the same time, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of news content is fast becoming an established part of the mix for many marketing and PR programs.

On their own, SEO and social media channels offer attractive opportunities for reaching industry influentials as well as end consumers through push and pull PR.  Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online PR results.

Why is this so?  Changes in the way the media and end consumers discover, consume and share content illustrate the intersection of opportunity for search and the social web.  Today’s increasingly social savvy content consumer not only expects to find what they’re looking for on search engines, but to interact with the results. Those interactions take many forms including: commenting, voting and sharing. As a result, social media can affect search engine visibility in numerous ways, creating new promotion opportunities for public and media relations efforts.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
2:00-3:00 p.m. (EST)

Join TopRank® Online Marketing CEO, Lee Odden, in a free webinar hosted by PRWeb, and learn how you can leverage news content to achieve SEO success!

Attend the webinar on March 18 to discover how news can be a powerful tool that directly reaches the millions of people searching for information online.

With more than 70 million people reading news online every day, news can (and should) be used for more than just attaining media visibility. For instance, news search engines like Yahoo! News and Google News offer a great way to drive traffic to your website and help generate awareness about a topic or company.

PRWeb Hosts: Using Your News To Drive SEO

The Using Your News To Drive SEO webinar will cover:

• Digital PR – Intersection of SEO and Online Public Relations

PRSA Workshop:  Search Engine Optimization in a Digital World
March 20, 2009 in New York City

Today’s public relations and communications professionals need to adapt and grow with the changing digital landscape just as publishers have moved to the web. Consumers and journalists alike use a variety for search tools to discover and share credible sources of news and information. Can your news be discovered where digital media are looking? Is your text, image, audio and video content optimized for search and the social web?

 
(Lee Odden – far right – at PRSA International conference)

Join Lee Odden, TopRank Marketing CEO for this one day workshop and gain a foundation for how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works for news content. Discuss the key challenges and new opportunities for producing, optimizing, promoting and tracking results for digital PR.

Attendees  will learn how to:

Competition for visibility online, especially within the Affiliate Marketing world, has increased significantly making it even more important for publishers to monitor brand visibility as part of an online reputation management program.  TopRank Online Marketing CEO, Lee Odden will be presenting strategies for how companies and affiliates can monitor their brands along with tools and tactics at the Affiliate Summit West conference.

The Fifth Annual Affiliate Summit West conference is scheduled for January 11-13th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Session Details:
“Managing Your Brand”
Tuesday, January 13th, 3:15 – 4:15 (MST)
Session 9a
Location: Classroom A – Brasilia 1-3

Speakers:
Andy Beal, Founder, Trackur.com (Moderator)
Fionn Downhill, CEO, Elixir Interactive
Rob Key, CEO, Converseon Inc.
Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Online Marketing

Find more information at Affiliate Summit West

TopRank Online Marketing provides a mix of digital public relations and search marketing services including online brand and reputatation management services for Fortun 500 companies nationwide. 

Writing for the Web to Optimize Your PR & Overall Messaging
Webinar Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008

1:30-3 p.m. (EST)

If you are involved in communicating with your stakeholders online, you know that writing for the Web is different than writing for print. You know that the difference between a journalist engaging with your brand online or abandoning your site altogether is based on the content you, as communicators, post or manage online.

Now is the time to take the lead and create Web content that supports your messaging, boosts engagement and delivers to your bottom-line goals.

Join TopRank Online Marketing CEO and his co-panelists on Dec. 17 for a virtual course on how to write for the Web. This 90-minute information-packed Webinar is designed for communications teams who have some role in their Web strategy and execution.  Learn to write effectively for the Web by attending this interactive Webinar designed for you and your PR team:

SES Chicago, the only major Search Marketing Conference and Expo in the Midwest, will be packed with 60+ sessions, multiple keynotes and Orion Strategy sessions, exhibitors, networking events and more.

TopRank Marketing CEO, Lee Odden will join a panel of industry experts, including Sally Falkow, President of PRESSFeed, and Stephan Spencer, Founder & President of Netconcepts, on Wednesday, December 10th to discuss SEO through blogs and feeds.

In this session, Lee will present best practices for blog content optimization, including how to optimize and promote blog content to attract readers and links to increase traffic and search engine visibility. Sally will cover feeds and digital asset syndication, and Stephan will cover blog software optimization.

Session Details
10:30 am, Wednesday December 10th

SEO Through Blogs & Feeds
Not yet running a blog? Not syndicating your content through web feeds? Then you’re missing out on an important area that can help your overall SEO efforts. Learn more about the unique advantages blogs and feeds offer to search engine optimization.