For tips that you can use right now, here are 7 suggestions that will help you align your content with SEO best practices and help raise your visibility where customers are looking:

1. Avoid overuse of pronouns like “it”, “they” and “them” in favor of more descriptive keyword phrases where Google is looking for them in page titles, file names, text links between pages, image alt text and in body copy.
2. Facts tell, stories sell: Figure out why customers buy and create keyword optimized content that tells stories about how and why your products solve customer problems.
3. Optimize for search & share: Create web pages and media using keywords customers are actually searching for and make social sharing easy with widgets from Google+, Twitter and Facebook.
4. Links are like electricity: Light up useful content on your website by sharing with topically relevant social networks, through blogging and byline articles in industry publications.
5. Be Google friendly: Have your website audited by a SEO professional to ensure keyword targeting in content, technical friendliness to Googlebot, inbound links and social shares.
6. Earn a top ranking: Create and promote comprehensive and remarkable information resources on topics of interest to prospects and relevant to your business that earns top ranked positions in search results.
7. Always be optimizing: Optimization is a continuous process of creating and promoting keyword optimized content on social networks, through industry media and online communities, then monitoring performance through analytics and making refinements.

Following these basic SEO tips will help your website achieve better visibility for what your customers are looking for whether it’s on a search engine, an industry website or through social media and networks.

The real SEO news is that Bing is launching its brand-new Adaptive Search. This is a tool by means of which Microsoft will attempt to adjust its algorithm to take into account the contextual relationship of a user’s search history.  Microsoft’s Aidan Cook explains the Bing Adaptive Search this way: “Every time you search on Bing, the information provided helps Bing understand what you’re trying to do. The more you search, the more Bing can learn – and use that information to adapt the experience so you can spend less time searching and accomplish what you set out to do.”

So, if you search for “Australia” with travel-related qualifiers, Bing can “surmise” that you’re planning a trip. The search engine can then present search results in line with this and make your search efforts more productive. The goal, in a nutshell, is to personalize search.

And what does this mean for a brand? To have an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy, you have to REALLY know your audience. Search engines are continuing to evolve – with the goal of providing searchers what they really want and not just what they have asked for. So now the time is ripe for brands to look inward to ensure that their offerings, online messaging, and new content are in synch with the demands of their target markets.

A few questions to ask yourself to determine how well positioned you are to provide quality content to your target market:

• When’s the last time you conducted research into your buying audience (i.e. customers and prospects)?
• Do you have an editorial plan that outlines content for your different audience segments?
• Have you created content for each step in the buying cycle?

Your answers to these and other similar questions should serve as a litmus test for how well your content aligns with your target audience.

MarketingProfs University

In an ever-evolving age of interactive media, search marketers walk a tight rope.  Between paid and organic search, social media, optimization, search rankings and measuring success, it’s no surprise that this balancing act presents challenges.

MarketingProfs University is offering a 13-class course addressing popular questions on these topics to help search marketers find the perfect balance and be more effective in their careers.

Event details:
MarketingProfs University Search Marketing School
Modern SEO Strategy: Adapt or Die
Monday, Sept. 19, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
Register and attend online classes live or access recordings

MarketingProfs University provides affordable, comprehensive online training across the disciplines that make up every business’ marketing mix. In addition to learning what businesses need to plan, build and measure successful marketing programs, course attendees have the opportunity to review best practices from peers, discover new tools and processes, and see what’s working in marketing today.  Search Marketing School is a live online presentation featuring several speakers throughout the day.

Any searchable content or media can also be optimized for better search engine performance.  For a business to stand out, it must implement a holistic, strategic and customer-centric approach to search engine optimization.  TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden and fellow search marketing experts including Maile Ohye of Google and Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz will be speaking on the art and science of search marketing.

Odden’s presentation will show attendees how an adaptable SEO strategy enlists the proper mix of content marketing, online public relations and social media to ensure that brand content shows up wherever customers are looking.  Odden will discuss how creating an SEO strategy is about understanding marketing strategy and how SEO fits in the scheme of your business, touching on:

• How SEO, social media and content create more opportunities for customer acquisition and engagement
• The seven-step process for holistic SEO using searcher personas, social keywords and social content for link promotion
• Best practices from B2B and B2C companies using this holistic approach as part of their online marketing strategy

Audience interaction will take place throughout the presentation via text-based chat.

DreamForce Cloud Computing Event on SEO

Historically, the social media aspects of selling have been controlled by marketers.  Sales people traditionally are kept out of the loop until after a new lead is generated.  In today’s business landscape, successful sales reps are taking control of emerging social technologies to bring in new leads and close deals more quickly, marking the onset of a new era in social selling.

On Aug. 31, Dreamforce ’11 will host a session on tips and techniques addressing how businesses can effectively adopt the integration of sales and social media as a new norm.

Event details:

Dreamforce ‘11
Social Sales Revolution: 7 Steps to Get Ahead
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Moscone Center
747 Howard Street
San Francisco, CA 94103-3118

Dreamforce is an annual event that brings leaders in cloud computing together to collaborate, connect and inspire. Attendees will be exposed to ways that the latest cloud computing can help their businesses succeed through breakout sessions, hands-on training, networking events, keynote speakers, interactive demonstrations, in-depth discussions, technical training and more.

TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden joins a panel of Salesforce.com and Radian6 professionals at Dreamforce to discuss the 7 Steps to Get Ahead in the Social Sales Revolution, a new whitepaper published by Salesforce.com. Odden will discuss how sales reps can master the art of being useful to prospects in a way that inspires new business inquiries. He’ll share practical examples of companies leveraging social channels like Facebook, Blogging and Twitter to develop a community and inspire interest in products and services.

Stay tuned to the TopRank Blog for a live blog session from Dreamforce ‘11.

1. Content Publishing & Marketing: Consumers are interacting with multiple content sources before purchase and businesses that provide useful information beyond product features and benefits can attract more traffic and referrals.

Tips, articles, videos and experts interviews provide customers with the information they need to buy and refer to others. Useful content optimized with keywords also attracts more search engine traffic and links. Solution: Content Marketing.

2. Social Media & Networking – 90% of marketers say that social media is important for their business according to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Report. Word of mouth, referrals and buzz on social networks can increase awareness, build trust and influence sales.

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube offer useful platforms for small businesses to be helpful and share information with networks far beyond their customer base. Solution: Social Media Marketing.

3. Local & Mobile – By 2014, mobile Internet will take over desktop Internet according to Microsoft Tag Lab. Small business websites can increase page views by offering a mobile friendly version of their website. They can also increase visibility on local search by making sure they’ve claimed their listings on Google Places and Bing Business Listings. Solution: Local Marketing & Mobile Marketing.

By integrating their web site investment with useful content, social media and local marketing efforts, small businesses can make sure they’re visible wherever their customers are looking and provide great reasons to refer even more new business.

We get asked this kind of question a lot at TopRank and the ideal situation from a marketing performance perspective is when the company understands what they want to achieve through video marketing.  It’s essential to start with a position statement like: Company 123 wants to achieve X goal and thinks Y video marketing tactic makes the most sense because of Z research and observations.

It’s also important to describe expected outcomes and timeframes.  Is the video marketing effort focused on selling products? (Hint: that rarely succeeds at the start) Maybe video is a great way to communicate thought leadership, educate prospects, communicate with customers or provide content for bloggers and the media. Whatever the expected outcome is, try to describe it and be ready to adapt it.

Tactically, a YouTube channel takes an experienced marketer about an hour to setup. In that way, it’s not unlike setting up a basic blog. But what makes a YouTube channel work (assuming a YouTube channel is the right implementation of your video marketing strategy) goes far beyond the channel page itself.

YouTube is the second most popular search engine and has many social networking features. Videos can show in standard search results like Google and can easily be embedded on other websites and blogs. RSS distribution, integration with other social channels like Twitter and Facebook plus native messaging features all combine to provide abundant promotion opportunities for your videos.

While you can simply test videos out with a limited audience to get a feel for format and structure, it’s very useful to create an editorial plan for your videos including topics, schedule, keywords, promotion channels, repurposing and measures of success. Tests can be shot on any video camera and shared internally to get response.  Once you’re comfortable with a format, you can start publishing and promoting videos publicly.

Here are a few tactical considerations:

Google Account setup – This is required for YouTube. The Google account can have its own profile and be connected to other social sites, link to a blog etc.

YouTube Channel setup: Mostly forms and some minor design

Content plan: Topics videos will cover, and where they can be promoted to. YouTube isn’t the only video hosting service – vimeo, metacafe. Check tubemogul.com for video distribution

Grow your video social network: YouTube has a social networking component, so some time connecting with other channels (subscribing, friending) would help grow the subscriber base for your YouTube channel.

Optimize: When each video is uploaded, there are numerous choices that can be made about how to optimize. Title, tags, description and ongoing the creation/maintenance of playlists. Playlists can include other people’s videos too, so if you wanted to make an authoritative source for a particular topic, you could include a few of your own videos as well as videos from others that are not competitive.

Videos are ranked by keywords, ratings, comments and number of views. Encourage those behaviors and leverage titles and tags from other videos that are already ranking high on your topics for inspiration of your own.

Promote: Leverage your other social media channels like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and blog to promote videos.

Measure: YouTube provides metrics as do services like tubemogul.com. Also look at links and mentions of your videos in other social channels through Google Alerts or a social media monitoring service.  Look at web analytics for referring traffic from these sources as well.

To get started with video marketing, check out what’s already successful in your topic and keyword categories. Look at the format, structure and content flavor. What are they doing that’s working well? What are the missed opportunities?  What do you have to offer that’s unique and interesting? Who are the influential video publishers in your category? Who are the influential bloggers?

Understand what your goals are, what your customer needs are and become familiar with relevant video channels so you can test and develop a format that’s workable.  Then adapt your content to scale what’s working the best towards meeting customer needs and your own business goals.

Here are a few additional resources on Video Marketing:

ReelSEO – Blog focused on video marketing

YouTube and Video Marketing – Book by Greg Jarboe

Video Marketing Tips – Liveblog of a session during SES London 2011

Times have changed and if small business owners aren’t tending to their website garden, weeds will take over and it won’t be much use to their business and driving new customers.  Below are a few ideas I picked up at the MIMA Summit which, if implemented, can help small business owners start to see a solid ROI on their web marketing efforts.

1. Static websites are dead. The days of building a web site, filling it with content and waiting for Google to reward you with a first page ranking are gone.  More than ever, companies need to do a better job of putting out steady stream of fresh, relevant content if they want to get people to find and engage them online.

2. It’s not about the platform, it’s about the message.  Many companies are spending a lot of time focusing on which new platforms they should be launching instead of focusing on how to produce better content.  Launching a new platform like Facebook, Twitter or others with the same content strategy you are using now will not yield any better results in the form of visitors, leads and sales.  Companies who are trying to get more traffic and leads online should review and improve their content strategy and focus on better content before they start launching new platforms.

3. Every content plan should start with keyword research.  The problem with most website content is that it was written without any relevant keywords in mind.  Before writing content for any page on your site or any other platform for that matter, conduct thorough keyword research to determine what keywords your prospects are using to search for what you are selling.  Incorporate these keywords in your content and in the title whenever possible.

4. The #1 source of influence when making a purchase is people we know. This definitely makes a case for developing a solid social media strategy for your business.  As I mentioned above, the message is still the most important part of any social media strategy.  The best thing to do on your social media platforms is to engage your audience so in addition to publishing great content, add in questions, surveys, photos, videos and other interactive content to get and keep your audience interested and coming back.

5. Don’t miss out on the opportunity with Google Universal Search. Google has been adding images, videos, local search results, and news results to their SERPs for awhile now.  This is a great opportunity for companies to start showing up in the search results for keywords where they were having trouble ranking and also to start taking over more of the first page real estate.  If your site is ranking reasonably well for particular keyword and you also have a video or image, and a news story appearing on that page, you just increased your chances of getting a visitor and you made it more difficult for people to see your competition.  Remember to use good SEO and digital asset optimization best practices when posting your videos, photos, articles and other media so they will have a good chance of showing up on the first page.

As Internet marketing becomes more competitive, business owners can no longer take the “launch and leave” approach to their website.  It’s important to stay active, have a plan and stick to it if you want to grow a steady stream of new customers from your website.  The 5 ideas I’ve shared in this post are a great place to start if you are one of the small business owners who is painfully aware that your website isn’t driving any business and you’re asking “what now?”  Keep in mind, content before platform, keyword research before anything and remember, your prospects and customers are social so meet them where they live online.

If you don’t have the time to manage this process but you really want to start seeing the results, our TopRank for Small Business solutions may be a perfect fit.

This guest post is from our newest Online Marketing Account Manager, Ken Horst.

TopRank will be offering a new set of TopRank Guides specifically focused on B2B Social Media, B2B Blogging and B2B SEO. We’ll also be conducting several webinars to explain these guides and how best to use them.

The only way to hear about the guides being published is to be a recipient of TopRank’s Tips from the Top Marketing Newsletter. It’s free and you can subscribe here:  TopRank Online Marketing Newsletter.

1. Google Webmaster Central

2. Matt Cutts Blog

3. SEOmoz Blog

4. Search Engine Land

5. Online Marketing Blog

6. Search Engine Watch

7. Search Engine Journal

8. Search Engine Roundtable (normal feed)

9. Marketing Pilgrim

10. HubSpot

11. Graywolf’s SEO Blog

12. Search Engine Guide

13. Yoast

14. Hobo UK SEO Blog

15. Get Elastic

16. BlogStorm

17. SEOptimise

18. Daily SEO Blog

19. Small Business SEM

20. Outspoken Media Blog

21. Clix Marketing

22. Traffick

23. Reel SEO

24. SEO Scoop

25. ClickEquations

26. SEO Smarty

Who did we miss?

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.

1) Keyword research reveals the permutations and variations of the terms people are searching for. Start with the notion of what’s important and pop that into a keyword research tool. It comes back with multiple versions, ordered by popularity, so you can make smart choices about the words you use in your titles and press releases and articles.

2) The technical aspect of how a search engine interacts with your site is, in most cases, a job for your IT department.

3) With linking, go after quantity and quality of links, every day, for ever. You might be publishing good content, but no one will know unless you tell somebody. If you have an unpopular site – maybe because it’s new – use PRWeb online news releases and amplify them through social media channels.

Don’t be scared of getting it wrong – but don’t spam.

The dangers of getting SEO wrong are no worse than the dangers of, for example, using PR software without segmenting your list and blasting people with pitches. The thing to avoid is being overly aggressive and using what might be perceived as spamming tactics. Keyword stuffing, or engaging in linking tactics that Google considers unsavory, such as buying links from a publication – that’s a big no-no for Google. Earn your links: they’re forever, there’s no risk, and they’re more valuable.

SEO will not dominate PR, but it will improve it.

Search engines will never be perfect, and social media will never be perfect. Algorithms aren’t any smarter than human beings. There will always be a combination of technology and human intuition. I’m predisposed to looking for the middle ground. When you have these emerging technologies and industries, it’s usually the middle ground that becomes practical over time.

You can easily find any of these books by copying the title and author below and pasting into the search box on Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Books on Social Media:

• Cluetrain Manifesto – Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searles, Dave Weinberger
• New Rules of Marketing and PR – David Meerman Scott
• Do It Wrong Quickly – Mike Moran
• Join the Conversation – Joseph Jaffe
• Groundswell – Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
• Personality Not Included – Rohit Bhargava
• Tribes – Seth Godin
• Here Comes Everybody – Clay Shirky
• Age of Conversation – Gavin Heaton, Drew McLellan (100+ contributors)
• Social Media Marketing An Hour A Day – Dave Evans
• Secrets of Social Media Marketing – Paul Gillin
• Naked Conversations – Shel Israel & Robert Scoble
• Freakonomics – Stephen Dubner & Steven Levitt
• Buzz Marketing – Mark Hughes
• Radically Transparent – Andy Beal & Judy Strauss
• Web 2.0: New Tools, New School – Gwen Solomon & Lynne Schrum
• The Long Tail – Chris Anderson
• The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success – Lon Safko
• The Wisdom of Crowds – James Surowieki
• Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion – Gary Vaynerchuk
• Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business – Larry Weber
• Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking – Andy Sernovitz, Afterward by Guy Kawasaki
• Social Media is a Cocktail Party: Why You Already Know the Rules of Social Media Marketing – Jim Tobin, Lisa Braziel
• Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide: Business thinking and strategies behind successful Web 2.0 implementations – Amy Shuen
• Now Is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs – Brian Solis, Geoff Livingston
• The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web – Tamar Weinberg
• Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online – Chris Brogan
• Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn: An Unofficial, Step-by-Step Guide to Creating & Implementing Your LinkedIn Brand – Social Networking in a Web 2.0 World – Neal Schaffer
• Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook – Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo
• The Twitter Book – Tim O’Reilly and Sarah Milstein
• Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods – Shel Israel
• Twitter Power 2.0: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time – Joel Comm and Anthony Robbins
• Twitter Marketing: An Hour a Day – Hollis Thomases
• Twitter Marketing For Dummies – Kyle Lacy
• Twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets – Paul McFedries
• Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business – Erik Qualman
• SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate (Voices That Matter) – Joel Postman
• Engage! The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web - Brian Solis
• Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves – Adam L. Penenberg
• Open Leadership – Charlene Li
• Trust Agents – Chris Brogan
• YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day – Greg Jarboe
• Social Media Metrics – Jim Sterne
• The Social Media Marketing Book – Dan Zarrella
• Social Media Marketing For Dummies – Shiv Singh
• Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day - Mari Smith & Chris Treadaway
• Facebook For Dummies – Leah Pearlman & Carolyn Abram
• Facebook Marketing: Designing Your Next Marketing Campaign – Justin R. Levy
• The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff – Clara Shih
• Facebook: The Missing Manual – E. A. Vander Veer
• The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World – David Kirkpatrick
• The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue - Shama Kabani and Chris Brogan
• Social Media Marketing: Engaging Strategies for Twitter, Facebook & Other Social Media – Li Evans
• The Hyper-Social Organization: Eclipse Your Competition by Leveraging Social Media – Francois Gossieaux & Ed Moran
• MicroMarketing: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small – Greg Verdino

Coming Soon:

• Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business – Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman, and David Meerman Scott (Dec 2010)

Books on Search Engine Marketing:

• SEO Warrior – John I. Jerkovic
• Art of SEO – Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie C. Stricchiola
• Search Engine Marketing Inc, 2nd Edition – Mike Moran & Bill Hunt
• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin
• The Truth about Search Engine Optimization – Rebecca Lieb
• Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, 2nd Edition – Brian Clifton
• Search Engine Visibility, 2nd Edition – Shari Thurow
• SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible – Jerri L. Ledford
• The Truth About Pay-Per-Click Search Advertising – Kevin Lee
• Advanced Google AdWords – Brad Geddes
• SEO Made Simple – Michael H. Fleischner
• Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing – Kristopher B. Jones
• Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond – Aarron Walter
• The Findability Formula: Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEM – Heather F. Lutze
• Search Engine Optimization All-in-One For Dummies – Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza
• Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash
• Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity – Avinash Kaushik
• Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets – Andrew King
• Inbound Marketing – Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah
• Search Engine Optimization Secrets – Danny Dover
• Marketing in the Age of Google – Vanessa Fox
• Audience, Relevance & Search: Targeting Web Audiences with Relevant Content – James Mathewson, Frank Donatone, Cynthia Fishel

Coming Soon:

• Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day – David Szetela and Joseph Kerschbaum (Aug 2010)

Did we leave any SEO, PPC or Social Media Marketing books out? Which would you recommend?

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Google Search-based keyword tool

Wordtracker

KeywordDiscovery.com

WordStream

SEMRush

Did we miss any?

So what type of content can businesses develop to take advantage of real time search?  Below, find three types of content TopRank® Online Marketing helps develop to support traditional and real time SEO programs for its clients:

1. Optimized Press Releases: More and more, search engines will quickly position newsworthy content atop search results.  News and press releases, optimized for search and published through authoritative newswires, can help companies both achieve higher rankings and ensure positive messaging is found atop search results.
2. Blog Posts: Much like an optimized press release, a blog post can represent an example of thought leadership and newsworthy content. Each post also represents a new webpage that can rank and be found quickly via real time search.
3. Tweets & Facebook Updates: Social content, including Tweets and Facebook comments, are often the first things that come to mind when businesses think ‘real time search.’  This micro-content both has the ability to appear in search results, and quickly penetrate large communities of prospects, supporting overall objectives through a powerful blend search and social media.

Stay up-to-date with the latest real time search developments and real time SEO tactics recommended by TopRank® Online Marketing by subscribing to our newsroom RSS feed, following @TopRank on Twitter or becoming a fan of Online Marketing Blog on Facebook.

Learn more about the social media marketing programs offered by TopRank by downloading our Social SEO Guides.

Below is a PowerPoint presentation offering Social SEO guidelines, planning tips, case studies and practical SEO information for Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

We hope you find it useful:

Companies that can commit to content creation and marketing strategy can do a much better job of expanding their searchable presence on the web and offer more content that others can link to that also satisfies the information consumption needs of customers.

Discovery via search will always be important, but the longer term opportunity is to optimize for all relevant types of search for the audience you’re trying to reach. That means standard search engines like Google and Bing as well as social search within Facebook or on YouTube.  Of course we must not forget real-time search either.

A holistic content strategy helps companies reap rewards both from search engines and increasingly popular social media/networking web sites. TopRank is committed to continuing our hands on efforts, experimentation and insight development for clients through our own social web participation. Join us:

• TopRank Online Marketing Blog
• Online Marketing Blog Facebook
• @TopRank on Twitter
• TopRank on Flickr
• TopRank on Delicious

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“.