Any business or brand thrives when they have a great relationship with their audience. What a brand puts out to the public can make or break their reputation, thus making PR a vital aspect of their success and credibility.
For SMEs, investing in public relations may seem a bit much. For larger companies, it is possible because of their size and essential if they want to reach a large customer base. However, that doesn’t mean SMEs shouldn’t at least be open to the idea.
So, what are some of the ways a brand can use to improve its public relations?
With the Internet, we are constantly connected to the world. So, what better way to reach out to the public than by using SEO?
Why SEO is Awesome
In this day and age, businesses need SEO to survive. Sure, SEO improves a site’s overall visibility and online presence, but what else does it do? Why is it so important?
Organic Search is the Primary Source of Traffic
Did you know that organic search plays a big role in your site’s performance in general? It also has a big role in the buyer funnel as well as customer conversion and engagement.
Everyone knows Google is a search engine giant and being on their search results page can do wonders for a business. In fact, Google owns about 75% of the overall search market—meaning they’re an industry leader and businesses need to follow their guidelines.
When a site shows in Google Search results, it is deemed as a trusted resource. Ranking high in Google will also increase traffic to your website, thus giving your brand good quality SEO.
Great SEO Equals Trust and Credibility
How can you know if SEO works? It’s when your site runs seamlessly, is easily found in search engines, and provides a clean and effective user experience.
It takes a lot of effort for a website to establish authority. You can’t get high domain authority overnight—it is earned and built over time.
With an established authority, the chances of gaining traffic and increasing conversion rates are high. Despite the amount of effort and patience that goes into this, the results are well worth it.
Say Hello to Higher Conversion Rates
Before buying a product, customers usually do their research online. Back in the old days, doing research wasn’t that easy. Nowadays, we have the Internet which makes looking for answers so much easier.
With online reviews and social media, news about products and services spread like wildfire, making SEO the ultimate tool for higher conversion rates.
SEO Knowledge is Useful in the Long Run
The best practices for SEO are constantly changing. Even if your site has excellent SEO this year, that doesn’t mean it will be the same the following year. It’s highly essential to keep your SEO knowledge updated.
Being proactive about algorithm changes is beneficial for any brand looking to improve their online presence. Google makes thousands of changes a year, making catching up with them no easy feat.
Therefore, it’s important to monitor and be aware of the changes being made to make sure your site doesn’t fall too far behind. Knowing the environment and realities of the Internet will help you stay on top of SEO trends.
SEO Won’t Cost You a Pretty Penny
Great SEO isn’t exactly free. It costs money but doesn’t anything in the world cost something? Compared to the grand scheme of things in terms of marketing, SEO is actually pretty cheap. Although the work that goes into it is a lot, the payoff, in the end, is pretty good.
Investing in SEO isn’t a marketing cost; great SEO will still bring you benefits for the years to come, that is if you give it the attention and care it requires.
Invest In a Newsroom
SEO and PR actually go hand in hand. So how can businesses increase their SEO with PR? There are a couple of ways of doing it, and one of them is by creating and using a press office.
For those who don’t know what a press room is, I’m not talking here about an actual physical office. It could be one, but you don’t need an actual space to have a press room. A press room could be one person with a phone or laptop or a group of people specializing in public relations.
It all depends on the size and needs of your business. A press office’s job is to become a public voice for the organization and build relationships with journalists via consumer and trade-related press.
Businesses need to engage with the media. Having a solid PR strategy is great for marketing and communication, not to mention it can help you build trusting relationships with your audience.
Overall, following best SEO practices can help you engage with the public better, which in turn means actually doing great PR. Connecting with your audience can help increase your website’s visibility and performance.
So, it’s definitely worth putting in the extra effort and creating a press office to level up your business’s online presence to reap the benefits in the long run.
