Search engine optimization and public relations need to become best friends. Why? Because SEO as we knew it two years ago is dead. As our approaches to link building are constantly evolving, a stronger tie between these two marketing fronts is being seen.

With that said, let’s examine just how these two audience-building genres can play nice. First off, just what is public relations?

Public relations is the process of building or maintaining a company’s reputation and image through positive offline and online coverage. Link building, on the other hand, builds the site’s “popularity” by acquiring a large amount of diverse links from various domains in an effort to establish top ranking positions in search engines.

Where I see SEO and PR butt heads is in the work rather than the perspective. SEOs think, “how can I gain rankings, traffic and ROI,” where public relations experts think, “what coverage will provide us with the most prestigious image to engage in positive events and conversations both on and offline.”

In the end, both thought processes will achieve similar results. But here’s the good news—there is a way to get the best of both worlds. We can achieve top rankings, as well as a solid reputation through a cohesive approach and understanding. Here are some pointers for the best approaches to killing two birds with one stone:

1. Optimize press releases for SEO

When crafting press releases, be sure to do so with keywords in mind. Most companies have a specific SEO campaign underway. Within that campaign will be a designated list of phrases designed to increase search rankings and relevant traffic. Narrow the list according to relevancy to your subject matter. Also, be strategic in adding these keywords to your content. Place focus keywords in the headline and beginning of the body of your content.
Outside of keyword optimization, remember that links and branding are HUGE ranking factors. Be sure your website is linked to the company name. Within the release you should also include other branding signals search engines use to identify a business:

• Address
• Phone Number
• Email

Ensure identical information is used in press releases and other content online.

Finally, don’t forget that getting your press release seen by pushing it out through the correct distribution channels is essential.

2. Host “SEO friendly” contests

No doubt about it, social is now a big part of SEO. Whether affecting it directly or indirectly it plays a role in the success of organic rankings. Hosting contests on various social mediums like Facebook and Twitter will benefit your site by achieving brand awareness as well as driving social signals to your site. It is also important to keep in mind that often times those who are finding your site through social media, are typically those who are most likely to link to your site. Contests and giveaways via social networks are a great way to generate interest and conversation. Get your target market involved in your organization, and acquire links along the way.

3. Continually publish and post unique and relevant content

Having an internal blog can be beneficial in many ways. From an SEO perspective, a healthy amount of content is good. Frequently updating an internal blog is a great way to send fresh signals to search engines, provide a constant flow of high quality content and provide additional internal linking opportunities. In addition to the SEO benefits, internal blogs are a great way to establish quality relationships with your viewers by allowing them to share with others, post feedback, questions and other comments.

4. Look for opportunities to sponsor/donate, then request a link

Looking for opportunities to sponsor and donate can be another great method. Sponsorship opportunities are everywhere, and establishing long-lasting relationships can be beneficial from both a PR and SEO standpoint. Involving your company in service projects and donations often stirs up conversation online, on television, in print and other forms of media. Along with the benefit of obtaining a positive image in the media, you’ll receive high quality .org and .edu links.
In a nutshell, the online world is constantly changing, and competition is growing. Finding ways to increase your online visibility from an SEO and public relations standpoint could do wonders for your company. If you find ways to get the best of both worlds, you may save time, money and be successful.

Last week Google announced a change to the way they classify internal and external links in Webmaster Tools. The update shouldn’t change the number of links, but should report your links in a more accurate way in regards to where they are coming from.

In the past, links from subdomains (ie: example.seo.com) were classified as external links. Even a link from the non www version of your site was classified as external. With the changes, links from these types of domains will now be considered internal links, as long as you also own the root domain.

With this change you may notice your total number of external links go down, but this is only because some of your links that were previously classified as external are now being classified as internal. Your total number of links should remain the same.

Everyone who has worked in a team environment has experienced the group of people that seems to jive so well and simply get things done. While there are certain skills that must be had in any team no matter the industry—like project management for instance—in SEO there are four who can take a team further quicker than if one were missing. Let me lead the explanation of these essential personalities by mentioning, while each person may be better or more skilled in their specific genre of SEO, the best team is one where each member has a fair grasp of all four approaches.

Technical SEO PersonalityTechnical SEO

First are our technical junkies. Understanding the technical implications in search engine optimization are essential. While every SEO should have a sound knowledge in HTML and CSS, having a specialist who can walk a client through the quickest implementation of structural changes to a website, no matter the CMS or server, can really benefit a campaign.

It is also often the technical eye that catches elements both structural and on-page that can have a dramatic effect on a campaign’s progress.

These are the specialists who have a strong grasp of server languages (PHP and ASP), all common content management systems, shopping cart platforms and how search engines interact with a web page.

Typical degrees that breed a technical SEO are:

Information Systems
Computer Science
Digital Media

Creative SEO PersonalityCreative SEO

Second are the outside-of-the-box personalities. These gems are great at envisioning how a campaign can not only serve organic marketing purposes, but can cohesively work with public relations, social media, B2B and other marketing fronts for a business to get the best bang for its buck. This foresight is also amazing for branding purposes.

The best SEO is backed by an amazing content marketing strategy. Whether that content consists of link-bait (contests, infographics, etc.), tools or plain old copy, a creatively strong SEO will assist in devising a campaign to create a genuine voice and attract a major audience.

Typical degrees a creative SEO will have include:

Journalism
Public Relations
Web Design

Link Acquisition SEO PersonalityLink Acquisition SEO

Link building is nearly an every day function for any SEO, but there are certainly those individuals who just seem to have a knack for it. Typically, they know their way around a spreadsheet, have discovered the best and quickest ways of aggregating data, know how to exploit needs and build quality relationships. Last but not least, they work hard.

Link building is not easy. It takes a lot of work, a lot of patience and a pinch of genius. While you have your creative SEO drumming up the best content strategy, the link-building specialist is going above and beyond in direct outreach—utilizing business partnerships, fans and followers, geographic implications and competitive analysis to acquire top-of-the-line links.

The link-acquisition SEO most commonly comes from:

Marketing
Business Management

Analytical SEO

Finally, the analysis addict. Turning web analytics into actionable information is key to any SEO campaign.

A statistics and data-driven SEO is one who understands how to interpret information. They are keen on processing cause-and-effect theories quickly and have no problem manipulating data sets in the analytics suite or on a spreadsheet.

This specialty is helpful when looking to prove the benefit of a campaign. Consistently tracking and evaluating a campaign’s reach keeps an SEO team shining to its clients when things are going well and responsive when things need to improve.

Typical degrees analytical SEOs have include:

Statistics (of course)
Computer Science
Marketing