SEO and PR
How Journalists Find Experts
Journalists used to rely on Rolodexes to find experts, but those days are long gone. Now, it's a quick Google search. As a result, firms that hire smart SEO experts get the most media coverage. Here's how to use SEO to raise your online profile with journalists.
The process of establishing yourself as an industry expert is an effective and proven PR strategy.
A business leader with a high media profiles reaps the benefits of free media exposure and a reputation as a thought leader.
But these days it takes more than credentials to raise your profile with journalists. Today's media professionals are Internet savvy. They rely on online resources to identify and screen qualified sources for their stories. If you aren't visible online, you simply aren't on most journalists' radar.
Raising your online visibility means becoming adept at SEO or hiring someone with SEO credentials. Either way, there are several SEO-related tasks that have to happen if you're going to have a shot at maintaining your status as an industry expert.
On-page Optimization
On-page optimization is the process of designing your online assets to be visible to search engines like Google. There are a lot of ways to do this, but the most common method is through keywords and key phrases.
Keyword optimization begins with keyword research. You'll want to begin your SEO efforts by compiling a list of words and phrases journalists might use in an online search for experts in your field. The idea isn't to generate as many keywords as possible, but to identify the keywords journalists are most likely to punch into a search engine.
After you've identified keywords, the next step is to intentionally integrate them into your online assets, being especially careful to include your keywords in the title and the URL of your webpage. However, it's also important to include your keywords in your PR content and whenever possible, in the quotes or materials you provide journalists.
Back Links
Although keywords are the easiest way to raise your online profile, the most effective way is through back links. Back links are inbound links to your website that are found on other websites.
As an established expert you have multiple opportunities to generate back links. Whenever you create something of value, get in the habit of including a link. For example, when you publish a white paper or a contributed article, embed the copy with a link to a targeted page on your website. Additionally, bio paragraphs are opportunities to create hyperlinks from your name to your online presence.
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