Enhance your SEO Strategy with Digital PR

Curiosity is the hunger of the human mind. A person might be browsing the web looking for information at this very moment. Perhaps, it is also the reason you’re here!

Before you think we are calling you out, the reality is that it is truly mind-blowing how technology has made it easier to access reliable information with just a few clicks.

This has grown even more as the pandemic forced us to adapt with the ‘new normal’. According to the 2021 e-Conomy report for Southeast Asia by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company, there has been a 12-million increase of digital consumers in the Philippines during the first half of 2021 alone. Closer to home, it also revealed that Google and Facebook are among the platforms Filipinos spend the greatest amount of their on-screen time on, both reaching millions in terms of total visit numbers.

The Google Year in Search also revealed that the Filipinos are more eager and involved in the digital market with searches concerning digital banking accounts, contactless payments, and brand comparisons. This poses an opportunity for brands and organizations to expand and stay in touch with the public. 

Quite literally, brands and organizations can turn every one billionth of a second to an advantage. The question is, how can they be better at using that advantage and becoming searchable?

With search engine optimization, of course.

What is SEO?

According to Oxford Languages, search engine optimization or SEO is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine”.

To paint a picture, SEO is an arrowhead that helps lead consumers to content about your brand or organization when they search for particular information about it. The solution that SEO provides is simple: providing the public with the right information at exactly the right time they’re searching for it.

However, the internet has become cluttered with content. For your brand to truly reach your target market, your SEO needs to be strategic and effective. Implementing an effective SEO strategy ensures a significant number of quality website traffic, allowing brands and organizations like yours to be more visible in the digital space. Since people increasingly rely on the internet for information, making SEO a fundamental part of your digital marketing campaigns is certainly worth the effort.

Getting started with SEO

In crafting an SEO strategy, it is important to note that the main purpose of a search engine is to deliver the most relevant results to a search query. Brands and organizations must learn how to produce meaningful and smart content on online platforms to push themselves at the top of the results page. In order to achieve this, we further delve into the best practices and techniques in SEO.

Keywords

Keywords are words or phrases that people likely type into their search engines when wanting to look  for information about a certain topic – in this case, your brand. Using the right keywords in your content affects the website traffic it attracts. An effective SEO strategy is mindful of the consumer’s experience in using keywords. 

It is a common mistake among digital marketers to heedlessly use certain keywords (i.e. use them multiple times across one piece of content) in hopes of ranking highly in the search results. This is called keyword stuffing, and people are often turned off by this. Readers end up leaving the site once they realize that the words do not have a natural flow or are not making sense. This click-browse-leave immediately routine can cause lower visits and search engine ranking because it affects bounce rate. More importantly, Google can flag your content as spam if they see more than the recommended amount of keywords in one blog post, for instance. 

Brands and organizations must also consider the consumer’s journey as they search for information in using keywords. People will most likely use generic terms when they have only begun to be interested in a certain topic. Eventually, these terms become more specific or branded once a consumer has become familiar with the topic and adopts preferences.

HTML coding

Hypertext markup language or HTML is the code used in creating web pages. Search engines use HTML elements such as title tags, meta-description, and image tags to determine its rank in the search results. The key to having an effective SEO strategy through HTML coding is to be both concise and detailed.

Web page indexing

Web page indexing refers to the process wherein search engines analyze web pages for it to be recorded on the internet or indexed. This is done through ‘bots’ or ‘crawlers’ that scan through the internet for content and then automatically store important information about it to show searchers later on. Web page indexing is helpful in ranking high on the search engine results list especially when a search engine deems your content most valuable for the searchers.

Search engine and algorithm

Google Search has established itself as the most popular search engine through its complex algorithm and frequent updates. In fact, Google has had several updates in their search ranking this year alone with ‘helpful content’ being the latest. Additionally, Search Engine Land reported that Google Search changes 12 times daily on average and this is not uncommon among search engines. 

Search engine algorithms tend to develop and upgrade over time to provide searchers with the information most relevant to them. Being at the top of the search ranking results today might not be the case tomorrow which is why brands and organizations need to be adaptable so as no efforts turn to waste. There is no better way to stay on top of things than implementing digital PR and partnering with a trusted PR agency that recognizes your needs.

Digital PR is another tool to maximize your SEO strategy. Integrating digital public relations into your SEO strategy to make up part of your comprehensive digital content marketing scheme can help boost the searchability of your brand or organization. Likewise, producing high-quality relatable content entices people to see more of you. Digital PR has the ability to take this to the next level.

Digital PR and SEO, never one without the other… 

Digital PR is one of the public relations approaches that focuses on online-mediated communication efforts such as social media, online publications, and even virtual events. Although it has been around for years, digital PR especially saw its rise among businesses as situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged (and even forced) us to find new ways to digitally communicate with the public. 

Using digital PR to support your SEO (and vice versa) allows you to further push for a better competitive advantage. For instance, backlinking or citing another website helps increase not only the visibility of your organization but also its reliability and trustworthiness. Applying strategies such as these  will direct more traffic on your website and increase your engagement on various online platforms. 

The goal is to amplify your assets: the more people are able to consistently see your content and the value it adds to their lives, the higher your chances of converting visits and engagement into sales.

Work smarter: making the most of SEO

Digital PR and SEO together ensure that your content is seen and that you are able to provide solutions for people who are browsing the internet daily. It may seem like a lot of effort in the beginning, but the benefits you reap can last a lifetime.

And you don’t have to do it alone. Check out NGP-IMC’s SEO services! As a trusted PR and digital agency in the Philippines, we support brands and organizations in achieving the goal of creating tailor-fit, impactful, and measurable digital PR and marketing campaigns that generate results.

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