How Online PR can Boost your Search Engine Ranking

Designing a fantastic website is just the beginning.

To attract the maximum number of potential customers, your website needs to not only show up in the search engines but also appear at the top of the results.

The best way of boosting your search engine rankings is to generate plenty of good publicity, and the most effective way of doing that is to use online PR resources.

There are numerous low-cost or even free services on the Internet that can help to promote your website. Take a look at the following options and choose those best suited to your type of business:

How Online PR can Boost your Search Engine Ranking - Image by Maria Reyes-McDavis

Press Releases

Are you launching a new product or service? Has your business won an award, entered a sponsorship deal or opened a new branch? If you have good news, share it! As well as sending press releases to print newspapers, magazines and local radio stations don’t forget the millions of online e-zines, newsletters and blogs that are published every day. They all need fresh news.

Finding and contacting even a tiny fraction of all the editors who might be interested in your business news is very time-consuming. The easiest solution is to use a website such as PR Log, Pressbox or Market Press Release where copies of your press releases – including links to your website – are distributed worldwide for little or no cost.

Article Marketing

Website owners need a constant supply of new content to offer their readers. You need to be noticed by new potential customers. Put the two needs together and article marketing makes perfect sense. You write an article and make it available for others to use. In return, when it is published it will appear with your name, business and contact details attached.

What to write? Your articles should be connected with your business in some way. Choose subjects that won’t look out of place on your own website. If you breed dogs you could write a series of articles on dog care; a restaurant owner might offer cooking tips.

As with press releases, you don’t have to ‘sell’ the articles yourself. Simply post them on one of the many free article websites for others to find. Articles Base, Article Alley and Ezine-Articles are just three of the most popular.

Blogs

A blog is an online diary. It can be as simple or elaborate as you like. If you are new to blogging a good starting point is Google’s user-friendly and free Blogger. You can use your blog to inform existing customers of what’s happening in your business, attract new customers and interact with like-minded people all over the world. The most important thing is to include links to your website.

Another way of increasing your web presence is to become a guest blogger on other people’s blogs.

Social Networking / Forums

PR is all about communicating and whether you are already a Facebook fan, or have vowed never to Twitter, you can’t deny that social networking sites are a great way to ‘meet’ all kinds of people. They might not be the obvious choice for all businesses but they can be very useful for spreading your message if used properly.

Many websites have forums where users can chat and share information. Most of these ban blatant advertising but if you join a forum devoted to a subject connected to your business it can be a good way of making yourself known. For example, if you are a professional carpenter you can join a DIY forum and offer advice to amateurs. Most forums allow you to include a link to your website or blog so, although you are not discussing your business, it’s easy for other forum users to find it.

Whatever online PR methods you try don’t forget that to boost your search engine rankings you need to use your own keywords. Include them in any written content so they will be fed into the search engines wherever they are published and, if possible, link some keywords directly to your website.

For expert advice on boosting your online PR campaign, contact Core Media Design today.

Published on: Saturday, 16th January 2010

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