Public Relations and SEO in 2012
-
With all the stress on inbound marketing and focusing on links for traffic and not just SEO, it would seem to me that going forward the best skilled people for the job of link building are public relations consultants (at least for startups). PR folks have the contacts and training to get publicity on the big authority sites and really drive big traffic as well as strong links. What am I missing? For link building, why should we hire an SEO firm and not a PR firm?
Secondly, I've been contacting a few agencies to get some idea of what they charge and most seem to start at about $5k pm whereas we only have a budget of around $1k for link building. Am I wasting my time thinking I may get any benefit at this low of a budget?
I'd love to hear from anyone with any experience using PR firms/consultants and if you have any recommendations that would be great also.
-
From my experience as a publisher... Most PR firms are spammers who wear a suit to work.
-
My two cents? I spent 12yrs in the PR field (and transitioned into SEO/social media) and I'd be very careful to ask the right questions to determine what PR agency to work with. I know - and worked with - few who knew how to properly optimize a release. And, while they did have media contacts, PR Newswire did a lot of the leg work. Pitching a story to a reporter or blogger was really the value the PR person brought to the table. And, link building was never something that was regularly brought up. In the past two months, the majority of the PR pros I network with like to tell me "SEO is dead" which tells me everything I need to know about their understanding of SEO.
Again, I am sure there are plenty of seasoned PR people who have an understanding - there's also lots of agencies who like to sell their services even if they don't have the depth of knowledge. Like any business endeavor, it's just a matter of due diligence to find the right fit.
Freelancers have way better prices because they don't have the same overhead costs as agencies, so that could be a more affordable route.
-
Dear meterdei,
You're right on the part that PR Folks have the right contact allthough my thoughts on why hire a SEO for instead of a PR marketeer are very simliar. I think a good SEO does not only provide you with the right links but also makes sure those links stay good and stay online (monitoring) and also a SEO should (i'm not saying all do or all don't do but they should) also analyse what the links do for your website.
PR agencies charge from 5K and more? I think if you do find a good SEO to do a lot of quality linkbuilding you should put some agreements in a contract. Lets say you want at least 5 .gov links and 10 .edu links to you new project togetheer with lots of other links offcourse the should then provide a list of websites where they had put the links on. That way you can monitor what you get and what they had done. I think for all of this including monitoring what these links did for your website the cost will be anywhere from 2K to 4K depanding on the exact amount of linkbuilding.
If you sell yourself short by going for a cheaper solution you might regret it in the end.
I do have experience with some linkbuilding firms but they have not continued their work. As for PR firms, i would not know what they can provice next to the right SEO.
-
There are two approaches we use:
- The client hires a PR agency. We teach the PR agency how to do SEO press release and give them our manual. Than - and this part is important - before the PR agency sends the press reales, they have to send it to our agency to check it and optimize. After we check the press release it can be send to the media. The point is the links are not important for PR folks. So the most you can demand from them is to put an URL or your home page at the beginning of the press release (sometimes they even don't mention it). But it is just the beginnig. Different online media handle the links in the press releases differenty and you have to know, how make and hypertext from them, how to do a deep-links and how to handle with keywords in the press releases. This is not typical PR work.
- Because we provide the PR services, we write and optimize press releases. We do the PR even off-line. But not all PR agencies provide this kind of service.
Press releases are good sources of links, but it is just a part of link-building. But very valuable.
Another point is that sometimes (manytimes?) is it more valuable to get a link from specialized, but not so known website (e. g. a blog) or discussion board, than from generally oriented huge website/media.
I am not so familiar with the prices on US market but e. g. 600 USD/per month per link-building is a minimum by our agency here in Central Europe. But is someone wants just link-building for 600 USD/month, we have to reject it. If an account manager has to be able to deliver results, he or she has to spend a lot of time with his or her team to work on a project. And many times link-building is not enough. So it needs o lot of time. I cannot imagine a serious project, where you spend less than 20 hours per month doing SEO - and this is really just a minimum. E. g. 20 hours by our Central-European agency is 1 750 USD.
If you want a reputable US agency, you have to prepare to pay higher prices.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How does the background on my product photos impact SEO - step and repeat vs. plain background
I have a new e-commerce site and I'm focused on optimizing it for SEO. If I am taking product photos, will having a step-and-repeat (background with our logo repeated) in the background of the product impact how the images are scanned by Google? In other words, would I benefit from having a plain background behind my item shots vs. a backdrop with our logos all across it? I don't want Google to think I'm spamming my logo across all our items, but also want our photos to be recognized as ours. I want to gain SEO from my effort and definitely not hurt it! Thanks!
Branding | | A_Wo0 -
If other people copy your content, is really GOOD or BAD for SEO ?
Hi MOZ friends. Last week, when i was following up the backlinks linking to my domain, i detect that a new website from an unknown administrator copies the content of an entire section of my website. The administrator of that webpage did not remove the internal links on the post, so i could find.
Branding | | NachoRetta
My website has a better domain and page authority and we focus every day on create new content, but when we found people that only copy content from another, i feel disappointed. But then I got to thinking that could be good that people copy our content, although they did not quote us. If they do not remove the links either by mistake or on purpose, we receive new backlinks. ¿What do you think about this? ¿Is really good that a website copy our content? If they remove all backlinks, Is risky that Google detects that the content owner is another? ¿What do you do in this cases?1 -
Outdated Videos and SEO
I was trying to find some helpful resources online on this topic and haven't really found anything substantial. What do people recommend to do with old, outdated videos on sites like YouTube and Vimeo. They show up in search, but some mention outdated products. However, is it best practice to remove everything older and outdated from Youtube, etc. or is it better to have these in your library (quantity over quality). If you add new ones and they get more views, in the long run people will focus on the newer content and probably not watch something 6 years old, but should we be removing them, too? I''m under pressure to remove them and I wanted to do some research before committing. We also started Google Plus after Youtube, so we now have two YouTubes (one empty one attached to our new G+ and one that's been established with a lot of videos - new and old). Would this be a good time to consolidate to one Youtube, migrating only the new stuff to the new YouTube and then slowly start removing the old YouTube channel? Thanks!
Branding | | QAD_ERP0 -
Rebranding for Local SEO
I'm preparing to begin a rebranding project for a client who is changing their brand name, logo and primary domain name. They have dozens of locations (some that accept walk-in customers, and some that don't). What's the best place to get started? Once their rebranded website is published, should third-party sources like Acxiom & Localeze be addressed first, then move to Google+ Local, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, etc.? Is using schema for local business and the new company logo on their website a must-do action item? Just trying to be proactive & figure out the best process in order to maximize cost and time efficiency. Thank you.
Branding | | BT2110 -
Showing up in Related Videos on Youtube
I notice that that on YouTube, the related links that show up at the end of our videos are a smorgasbord of our competitors and other videos similar in theme (which makes sense, as those are truly related videos). What I'm curious about -- and have had difficult finding, is tips and case studies for improving and maintaining appearance in the related video sections, and perhaps some insight into how those videos are rated for for related videos. Correlation on YouTube seems to be spotty at best, I know keywords and user metrics are key, but any more specific advice or clarification on the issue would be appreciated.
Branding | | Oren.0 -
Branding Association for SEO, and Google's understanding of a "brand Name"
Hey guys. so I currently run my own business here in Queens NY, for Web Design and online marketing, specifically SEO, SMM, SEM, and some inbound marketing that ties to SMM and SEO. When starting I was in a different business, and had kept my old business name. I plan on re-branding myself January 1st with a brand new name, the name i'm seriously considering is "Media Marketing USA". I was able to purchase MediaMarketingUSA.com. I feel this name is good and bad at the same time, and here are some of the reasons. The pro: Easy to remember, sounds big, and describes my business well. The con: Sounds generic, and I worry it will be hard to brand. I used the mentioning tool provided by Moz and see that nearly everyday 500-1,000 people are naturally mentioning Media Marketing USA, one of my biggest questions is will this give me a competitive advantage in SEO, or will it hurt me in SEO as Google may not see this or understand its a brand name? Do you personally think this is a good name to re-brand myself and use as my main website? The Website itself will be used as a corporate website, a method of inbound and outbound marketing through content creation, Social Media, and of course SEO, targeting specific locations, and specialty services and industries in the NYC area. Please share your thoughts with me, THANKS!!!
Branding | | tonyr71 -
What is The Time/Cost For SEO In Rebranding A Large Site
From an SEO agency perspective. What would be the estimated man hours and hard cost to rebrand a large site (1000+pages)? And all that would go into it, like 301 redirects and etc.? I have a pretty good idea, of what it would take and how perilous it could be from an SEO perspective. Because of anchor text / 301 redirects / organic potential traffic loss and etc. I just don't know the man hours and hard cost would be.
Branding | | SMG-Texas1 -
E-commerce Platforms and Seo Doubts
Hello There, I plan to launch my online store with products soon via one of the saas hosted based platforms like shopify & bigcommerce. The issue is am trying out to see how this works for us. But then simultaneously we would work towards seo efforts to bring in relevant traffic too. Later once we grow and I decide to change the entire website based on custom design etc so that means again all the seo work has to be re-done? How can I avoid this since I have already invested capital and time in building the current saas hosted website and its almost ready to roll out. Can someone advice the best way forward and possibly a relevant solution Thanks Aditya
Branding | | shanky10