Since decades, SEO and public relations have been competing to see who is better at managing online reputations. PR agencies assert that higher media mentions increase brand sentiment, but SEOs counter that these placements are pointless without search exposure. Each is making the best case they can for the situation. So, who is correct? Let’s dive into the bare-bones specifics of their tactics.
What does PR do to manage reputation?
There is no doubt that public relations firms earn well, invest in, and magnify favorable comments. By changing the storylines to be more uplifting, these placements aid in further controlling the conversation surrounding your brand.
When it comes to maintaining a positive brand image, Starbucks has responded to the infamous event that occurred in one of its outlets in Philadelphia with an incredible level of professionalism. In order to quickly counteract the damaging news coverage of their search results, they released a number of stories with shocking headlines.
Public relations works hard to convey a good, helpful, and realistic brand story in addition to assisting in reducing the bad publicity that appears in Google’s index. When there is a high topic density linking a brand with a negative incident, Google is likely to conclude that the two are linked. This frequency and substance may be changed by PR agencies to favor practical and favorable news, which affects everything from search results to social media.
Difficulties
Paid PR placements include no follow links, so articles linking to any of the material you wish to rank in your search results have no SEO impact.
In what ways does SEO help your online reputation?
They handle online reputation management differently when dealing with SEO. Instead of putting material on the biggest sites and hoping they rank for branded queries, search engine optimization businesses start by building and optimizing digital assets they own.
Companies excel at ensuring that their social profiles, blogs, and websites rank for branded inquiries since these factors are given significant weight in search results. More positive material about your brand will be found or published by SEO, and links from other reputable websites will be built to this content to increase its search exposure.
Drawbacks
By putting too much emphasis on search engines and not enough on people, poor SEO can harm your website and the user experience. The brand focus of SEO content placements is lower than that of PR introductions and mentions. As a result, as a stand-alone plan, they won’t accomplish anything to enhance the brand’s reputation. The basic goal of these placements is to increase the ranking of other content for your business.
Why are both tactics for managing your internet reputation necessary for success?
There is sometimes a disconnect when one tries to tackle both of the highly specialized professions of public relations and search engine optimization, which each take years of proficiency and skill. However, public relations firms lack sufficient technical knowledge of how Google’s algorithm functions, while SEO struggles to create engaging material that changes brand sentiment.
Due to this, it’s frequently said that corporations do not consider online reputation management to be a trade-off between public relations and SEO!
- Public relations strategies may be used to get favorable media coverage, highlight your brand’s strengths, and lessen the impact of negative publicity.
- After you are finished with the information above, activate your SEO engine so that it can be found at the top of Google, where it can be readily accessed by your consumers.
