Think about the last time you went to Google to search for a brand. Where did you first hear about it?

Did someone you follow on Instagram recommend it?
Was it mentioned in a news story or blog article?
Did you hear about it from a friend?

Having a recognizable and trusted brand is becoming more and more crucial in search engine rankings, especially for smaller businesses.

Successful public relations (PR), including brand mentions, media coverage, and reputation management will send trust signals to Google and improve your rankings.

There are several benefits to combining your PR and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies:

• Build trust and authority
• Reach a greater percentage of your target market
• Improve search engine rankings
• Increase organic traffic to your website
• Increase conversion and sales

There are two key ways PR can impact SEO: links and domain authority.

Links

One of Google’s top ranking factors is links from quality, relevant websites. An effective PR strategy can help you gain these links.

Write newsworthy press releases

Press releases with newsworthy material that are distributed to specific outlets with audiences that align with your target can help gain backlinks that can improve domain authority and drive referral traffic to your website.

The Treehouse provides our contractor clients with free access to a widget that allows them to publish a press release to their website and distribute it to regional media outlets from a single platform. For example, if you sign up as a fence company, and you’re attending an event, contributed to the local community, or launched a new product or service, you can write about it and let the press know about it with the use of the widget.

Give a quote

Sometimes bloggers and journalists need insight from a relevant, expert source to add credibility to their story. This is an opportunity to gain exposure for your brand and potentially earn a link.

Include links with keywords and webpages that need a rankings boost

It’s hard to talk about links without also talking about keywords. It’s no secret that keywords are important in SEO.

When people enter these keywords into the search box, your brand and webpage should show up in the search results.

For example, when I search for “hand sanitizer” on Google, I’d expect to see Purell. Right now, Google is the only place I’d expect to see Purell.

Just as you include the keywords you want to rank for within the content of your website, your major keywords should also be used in press releases, guest posts, quotes, and other PR coverage.

There are several reasons to include keywords in PR tactics:

• These are the keywords that are tied to your brand and that journalists and influencers will use when mentioning your company.
• These are also the keywords that your target audience and customers will associate with your brand.
• All of these will help give your webpages a boost in rankings.

Domain Authority

Mentions in social media and news coverage can help improve domain authority and rankings and increase branded search volume.

Choose the right channels for maximum impact

An effective PR and SEO strategy uses a balance of both online and offline channels to reach the largest percentage of your target audience. These channels might include social media, TV, radio, print, and the list goes on.

There are services you can use that do the work for you and can be customized for your business needs.

For contractors, we recommend BrandBlaster, the Treehouse’s fully-maintained digital marketing program that reaches customers through platforms such as Facebook Advertising, YouTube, and Google Display Network. BrandBlaster targets based on service, location, and custom audiences.

Conclusion

A solid PR strategy will help small contractor businesses perform better in SERPs. PR helps gain authority and trust, which helps to compete with larger brands and improve rankings.

Determine which keywords to target and develop solid strategies, content, social messaging, and other PR initiatives that will get your brand (and website) in front of your target market.