Link building, a form of SEO, works best when you have a one-way link from another quality site to your own. You can try all sorts of tricks to build up the number of links you have, but to maximise your results concentrate on obtaining links from quality sites. Of course quality links are not that easy to get! But many companies have an under-used resource that could generate hundreds if not thousands of quality links. That resource is public relations.

Good public relations and the online practice of link building are natural bedfellows. First, because the dynamics of each is remarkably similar and second, because when used in tandem with important keywords in mind, they can produce spectacular results...

The processes share some important features:

• Success cannot be guaranteed
• Relationships and industry knowledge are important
• You’ve got to give up some control
• Results can be spectacular

More news sites are writing about and linking to external web sites of all kinds. What better source of a quality link? Not only will these media outlets have large audiences, but they will be spidered frequently by search engine bots.

And the search engines can be confident that the link and the website that it points to is legitimate. To get there, it had to pass through the eyes of a reporter and an editor.

Who better to get such valuable links than PR professionals? Yet how many times do the PR team and the SEO team sit down together? (At Epic, we offer SEO, so please inquire about this service today.)

There are important strategic insights for public relations professionals and those who engage them:

• News stories stay online – your news item can still be read with great interest months after the event.
  
  
• The links the story creates not only bring people themselves but also boost your search engine traffic.
  
  
• Online stories can spread like wildfire. Issue a press release online and it can be taken up and commented on minutes later.
  
  
• Smaller niche sites assume a greater importance. They’re read by people who are passionate and informed, not just interested – and the links they bring can be even more valuable than those from mainstream media.

To get the maximum return from any publicity effort, PR people and SEO people need to meet together and look for the synergies that can be created through their respective disciplines.