By Chris Lee

At this spring’s regular search marketers meet up, Brighton SEO, the general consensus was that the search industry needed to “grow up” and start thinking more like PR professionals. But what about the other way round? Should PRs start thinking more like SEOs?

In a recent podcast, I explored the relationship between SEO and PR, but to take it one stage further I went to a training session organised by SEO PR Training, a newly-formed company which focussed solely on bridging the search marketing knowledge gap for PRs.

The company was founded by PR specialist Claire Thompson of Waves PR and Nichola Stott, a former Yahoo! search specialist who runs an SEO agency called theMediaFlow.

What’s the general understanding of SEO within PR? Does it vary from sector to sector?

Claire: It's fairly naturally higher in tech, and where companies work in very competitive environments - travel, personal finance etc - it tends to be driven by the clients. There are pockets of expertise in other industries, but even within agencies there's an inequality of knowledge. A lot of people who think they know lots have been misinformed or have taught themselves from sites of little value, whilst others have an enviable grasp. So the only real answer to 'the general understanding' is 'variable', with some people very naturally doing things that are SEO friendly without realising it, some pockets of genuine expertise, and an abundance of people who've been misinformed, or whose knowledge is dated.

Why is general appreciation of SEO within PR so low?

Claire: Many PR people now acknowledge the importance of SEO, but an equal number regard it as something of a black art. Appreciation is growing, but there's no clear channel for getting 'quality' information. A lot of people know it's important, but don't know where to go for help - and the Internet is full of information that's dated, and misinformation with a particular bias, and as there's no industry regulation, sometimes SEO is simply easier to ignore than to try and cut through the  noise.

What are the key basic elements of solid SEO within PR?

Nichola: Firstly, a good understanding of the client’s SEO objectives, which might typically be; “grow sales and reduce paid traffic by increasing 'natural' traffic growth on relevant converting keywords”. Secondly, an understanding of where and how PR activities may feed into those objectives.

How can PR agencies upsell SEO services to clients?

Nichola: if there is any professional in the world well-placed to sell SEO then it is the PR professional. PR professionals who have been in the business for any length of time will have come up against the objections about comparative intangibles (for example, PR when compared to paid advertising) and are already well-versed in selling knowledge, service, skill and experience.

Like PR, SEO is no magic bullet delivering overnight results, but an investment that can have powerful and long-lasting effects. It's usually enough to point out client's own search habits to convince them of value, but there are stats coming out of our ears that demonstrate the importance of the Internet as an information source.

What’s a great example of where you’ve managed to improve a company’s business with an emphasis on SEO?

Nichola: At SEO PR Training we don’t ‘do’ the SEO as such, but Claire and I practise our own disciplines daily in our respective’ agencies. I head up Hampshire based SEO agency theMediaFlow, where we’re doing SEO day in, day out, with the explicit objective of driving client business. In a recent example we were brought on-side by the marketing agency for the UK leading online bathroom retailer BathEmpire; who were highly successful in paid search and affiliate marketing but were yet to get traction in organic search. Six months into the SEO program and monthly revenue from organic search has increased by over 1800 per cent.