A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

(a)   Communicating with media (journalists) online

This uses the Internet as a new conduit to disseminate press releases ( SEO-  optimised) 

through email and on-site and on  third-  party sites. Options include: setting up a  press- 

 release area on the website; creating email alerts about news that journalists and other 

third parties can sign up to; submitting your news stories or releases to online news 

feeds.

(b)     Link‑  building

 Link‑  building

 is a key activity for search engine optimisation. It can be considered to be an 

element of online PR since it is about getting your brand visible on  third-  party sites.  Link- 

 building needs to be a structured effort to achieve as many links into a website as possible 

from referring websites (these commonly include 

reciprocal links

), which will also improve 

your position in the search engine results pages.

McGaffin (2004) provides a great introduction to implementing a structured  link- 

 building programme. He says: ‘Create great content, link to great content and great con-

tent will link to you’. He describes how you should review existing links to your site and 

links to competitors, set targets and then proactively enquire to suitable site owners for 

links.

You can use the syntax ‘link:site’ in Google to see a sample of quality links into a page on 

your site as judged by Google, e.g. ‘link:

www.davechaffey.com

’.

Note that this also includes internal links. To gain a more comprehensive view of links, 

search marketing specialists use tools that are listed at 

http://bit.ly/smartlinkcheck

.