Brett Lane: All You Need To Know About SEO Social PR Secrets By Lisa Buyer podcast

If you’ve been listening to Social PR Secrets for a while, chances are you’re pretty familiar with SEO. But do you know what offsite SEO is? Do you understand how to optimize your press releases for better SEO results? Are you aware of the best platforms to help you with your SEO efforts? If not, this episode is for you!

In this episode of the Social PR Secrets Podcast, host Lisa Buyer dives into the world of SEO with Brett Lane. Brett is an SEO consultant who has managed over 1,000 projects and ranked tens of thousands of keywords on Google. His work focuses on both onsite and offsite SEO (more on that later) and he has almost two decades of experience in the field. There’s no one better to learn the ins and outs of SEO from!

Onsite vs Offsite SEO

Onsite SEO is what most people think of when they hear search engine optimization. It’s all about making sure your own website is both friendly to Google and your users. It involves writing good data descriptions, having relevant content that will please both the algorithm and your audience. To master onsite SEO, you need to know (or hire someone who knows) all the odds and ends of communicating effectively with Google. That being said, being a PR professional will also help you in optimizing your SEO strategy because your site needs to be user-friendly, otherwise the lack of interaction with your content will kill all your Google-related SEO efforts.

On the other hand, offsite SEO focuses on getting as many outside websites as possible to link to your website. It’s the hard part of SEO because you need a small army of people reaching out to content creators and getting them to link to your website. But be careful here! These efforts should not activate Google’s triggers and make the algorithm believe you are spamming. The links need to come from the right websites, with the right content and they shouldn’t be replicated on too many outside platforms. Everything needs to look and feel organic.

Do’s and Don’ts of Press Releases for SEO

You might not realize it, but your press releases are a great tool to use as part of your SEO strategy. Unfortunately, they could also be your worst enemy. Here are the do’s and don’t of press releases when it comes to SEO.

❌ DON’T include too many links to your site in your press release. Especially not with the same tags. Google will think it’s spam.

✅ DO include a link to your website (the full link) at the end of your press release. It’s good to have a link but you don’t want Google to think you are spamming by having too many links.

❌ DON’T forget to add images and videos to your press release. And make sure you add metadata information.

✅ DO add your business information including phone number, address, email address along with the link to your website at the end of your press release. This shows Google you’re legit.

Other Strategies for Better SEO

Brett shared so much knowledge with us. Here are a few techniques to get better SEO:

Think about EXIF data, that is the metadata sitting behind videos and images in all the content you put out. You should tweak the title, description, and localization to fit your strategy.
Use a free EXIF data editor to automate the process. A good one is Mass Optimizer Pro.
Think about domain authority. Google has a scale from 1 to 100 depending on how authoritative a website is. For example, Forbes is a 95. Getting a link to your website from one of those sites is great for SEO.
Don’t sleep on .edu websites. College websites have high domain authority. Try to pitch to college students who have access to their school’s blog. Make sure the content is relevant and you might get a mention from a website that will please Google.
Use your Google My Business to your advantage. Add as much as possible to it and use a service like GMB Briefcase to post content to your GMB strategically.

That was a lot! Make sure to listen to the episodes for even more tips and insights from Brett. If you think your company could benefit from his services, check out his website: http://brettslane.com/.

“Don’t forget: Google wants your content to look natural” - Brett Lane

Some topics discussed in this episode include:

SEO
Google My Business
Metadata
Press Release
Google

Contact Brett Lane

Brett’s Website: http://brettslane.com/
Brett’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettslane

References and Links Mentioned