Slides from Jess Peace, Content Strategist at Rise at Seven, presented at her talk at Sheffield DM Vol#9 on Thursday 14th May 2020, titled "Have your cake and eat it: How to write content for SEO & PR".

1. JESS PEACE:
Have your cake and eat it: How to
write content for SEO and PR!
Sponsored by:

2. Jess Peace
Content Marketing Strategist
Rise at Seven
@peaceyyy

3. People say that you can’t have it all - or you
can, but you can’t have it all at once

4. In the next 20 minutes or so, I’m going to
call b******t on this theory 👈💩

5. You CAN create content that works for users,
search engines and publications

6. Without compromising on storytelling!
Here’s how...

7. HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT:
HOW TO WRITE CONTENT FOR SEO AND PR

8. So, what’s the difference between creating
content for SEO and creating content for PR?

9. Content for SEO is about making
things easier to find...

10. PR content is about creating something
that is impossible to miss!

11. Creating content for SEO

12. High-quality content is an essential part of SEO and, for many, is
considered to be one of the most important ranking factors
Not only does well-written content provide users with information about
your product or services whilst echoing your brand’s tone of voice, but
when optimised, it can help to drastically improve your discoverability
and rankings in search engine results pages too

13. Key elements you should consider when
creating SEO content
CTA’s
Headings
Internal links
Image alt-tags
Keyword research
Meta data
User intent

14. Creating content for PR

15. Digital PR involves creating content which has a unique hook, and
outreaching to journalists, publications and influencers, in order to
get coverage and build links on relevant websites
It is the creation and sharing of online content that is intended to
raise brand awareness and stimulate interest in businesses,
products or services

16. Questions to ask yourself when
creating PR content...

17. Does it have a good hook
or news angle?

18. Does it have a strong headline?

19. Does the piece add value
or offer something new?

20. Have you used creative assets
used to support the content?

21. Which format is best?
Reports, data pieces, indexes, blog etc.

22. When is the best time to publish
and outreach with the piece?

23. Who will cover the story?
And is it tailored to a specific audience?

24. How do you get the best of both worlds?

25. CONTENT
FOR SEO
CONTENT
FOR PR
THE
SWEET
SPOT
Drive traffic
Increase rankings
Improve search visibility
Increase time on page
Improve CTR and CVR
User intent and UX
Build links
Raise brand awareness
Social sharing
Land media placements
Press mentions and
impressions
Establish authority

26. The most important element of that sweet
spot, which marries up content for SEO
AND PR is...

27. USER INTENT!!!

28. User intent is the identification and
categorisation of what an online user wanted
to find when entering their search

29. The real metric you need to measure when
writing ANY piece of content is whether it is
useful, informative, engaging and relevant to
your audience

30. Type your keyword into a tool like
Buzzsumo and see which type of articles
have the most shares

31. Are those articles relevant to the
keywords you searched for? Keyword
research plays a huge part in content
relevancy

32. Metadata is largely associated with SEO
but ANY piece of on-page content
should have an optimised meta title,
description and URL

33. This is also a great way of not
having to compromise on your
headline by including keywords if
it doesn’t sound right

35. Headlines can make or break a
story! But what about headings tags -
do they have a place in PR content?

36. Not to sound like an SEO but, it
depends...

37. Heading tags provide structure, help
search engines and users to decipher
information, and make content easier
to consume

38. If you can include H1’s (acting as a
heading) and H2’s (acting as
subheadings) within your PR content
then go for it. But if in doubt, leave it
out

39. How about that link juice?

40. We know that PR content is all about landing placements
and generating links. But what about internal linking?
Internal links are links which navigate from one page to
another, separate page within the same domain. They are
extremely useful as they can help to improve the navigation
of a website, helping users find other services and products
more easily. They also help to establish information hierarchy
and spread link equity across the website.
Where possible, you should always try to include an internal
link within your content, as not only does this improve your
SEO but also gives users an option to continue their journey.
Using internal links can help increase your click-through rate
too! Double whammy!

41. Now, you didn’t think I’d make such a bold
statement and not have the results to back it
up, did you?

42. International data led stories to land top tier links
Data led PR / Content

45. International data led stories to land top tier links
Data led PR / Content
94 links
2,000
visits
Ranked #9
for ‘The world’s
most romantic
cities’

46. 146 links 6,400
organic visits
Ranking #1
for ‘Virtual
Staycations’

49. YuMOVE - How to keep a dog active whilst social distancing
6 links
We updated one of our content pieces on how to keep a dog
active indoors, to make it newsworthy and PR-able.
This is how we found that what will really gain traction for
YuMOVE, are reactive pieces with expert commentary...
Adding expert advice and updating in-line with COVID-19
measures, this piece landed some great coverage, SMASHING
the KPI in just two weeks!
11 minutes
(avg. time on
page)

50. Our dog active reactive piece saw some fab pick-up!

51. Key takeaways...
● Use keyword search volumes and number of article shares in Buzzsumo to help
steer your content ideation
● Try to add value or offer something new - there is a s**t tonne of content out there
to compete with
● Use headings where relevant to make that content easier to consume - for PR,
use these as a heading and subheadings
● If including a CTA, use inspiring language which encourages users to take action
- nobody likes a ‘click here’
● Storytelling should come first! A great piece of content will naturally encourage
clicks and links if it is awesome enough
● Always think about your users and if your content is giving them any value

52. Jess Peace
Content Marketing Strategist
Rise at Seven
@peaceyyy