This post continues the discussion I began yesterday with SEO experts.  Today’s insights come from:

Andy Edmonds, Allison Fabella, David Felfoldi, Greg Jarboe, Charles Lumpkin, Jill Whalen, and Stacy Williams.

Whalen: What PR brings to the table is help in crafting a message for their client that is unique and that sets them apart from other companies. For SEO to be successful in today’s highly competitive marketplace, you have to have a company and website that stands out from the pack in some way. After all, why would Google show a company’s website in the top 10 of the search results if they’re not truly one of the top 10 companies in their niche? And isn’t that the job of PR?

The PR team should work closely with the SEO team to understand the keyword phrases that are valuable to their client so that they can use them in their messaging. This in turn can create links back that are also using the correct wording, and ultimately bring more targeted traffic to the client’s website.

Jarboe: Ironically, what you need to learn isn’t technical.  So, PR people can learn SEO without learning HTML because they still won’t be optimizing web pages.  They’ll be optimizing press releases — which require the ability to do keyword research, copywriting, link building.

In other words, you should use SEO because it generates measurable results for your organization or clients — something the CEO and CMO have wanted from their PR people for years.  That’s especially important in a recession, but it will continue to be critical even when the economy recovers.  This trend started in September 2002 — well before the current downturn.  And it will continue — because the shift from offline media to online media isn’t temporary.

Felfoldi: My suggestion is that PR should invest in basic SEO training, which can often be done online for free.  Once they learn how to write for humans & robots (search engines), they need to ensure their online publishing tool is search-friendly such as a blog.

Lumpkin: SEO goals need to be a cohesive piece of a PR campaign. As a PR person you can help provide lasting traffic value through SEO. While many PR campaigns can provide a temporary jolt of traffic and sales you should be working on helping to build a solid base of traffic. SEO can be a formidable ally in this effort.

Why is PR important to SEO? I explain the basics of SEO as a two-pronged fork. On one side you’ve got to make sure that your site talks about the things that people are searching for. On the other side you’ve got to make sure that other similiar sites talk about your site.

In the truest sense it is really that simple. PR folks are renowned for getting others to talk about them. It’s not the only way that and SEO can gain that valuable link juice, but it certainly helps – much more than other techniques. As a PR person you need to concentrate on getting really highly valuable in-industry references to your client’s site.

Fabella: With the democratization of the Internet, everyone (not only newspapers) must closely monitor their online reputation. They should also be aware that SEO and SEM can help define their brand and just as importantly, reshape their message if it gets knocked off track by competitors, customers, or even their own employees (inadvertently or otherwise). Here’s where Search can go beyond just getting a favorite keyword to rank #1. It can play a key role in one’s PR efforts.

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Based on these insights, it is clear to me that messaging – the cornerstone of good PR – remains as important as ever.  And PR is best equipped to lead those efforts given our backgrounds in  journalism and relationship building.

But it is also clear that nicely crafted sound bites are no longer enough.  Messaging needs to be distilled into key words and links.  Those words and links are currency for users to more easily find information about your company.  This distillation in turn makes it easier to measure and track results which increases PR’s value for clients.

Fortunately, PR SEO does not involve extensive technical knowledge, but it does require an appreciation for the way people look for information and how information is valued.  It’s no longer than just the words of journalists that matter; it’s the number of people linking to that story and how relevant those people are to you.

Let me get back to you.

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