2010 is my 8th year in PR and this June will not only see in the World Cup (Come on England!) but it will also be my 18th month in SEO-PR and what a whirlwind those 18 months have been! In those first few hazy months of arriving at Propellernet towers, never did I think that a) mixing the worlds of search and PR would be so exciting and b) that a year and a half down the line the excitement, learning and innovation would still be going strong.

Walking into a search agency was a whole new world to me. I was used to crazy PR offices, being surrounded by products and it being quite normal for people to be shouting over banging music, over ringing phones and at each other. So, when I was welcomed in by the cool, calm and collected Propellernet team I knew it was going to be quite a different experience. There was a firm handshake and we were straight to work on sharing, learning, a little heated debating and on to creating what we now know as the real SEO-PR partnership; forming what one of our clients referred to last week as ‘Propellernet Power’.

At the beginning it was often just like a show and tell; the PRs would show how we would sell into a journalist, the SEO guys showed us widgets, we demonstrated how we would negotiate anchor text on big media sites and the SEOs showed us the potential revenue attached to those terms. Before we knew it the SEO-PR galaxy was born, achieving brilliant results for our clients and winning awards.

Some of the best PR campaigns out there have raised the most amazing brand awareness, changed opinions and even increased sales, but what is often lacking is the continued customer relationship and this is key in the online world we now live in. We’re at the height of the social age where potential customers are being influenced everywhere and by anyone that will let them- so it’s crucial for brands to be there with them at every stage of their journey.

Our MD Jack wrote a great post on the concept of “Brand Search Journeys” recently for eConsultancy if you want to know more.

The Future of our SEO-PR affair?

The sad news in the Propellernet love story is that the honeymoon period is well and truly over. The good news is we’re now married and weirdly morphing into each other – which is where it gets exciting! Our combined experience and skills means that we’re now altogether, well rounded SEO consultants. We’re able to take a step back, see the bigger picture and not only get great daily results for our clients but also be ready with a strategy in place for the next big thing Google throws at us all!

In fact, I’ve just finished writing a strategic SEO plan for a client that’s going to help them to maximise their visibility:

a. By ensuring we roll out tactics to capitalise on Google’s Query Deserves Freshness (QDF) Algorithm

b. By capturing all the available opportunities through “Universal Search”

All in the day of an SEO-PR consultant!