4/25/2005 10:16

Janet recently sent me a great MediaPost article, "Can Search Help PR's Reputation." The author, Max Kalehoff, asks why PR pros seem to expend so little energy monitoring the content of search-engine results. He goes on to point out the number of industry leaders, such as United Airlines, McDonald's, Splenda and iPod, with damaging third-party content appearing within their top results.

Given how many Internet users now rely on search engines to gather information about a company, product or service, this article is a must-read for any PR person. My only nit is that while Kalehoff points out a few firms that offer integrated PR/search services, he doesn't provide any practical advice on how to handle search-engine related crises.

Marqui has had a bit of experience in this arena since our PayBloggers program has led to some unusual items popping up in our top results. (Nothing too terrible, just not the most relevant content.) We are actively working with our search engine marketing agency, Anvil Media, to get this resolved...but it's not quite as easy as one might think.

Among Anvil's suggestions was the idea of crafting a press release filled with keywords, links, etc. that will appeal to search engine spiders, thus giving it a higher ranking than less desirable content.

Now, the more traditional PR person in me cringes at the thought of such a buzzword-soaked creation. However, I have definitely come to realize that it's a brave new world out there -- and that world is highly influenced by search engines.

Rest assured, once I move forward with this little project, I'll report back on the "results."

Posted by at April 25, 2005 10:16 AM

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