The Importance of Google Search Rankings
Given how many millions of people use Google Search, your position in the search results matters.
Here are just a few facts: Around the world, there are more than 8.5 billion Google searches per day, or nearly 100,000 search queries every second. It’s no surprise that companies spend tens of billions of dollars each year on search engine optimization (SEO)—improving their search results for all to see.
In today’s day and age, if your business isn’t optimized for Google searches, you are missing out. Think about it: If you run a company, do you want the first page of Google to show a 15-year-old headshot of you, or the most updated information? Wouldn’t you want people to see your business website, your LinkedIn posts and your best media hits?
Even if you’re not a business owner, you want to come across favorably to people who search for your name. Positive search results represent positive branding, casting you in the best possible light.
The Role of PR in SEO
There are many ingredients to Google SEO, but here’s an underrated one: public relations. PR is the business of generating news stories and other forms of earned media (as opposed to advertising, or paid media). News coverage is not only inherently important, but it also lends itself to Google searches since media hits are picked up by search engines and they often trickle up to the first or second page of results.
When a PR firm lands a big story for a client, let’s say in the New York Times, it is a major win in more ways than one. One way is through Google SEO since we know that news stories are extremely visible. Even if you don’t have the direct link to that New York Times story, for instance, you will be able to find it as a search result sooner rather than later.
So when people search for that client’s name, they will likely find the New York Times story about them. Google prioritizes new content over old news, so it’s important to take advantage of that preference. All things being equal, a positive New York Times story that just came out will probably outrank a negative one from a decade ago.
Now think about what a news story like that represents for your brand: If you appear in a national publication, it conveys a combination of thought leadership, relevance, timeliness and other factors. Earned media has an air of third-party validation, legitimacy and credibility to it, proving to others that you are worthy of being featured in a publication like the New York Times. With that worthiness come new business and other opportunities.
Just the other day, my agency landed a new client simply because we came up first in a Google search for Maine-based PR agencies. If we had come up fifth or 10th, that client may have never come our way.
Leveraging PR for Better Search Results
Knowing that Google prefers the latest content, you should act accordingly. Whenever there is an opportunity to create fresh, compelling content, you should seize that opportunity. It may be a news story, an interview or an op-ed column published by a local newspaper. It could be a website blog post or a new LinkedIn video. Maybe it’s an X/Twitter post that gets thousands of retweets. As long as it’s new (and positive), it will be useful for Google Search.
Google SEO is all about branding yourself and creating your own narrative, rather than allowing others to define you. If there is a news story written about you, it should be one that you want to show up. If there is social media content out there that has to do with you, it should be your own, rather than created by someone who may be more critical. And if a website does pop up on the first search results page, it should be yours.
This doesn’t need to cost millions or billions of dollars. PR agencies can actually be quite affordable, while still being efficient and effective when it comes to delivering media results that get picked up by Google. Public relations comes down to showcasing clients in the best possible light and where people are actually looking, and the best PR firms know exactly how to work within search engine parameters to get links noticed.
Google SEO is a complicated recipe, but PR has always been one of the most important ingredients. Overlook it at your own peril.
This article originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice in October 2024.
