Podcast Transcript
David Erickson: This comes from PR Daily‘s Chris Dickey. The title of the article is Stronger PR is Hidden in Keyword Data. And I’m like, I’ve been saying that for years.
BL Ochman: Of course.
Public Relations Measurement Is Broken
David Erickson: So he starts out with–I’m just gonna cite it from the article:
“We all realize that reporting on print circulation, unique visitors per month, or social following tells a small part of the story. While these may be the best numbers we have as PR people, they don’t speak to how many people saw an article or if those readers were even qualified customers. As for equivalent add value–“
BL Ochman: That’s so dumb.
Advertising Equivalency
David Erickson: –is equivalent.” Correct.
“Advertising is a game of wheel and deal and no one pays the sticker rate. Rarely does a PR placement match the dimensions or brand focus of an equivalent ad.”
And you know you can’t measure how many people ignore ads and I mean it’s completely inaccurate.
How To Measure PR With Keyword Data
David Erickson: So how to start? This is his methodology. Type in some general keyword phrases related to your client’s project–let’s say it’s ‘best running shoes 2020’ and then see what links are on the first page of results. And from there you can develop, he suggests, a PR roadmap of which writers and publications Google rewards with top search results and then build relationships with those people.
Ubersuggest Chrome Extension
David Erickson: And you can use the Google Ubersuggest Chrome extension as your keyword research tool to do this type of research. You can get search traffic, search data, number of monthly searches, traffic data, click-through data. And then look at your results and compile the data and you can have a relatively accurate, certainly better than traditional PR metrics, report for your client.
What Clients Want Isn’t Necessarily What They Need
BL Ochman: Traditional PR metrics are ridiculous. But you know–and that advertising equivalent is always been my favorite ridiculous one. And but it seems to…clients seem to like it.
David Erickson: Yeah, well, it makes it simple. I mean, you can see why it has lasted so long is it is something that…I mean, it’s a simple explanation for clients and if they’re reporting it up the chain, the big number’s always good.
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