Content Management News

Friday, February 27 - PR pros from ICVA organizations such as The Children’s Museum, the Indiana Historical Society, the Indiana Restaurant Association, Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Indians gathered at Conseco Fieldhouse yesterday to hear our very own Adam Brand and TJ Furman demystify search engine optimization (SEO). The discussion was targeted towards a public relations audience, but the broader message is relevant to anyone interested in SEO. We have made the materials- SEO for Pulic Relations available and welcome you to view them.

If you have ever searched for information about an event, restaurant or ticket sales in Indianapolis, you can appreciate why this group was interested in SEO. There is a lot going on in the Circle City and in a way they are all vying for a piece of our shrinking attention span. Stop updating your Facebook status! On Thursday, Adam and TJ explained how SEO makes content more easily found through keyword searches. No smoke and mirrors or complicated lingo. Nothing to be afraid of- SEO is our friend!

For example, I did a Google search for ‘Indianapolis St. Patrick’s Day’ to see what appeared first in the search results. It was: Indy Sports Foundation. They are promoting several events related to St. Patrick’s Day, but the company’s mission is to support amateur sports in central Indiana. This first page may give you all the St. Paddy’s Day parade information you were looking for, but you may stay and click around to learn more about the Foundation (I did). Being that first search result is important and SEO will help you get there.

The participants at the ICVA talk on Thursday had questions ranging from basic to advanced which demonstrated a range of experience. Regardless of your comfort level with SEO practices, intimidation should not be a factor in getting started. There are endless resources available to learn about SEO and once you get started you’ll be glad you did.

While it was only a 1 hour discussion, Adam and TJ laid building blocks for all of the PR pros in the room to begin thinking about how they can each create a foundation of SEO-based communication strategies that will work for their organization. If you are interested in learning more about SEO and how it relates to what you do, contact anyone at Marketpath and we can start a conversation.