There are many sides to what we do as PR people… one of the areas that has come out of social media is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Don’t get me wrong, we are a Vancouver PR agency – not SEO specialists. We have taken the time to learn about SEO and how it relates to what we do for our clients, but theory and practice are two different things. We’re always trying to upgrade our knowledge and skill sets and with this in mind, we thought that we would try a small experiment with SEO. And we hope that you will indulge us.

AHA Creative Strategies is a Vancouver PR agency with clients throughout North America. Currently when you Google “AHA” or “AHA Creative” – you find us pretty easily. When you search Vancouver PR agency, we’re not in the first few links that you see and we would like to be. As a PR agency, we spend a great deal of time developing news releases, news briefs, web articles and other online content that are written with SEO in mind for our clients. For AHA, our outreach consists mainly with this blog and our AHA Twitter and Facebook accounts. So – how do we move ourselves up the Google and Bing search rankings under “Vancouver PR agency?”

Writing good content with SEO in mind is challenging. You need to use the right key words, but not so often that you take away from the value of the content. Let’s look at an example of copy that was written, in my opinion, with a little too much focus on SEO.

Vancouver PR agency AHA Creative Strategies is a different kind of PR agency. We believe that the world has changed and our business model reflects that. While we are a Vancouver PR agency, we have a presence in Calgary and Toronto. Rather than a big office in a high priced tower, we have chosen a small office in Vancouver to represent our Vancouver PR agency and also have a PR studio on the Sunshine Coast. Most of our crew are contractors who have worked with us for a long time, rather than full time staffers at our Vancouver PR agency. This allows us to bring together the best team possible for each specific client initiative, rather than use the people we have in-house at that time. We know that we’re not the biggest Vancouver PR agency, but we do think we are among the best. We understand how to blend social media with traditional PR and, as importantly, we understand how to bridge the gap between a workforce that has a wide ranging perception of social media – from fearful to embracing it. We are a local Vancouver PR agency with a global reach.

When I read this (and I wrote it), the repetition of “Vancouver PR agency” – the keywords we would like to connect to on Google and Bing – take away from the content. In places, it feels false and forced. However, having said that – writing it this way will go a long way in pushing us up in the rankings online.

There are other components to SEO that I will get into over the next few weeks – linking is an interesting one. But for the next few days, I am going to write this blog with a focus on getting AHA into the top agencies listed when you search “Vancouver PR agency” and see how we do. I hope you will come along with us on this experiment.

I will keep you posted.