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Wednesday, May 22
3:45–4:45 p.m.
Breakout IV
In Search of…: Inside Strategies for Tying Public Relations and SEO/SEM Together to Drive Content to the Top
Search engines have a significant impact on news release visibility, media pick-up and social buzz. It is more important than ever to write keyword-relevant copy and have it optimized for the latest search engine algorithms and social media platforms. With all of these changes, travel and tourism professionals may have a hard time keeping their site in the top rankings. In this session you will hear from successful search engine marketers from Simpleview, DMOs and resorts, and learn how to:
- Tie your public relations and search engine marketing strategies together through content development efforts.
- Create content to comply with Google’s and other organizations' new search algorithms.
- Learn how Google, Bing and Yahoo! use social media to determine rankings.
- Find the most powerful keywords and phrases and learn where to place them.
- Build awareness and keep your site in the top rankings.
- Follow SEO best practices for online newsrooms.
Paul McLeod is a search engine optimization analyst at Simpleview. When Paul joined Simpleview’s search engine marketing team, he enhanced the team’s knowledge on providing quality campaign building and optimization services to destination marketing organizations. Having more than six years of search engine marketing experience has allowed him to handle virtually all aspects of optimization work, including proposal development, campaign execution and reporting results. Paul received his master’s degree in business administration with an emphasis on marketing from the University of Arizona and his bachelor’s degrees in economics and English from the University of Oklahoma. He is also a Certified Google AdWords and Google Analytics Professional. Connect with Paul on Twitter.
A.J. Mistretta is public relations manager at the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau (GHCVB). In addition to working with journalists covering the city of Houston, he helps manage the online content of the GHCVB’s network of websites. He previously served as an online editor for a Houston-based Fortune 500 company, managing content writers for two business-to-business sites. Prior to that, he was the online editor and special projects manager for the Austin Business Journal, supervising daily news gathering and working with reporters on extended packages. He has written for newspapers and magazines in Austin, Houston, Dallas and New Orleans.