Online PR test for PR agency bosses

This was inspired by a Twitter conversation I had with Andrew Smith from escherman and Steve Earl from Speed Communications and relates to warnings I made in an online PR whitepaper over three years ago that still appear to be relevant.

True to his usual style of taking a scientific perspective to online PR Andrew Smith found that 63 per cent of PR agencies in PRWeek's top 150 listing do not have the term 'PR' in their website homepage title, and 85 per cent do not have the term 'public relations' there.

Now, page titles are quite important - one of the many little things you need to get  right to ensure your website can be found when people are searching. Many of the top 150 PR agencies tout their digital or online PR credentials, so they ought to be getting little things right like relevant keywords in their own homepage title tag. Thus my response on Twitter: "The gulf between PR and search is still wide - some PRs saying 'we do digital' but actually lack basic SEO knowledge."

Steve Earl responded by suggesting PRWeek should do a 'short test in digital for agency MDs'. What a great idea, I thought. There is clearly more to online PR than this, but here's a go at ten questions every digital-savvy PR agency boss should be able to answer in the right way:

1. Can you describe to a client the full benefits of an inbound link to their website?

2. Are you familiar with Google Page Rank and its use as a rough measure of a site's influence?

3. Do you have access to your clients' website analytics?

4. Are you aware of which of your clients have search marketing (SEO) agencies?

5. Of your clients that have search marketing agencies, do you have direct lines of communication with any of those agencies?

6. Can you be certain your team have set up at least basic online monitoring for all of your clients?

7. Do you have a separate team handling online PR or is it deliverable by everyone in your organisation?

8. Are you able to explain to a client the advantages of online coverage by a 'small' but influential blogger over that of traditional media coverage?

9. Are you personally active on social media, including your own blog?

10. Are you worried your team are wasting time on Twitter or are you proud of their online networking prowess?

How did you score?

Comments

[Andrew Bruce Smith]

Good start. I'd also add:

1. Can you explain the concept of "bounce rate"?
2. What's the difference between broad match, phrase match and exact match in the context of SEO?

It did occur to me that perhaps the reason agencies don't have PR or public relations in their title tags is because they don't actually describe themselves as PR firms - they are more likely to be called a communications consultancy. However, a mere three firms have the term "communications consultancy" in their home page title tag.

[Andy Turner]

Interesting post, but if you asked similarly searching questions about PR to the heads of most pure-play digital agencies, I'd be surprised if the respondents were any better informed. Is there a noticeable trend of PR agencies merging with their digital counterparts as that would seem logical? Or are the agencies just buying up digital talent?

[Daryl Willcox]

Very good point Andy. I'm sure you're right - no doubt pure play digital agencies struggle with PR skills. But in my experience SEO agencies tend to be more more aware of that shortfall and show real enthusiasm for working alongside experienced PR professionals.

As for digital agencies merging with PR agencies - I don't believe there has been much evidence of this yet. But there is certainly an exchance of talent between the two in some cases.