Case Study

GCI Outdoors

How Verde Uses PR to Create SEO Value

 

Overview

Here at Verde we believe that PR can be an essential piece of a brand’s Organic Search strategy. After all, making great products is one thing, but being seen in Google is another. Earned media and editorial content is both a large part of the organic search landscape and a huge opportunity to drive visibility. With longtime client GCI Outdoors, we took a search-focused approach to our PR efforts, introducing the brand to new customers. Focusing on earned media opportunities for high-value keywords we were able to get GCI exposure from searches for these highly competitive keywords - something that their own website was not able to do. Tactics like these help us to optimize our PR efforts to be smarter, more effective, and more targeted at driving results that truly drive business.

Tactics

“SEO PR” as we sometimes call it, starts with keyword research, finding important and high volume terms. In the case of GCI, we explored the camping chair landscape. Rather than just integrate these keywords into press releases and pitches, we then went a step deeper, analyzing the search landscape. Who was doing well, and where were the opportunities for GCI?

Traditional organic search and SEO tactics would then look at ways to optimize the GCI website for these terms. While these are still great steps, we were focused on the PR opportunities. This means identifying high-value earned media pieces that were ranking on the first page of Google results, and getting our client placed with those media. This strategy not only complements traditional SEO, but it also helps to rank a brand for keywords that it is less competitive in.

 
 
 

For example, the GCI website ranks 79th in Google results for “best camping chairs,” but after our efforts GCI also shows up in 9 of the top 10 ranking pages for that query. If we equate this exposure to equivalent ad value, that’s over $33k annually if you were to buy those impressions and clicks.

When we look at the Domain Rating, a measure of a website’s organic search authority, we see that GCI would have a tough time competing in this search with so many high-power websites. This is a common trend we see from brand websites, with media and retailers having stronger websites. In this way, our PR efforts can put GCI where they cannot reach organically.

 
 

The Results

  • GCI is now included on every article about best camping chairs on page 1 of Google search
  • Google Ads equivalent value of this is over $33k annually for “Best Camping Chairs” alone
  • We saw placements in a wide array media outlets, from broad market, outdoor, and more.