Online gunpowder plotting

Some 400 years after the gunpowder plot was revealed, political blogger Guido Fawkes is doing a better job than his namesake in laying explosive content at Westminster, particularly in the area of MP’s expenses.

While Guido plots content for his blog, the overarching battle for online visibility races on. On one flank you have the keyword and link focussed techy SEO practitioners wearing various shades of hat, white, grey & black, creating text bristling with optimisation. On the other side, PR and digital  agencies advance steadily into SEO territory with content crafted to build brand reputation online with social media levers attached.

The arrival of Twitter has changed the game again and lately, in favour of the content providers. Link building has long been the covert weapon of choice for SEO experts but with Google publishing Twitter posts, content providers suddenly have a powerful new link building tool all of their own. Now, every tweet posted with a link is another step forward for that company’s organic search ranking.

SEO and online PR people though are really conspirators with the same aim, just with different skills. To really light an online PR bonfire, search and content needs to come together in the same container, a barrel perhaps? Make a bonfire night wish.