At PR, social media and SEO agency, Punch Communications, they have, over the years, focused on how social media and search engine optimisation have altered the traditional PR landscape whilst encouraging their clients to view the three disciplines as one complementary solution.

This year the approach has been thrust into the spotlight, particularly as so much prominence has been placed on expert content placement and relevance, says Account Director, Keredy Andrews

Google has always remained firm on the fact that any content and links produced on websites needed to be appropriate and valuable, and that those abusing the system would be penalised. However, Google recently announced some changes to its webmaster guidelines which have impacted the way links should be best incorporated into content and also highlighted the worth of social sharing. This reiterates that relevancy and quality, as well as campaign integration, is here to stay and that anything written on-site or created off-site needs to adhere to these guidelines.

What does the future hold for PR agencies?

Those agencies that have previously outsourced content, that was developed to an average quality and distributed across poor sites, must overhaul how search oriented campaigns should be run. What it means for traditional PR businesses that develop high-quality content with the ability to pitch compelling article and blog byline ideas to high-ranking media sites, is their role in SEO has become more important than ever. Therefore, over the course of the next 12 months, I envisage the alignment of many more tech SEO agencies with PR agencies, that will use their core skill sets to complement one another for the benefit of their clients.

All things point to SEO

From a PR perspective, we are also witnessing a definite trend towards online. Clients always like to see their brands in print and until now have been fighting for hardcopy coverage. The growth of online news consumption, however, means many in-house marketers and CEOs now recognise the dual benefit of gaining coverage which incorporates a link and is hosted on a credible media site or blog. This realisation has been further cemented by the media which, having seen a slump in print media advertising sales, are requesting payment for links; a trend I hope we will see decline in 2014!

A new dawn for digital

Change across social media has been momentous. As well as the introduction of many new channels, there now exists an acute awareness of how social works as a business tool, with many organisations now desperate to incorporate it into their marketing plans and align it to their sales funnels. Obviously, the key consumer brands have long established engaged social communities, yet there are still lessons to be learnt with some of the smaller brands and B2B businesses. In line with this, social and SEO integration is also of paramount importance. Having social sharing buttons on-site and more recently a Google+ account are invaluable to help with visibility in organic search, but all links from within social networks can positively impact rankings as well as website visitor numbers.

Think before you jump

Blurring the lines between social, PR and search is blogger relations, and today the blogosphere is a crowded place. Any PR person worth their salt has a blogger relations programme within their wider PR strategy. My advice for any brand about to embark on blogger activity is to always do your research. Again, think relevance and credibility.

Those marketing businesses that have held their own in 2013 are the ones who have kept themselves informed. By reading the latest industry news to understand new PR approaches and campaigns that are being well received, they are also keeping abreast of the latest social media and SEO updates in addition to new technological innovations which change the way we consume news. With a mixture of online text, video, image and audio content having never been more important, particularly with the introduction of Vine, updates on Audioboo and the spectacular growth of Instagram, a truly integrated approach to marketing and PR looks set to stay and become even more prominent in 2014.