Every PR pro has heard the news: The future of public relations is all about “brand journalism“, which is all about content, content, content. Of course, the quality of said content is paramount, because if readers don’t get your company/client’s message then the words themselves won’t be worth much in the end.

But search engine optimization also plays a big role in the art of content creation. If pages don’t show up near the top of relevant Google searches, then their value will be limited.

Now for a tiny bit of shameless self promotion: As Mediabistro employees, we recently had the opportunity to take one of our company’s courses on SEO best practices. We thought we were fairly familiar with SEO, but we learned a few techniques that go beyond the usual “include key words and phrases”, and we thought we’d share six tips that we would have missed otherwise.

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Against the backdrop of Segway owner Jimi Heselden’s death, the company has a few image issues to fight, SEO firm StuckOn suggests. With the Christian Science Monitor asking if it’s “safe to ride” and AOL News running a story on owners killed by their own inventions, StuckOn might be right in pointing out that the incident “could pose a public relations hitch for the company.”

Though it clearly has a stake in the game as an SEO company itself, StuckOn makes some interesting comments on ways to moderate what people find when they search. In addition to press releases, Web copy, and Facebook and Twitter status updates, an SEO company can “examine the main search terms that your business targets and modify them to minimise the chances of any negative press finding its way near the top of the search engine results pages.”

In the case of the Segway, StuckOn points to YouTube, which it says “has become awash with footage of people crashing the vehicles.”

[Image via Segway]