Referring domains? Backlinks? A traditional public relations (PR) executive may not be familiar with these terms and might not know how they are relevant to a PR campaign. However, digital PR professionals know that search engine optimization (SEO) and successful online PR now go hand in hand as lines become increasingly blurred in the digital marketing landscape.
What is Digital PR?
With traditional PR, professionals use press releases and media interviews to broadcast information about a brand and manage its image. This is largely still the case with digital PR.
However, digital PR channels are a lot less cut and dried than the one-directional channels of traditional PR. In the interactive digital PR field, social media, content creation, and SEO are all intertwined to build visibility and authority for a brand.
Digital PR and SEO
While technical SEO has received a lot of attention over the years, digital PR is often left out of the limelight. This is because many SEO companies focus on the technical aspects of SEO that are easier to quantify.
And, unlike full-service digital marketing agencies, many smaller SEO companies do not have the capabilities to undertake digital PR. Sadly, the failure to address the significance of digital PR can impede the potential of your organic search ranking.
There are two main pillars of the digital PR and SEO alliance: content and data. A solid content strategy that uses PR principles to create interesting ideas and compelling linkable content is essential in attracting journalists and earning backlinks.
Brand visibility and domain traffic, on the whole, is improved as links create better search engine result page (SERP) rankings. At the same time, the data that comes from tracking traffic and measuring the metrics of these links is used to further direct the position of follow-up campaigns.
The Power of Digital PR
The potent positive feedback loop of digital PR and SEO can do wonders for your brand. Here are some benefits of this potent combination.
Media Leverage
PR is the difference between an average piece of content and a newsworthy piece of content. The core PR skills of knowing the media, anticipating the right kind of content, and being able to successfully pitch to channels give brands an important advantage.
Although most digital marketing agencies worth their salt can organize sponsored content and guest blogs, you will need a digital PR professional to gain authoritative links from top industry publications.
Earning these links is not easy though. While most brands (and their competitors) can suggest themselves as links on simple resource pages, you need PR-written, high-quality content to earn an organic mention on a top-tier publication.
Because these publications are reputable and respected platforms, a link from their page to your brand sends a strong signal to your audience and Google that you are a credible and legitimate expert.
Hence, you gain organic traffic from brand building and also get improved SEO from an authoritative backlink that increases your search engine traffic, which leads to more organic traffic.
Reputation Management
The fundamental function of PR is to manage how a business is viewed by the world. As the digital landscape makes it easier for brands to promote themselves, it similarly makes it easier to tarnish the reputation of a brand.
Users who have had a bad experience with a product or service can now post negative reviews on social media or shopping platforms. Digital public relations can help to salvage an unsavory situation through direct or indirect engagement with the dissatisfied customer.
And because the Internet is so far and wide, there could be hundreds of user-initiated brand mentions out there ‘in the wild.’ Digital PR professionals have digital listening tools to monitor your brand mentions so that they can swoop in to save the story if needed.
These listening tools perform an important function with claiming links and increasing link equity as well. By locating blogs or news platforms that mention your brand, digital PR professionals can request that they add a link to your brand’s website, adding helpful SEO backlinks and increasing organic traffic.
Social Relationships
Social media is often seen as a completely different field to SEO. Nevertheless, they can achieve excellent results when managed in tandem. Instead of merely sending out press releases for news publications, posting on social media is a way to directly inform and engage your audience.
Digital PR professionals can form lasting relationships with leading influencers and bloggers with large follower bases. Through growing this beneficial network of content creators, brands can leverage their influence to reach a much more extensive audience.
SEO Strong
All the above-mentioned benefits funnel down to the most coveted digital marketing lynchpin—successful SEO. A versatile backlink profile, healthy social engagement, and a large audience base of consumers and journalists all lead to a higher standing in eyes of Google.
This, in turn, brings better SERP rankings, a robust stream of organic traffic, more conversions, more sales, and more profits.
The powerful partnership of digital PR and SEO is on the rise. With John Mueller of Google stating that digital PR is as critical as tech SEO, it is high time that brands include it front and center of their marketing strategy.