Using Digital PR for SEO

SEO and digital PR are both crucial factors in any online marketing campaign’s success.

Many people think of digital PR as just another SEO link building technique. Although both share similar goals, they are not one in the same. However, they do go hand in hand.

Digital PR is the best possible way to acquire white-hat, quality backlinks that can effectively boost your SEO efforts.

While SEO and digital PR are effective in their own right, combining brand awareness, high-quality links, an SEO-optimized website, and high-quality content all help improve your presence in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

So, why is Digital PR essential? Let’s take a look:

• What is digital PR?
• Why does digital PR matter?
• How digital PR boosts your SEO
• How digital PR boosts your business

What is digital PR?

Digital PR is a promotional strategy that is predominantly used by PR specialists (although it may be used by consultants in other areas of marketing, such as SEO) to increase awareness of your brand.

Many may mistake digital PR as another form for link building, but at its core, it entails much more. An effective Digital PR strategy is tailored to the individual brand or business’ specific requirements and objectives.

It takes into consideration a variety of factors, such as their existing brand presence, how well-established the business is, as well as the results that will benefit the brand’s marketing strategy as a whole.

This is accomplished through various techniques, such as promoting content, stories, or data.

Why does digital PR matter?

Reactive digital PR is when you identify an opportunity to acquire media and links for a business and move swiftly to take it. Why does this matter?

While increasing brand recognition is the primary goal of digital PR, other equally valuable outcomes include increased organic traffic, leads, sales, and social interaction.

Digital PR facilitates relationship-building with journalists by reacting to their requests for sources, press releases, the implementation of stories and hooks into content, and using survey data to direct content and stories.

Digital PR is not an SEO technique in and of itself. Still, it does support our work in this field by increasing the expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) of the business and its representatives, and by generating high-quality, high-authority backlinks.

How digital PR boosts your SEO

You will eventually need backlinks as well as both on-site and off-site optimization to increase your website’s organic traffic and authority. Remember that67.5 percent of SEO experts believe backlinks play a significant role in search engine optimization.

Generating inbound links is the most effective SEO technique for building the authority of your website, and digital PR plays a crucial role in this process.

Plus, there is no doubt that digital PR can help you improve your search engine rankings, as 52% of marketers believe that brand mentions affect organic search engine rankings.

Let’s look at how an effective digital PR strategy can boost your SEO.

• Brand media coverage
• Building and boosting website authority

Brand media coverage

This is a traditional PR strategy that has always been at the forefront of getting media attention, which is no different when using a digital PR strategy. Journalist outreach is more of a sub-goal contributing to the larger objectives you want to attain.

The importance of pitching a journalist, however, should not be disregarded. The first step in developing a relationship with journalists is to craft a compelling and tailored pitch for them.

There is no better advertising than an endorsement from a credible third party, particularly from a respected news organization. Your organization and its leaders will be seen as knowledgeable authorities, and people will immediately feel more comfortable with you as a credible source.

Building and boosting website authority

Publishing high-quality content and acquiring backlinks from websites with high authority in your niche improves search engine rankings.

Your website’s credibility will increase with search engines due to being mentioned on a high domain authority site. This is because users and search engines like Bing and Google will place more trust in sites that are linked to from other high authority sites.

How digital PR benefits your business

With a better understanding of how digital PR can help your SEO efforts, let’s look at some benefits your business will achieve when implementing a successful digital PR campaign.

• Leads and sales
• Building trust
• Driving referral traffic

Lead generation and sales growth

One of the most incredible benefits of digital PR is the increased visibility your business will have among target audiences. Generating new leads that convert into sales are often a direct benefit of building brand awareness.

Search engine optimization and other inbound strategies, according to 60% of marketers, produce the most significant leads. Gaining new clients and boosting the lead pool for the business is achievable with a clear strategy in place.

The key is to target the right demographic for your brand, service, or product. Do your research and ensure the sites you are pitching as part of your digital PR strategy appeal to your target audience.

Obtain mentions from reputable publications to build authority

Being linked to from super high-authority websites is one of the primary benefits of digital PR that is difficult to attain with other link-building strategies.

Such backlinks can do wonders for your site’s credibility with search engines and your brand’s visibility in its field. With Google’s new ‘nofollow’ parameter for backlinks, backlinking strategies can become even more effective.

Become a trusted authority in your field

Aside from helping your website crack the top organic positions on Google, digital PR is the best approach to establishing credibility as an expert in your field and attracting new clients.

When you establish yourself as an authority in your field, you instantly gain the trust of those who are immediately interested in what you offer.

Drive referral traffic with links

Traditional link building aims to convince Google that your site is an authority in its field by gaining trust signals from other reputable websites within the same niche.

Remember that these links only sometimes deliver actual value to your audience, but the primary goal is to establish your credibility as an expert, especially in the eyes of search engines.

Digital PR, however, is used to create credibility in the eyes of prospective consumers by promoting your expertise through quoted expert commentary.

This, in combination with a linked mention of your brand, can direct people who are interested in what you have to say back to your site.

Final Thoughts

Your digital PR strategy will determine your public relations goals for your brand. By establishing a specific objective, you will not only be able to develop a digital PR strategy aimed at achieving your goals, but you will also create highly engaging content that will increase brand recognition and resonate with your target audience more effectively.