Why the hell is my SEO agency pitching for our PR??

A frequent answer I hear when I ask a potential client if they've done any Digital PR before...

"We already have a PR agency"

And you can see what's going through their head "why is an SEO agency pitching for our PR??"

Well Mr/Mrs Client it's like this....

Whilst Digital PR not only drives awareness and builds brand credibility like traditional PR, it can also fuel your SEO strategy by helping you appear in more search results, improve the authority of your website and drive more traffic your way.

So how does Digital PR help SEO?

If we break SEO down to its simplest core principles, Google is looking at a handful of things bucketed into thousands of factors in their algorithm.

?? How relevant is the site?

?? How authoritative and trusted is the site?

?? Does the site provide a good experience?

?? Does the site answer the searchers query?

Digital PR falls into the authority and trusted bucket above. A trusted and authoritative website will have other trusted sources referencing and linking to it.

(Quick Disclaimer: You need to address all of the above buckets for SEO to be a success)

Time for a quick SEO history lesson..

Google was built on links, its very first algorithm was called PageRank and this essentially used the number and quality of links pointing to a website to determine how important a website was and it would rank it based largely on this factor.

Of course time has passed, the internet has evolved and so has SEO. In 2024 SEO is all about the user, links still play a valuable part in SEO but how you get them has had to become a lot more sophisticated.

Every day I get the opportunity to buy links - [email protected] is my favourite.. He writes to me every day offering links on hundreds of sites for less than $40 each.

But anyone can buy links and Google knows this.

So those links may help build up the numbers in terms of links pointing to your site, but the reality is most get ignored when it comes to Google ranking it.

What Google is looking for is links and mentions from credible sources.

And credible sources don't sell links. You have to earn them.

So how does Digital PR work?

Digital PR is all about finding angles that journalists want to write about, that are going to be relevant to your target audience.

Every day they have publications, websites and newspapers to fill with content.

What Digital PR's do is create stories using data, engaging assets, or expert commentary that is relevant to your brand and provide journalists with ready made content for their audience.

Campaigns come in a variety of formats, including complex hero campaigns which could use either survey data, or existing data taken from multiple sources to create a very specific and unique story.

Or if could be something more visual and creative, such as illustrations, AI imagery, video assets.

There’s also news jacking, where Digital PR’s find ways to put brands at the heart of existing and relevant news stories via advice or expert commentary.

But all this is just the tip of the iceberg since Digital PR’s today are constantly evolving and finding new and exciting ways to get brand coverage and links.

The process of what's involved is really quite clever..

???? First comes the ideas (creativity)

???? Then comes the content sourcing (data science)

???? Followed by bringing the story to life (design, video, interactive assets etc)

???? Then comes the journalist pitch (outreach)

???? Finally, there’s how you measure success (tangible results)

And the best Digital PR's can create a single campaign that they can churn out multiple times using a range of different angles that will appeal to as much of your target audience as possible.

What kind of impact does Digital PR have?

Generally speaking, The impact is two fold (and totally measurable):

1. Digital PR helps position your brand as trusted and authoritative in your space, driving brand awareness and starting conversations on social media.
2. Digital PR will improve the overall strength and authority of your site, thus driving more traffic to your site (and as a result more sales) and improving your share of search vs your competitors.

And when all other things are equal..

Powerful links can be the difference between a page 1 and a page 2 ranking position for your target keywords.

Looking to learn more about Digital PR ? Get in touch now .