The Power of Digital PR for SEO

The 19th-century designer William Morris once said:

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

When it comes to the 21st-century digital world, we’re sure he’d say something like:

“Only ever create content which is informative, interesting or entertaining”

And if William Morris were to say this, we would be wholeheartedly applauding him for having a healthy understanding of SEO and - more importantly - of Digital PR. 

Traditional PR vs Digital PR

Digital PR has many similarities to traditional PR; both are about creating a buzz around your brand and getting it seen and talked about by the people who matter to you and your customers. You want your business, its products or its services to be elevated to the top tier and in digital terms that means the highest level in SEO rankings to reach more customers online.

Whilst the basic concepts may be the same, however, there are many things you have to think about when putting together your Digital PR strategy that never needed consideration when trying to get your content squeezed into the columns of your printed publication of choice.

Online PR is a link building strategy 

More precisely, it’s a backlink building strategy. When looking at how to improve SEO, it’s all about creating linkable assets (high-quality content) which can be leveraged to earn backlinks from online publications. 

And why are backlinks the most coveted of all online currencies? Because they positively impact on your website’s visibility and its all-important SEO. What’s more, unlike some of the methods of cross-linking with other sources which have come before (we’re not going to get into resource link building and guest posting here, don’t worry) they are even given the Google stamp of approval, considered by them to be as critical as Technical SEO.

Let’s not also forget that backlinks can also be a significant driver of traffic to your website; traffic which, when sent your way from a highly respected source, is of the highest possible calibre. If you’ve researched and really pinpointed your perfect backlink ‘matches’, these leads will be amongst the most targeted ever sent hurtling towards your website (and, of course, your clever digital marketing strategy will take them through their sales journey to lucrative conversion).

When it comes to earning valuable backlinks, it’s worth investing some time to plan and utilise the best online tools available. Finding the most respected and most often referred to publications of your target market will give you a great shortlist to start with. Finding out as much as you can about their journalists, regular contributors, topics of discussion and style of presentation will guide you as to the type of content they like to serve, and how you can therefore maximise your chances of being useful to them and being recognised by them. 

What’s content got to do with it?

High-quality links are earned with high-quality content. If you want to attract the attention of the best publications or individuals in your marketplace, your bait better be good. There’s no hard and fast rule of what type of content works best (it is, after all, dependent on what a particular person is looking for at the time) but examples which tend to be successful are: -

• Interesting brand stories 
• Discussions with depth or a new perspective
• Data-driven studies
• Research pieces
• Infographics & visualisations
• Tools & calculators
• Subject expert opinions

Whilst not an exhaustive list, the above shows that Digital PR involves content that is original, within the realms of thought leadership. ‘Newsjacking’ is fine – current stories are of course what everyone is talking about – but rise above the standard communications agency roll-out and find a new take that hasn’t yet been discussed or make a connection that has hitherto gone unnoticed. If you wish to offer your expert insight, advice or guidance, just be sure that it goes ‘above and beyond'.

Putting in the groundwork in your online PR will pay dividends and, unlike other links by association, won’t simply be copied by your competitors. The backlinks you win are yours and yours alone – as are the high value, highly relevant sources of website traffic which come with them. 

Be results-driven

Identifying and quantifying the results of your campaign is as important as it is when measuring your Technical SEO. Reviewing links earned and their Authority Score, coverage gained, and referrals/ sales achieved is a given but, as is often the case with any type of PR campaign, digging deep into the data pays dividends.

Here at Greyhive we know what good content looks like and we’re not afraid to use it. That’s what makes us such an effective SEO agency. Taking care of Digital PR campaigns on behalf of our clients is just one of the ways we can put our talents to good, lead-generating use as a digital marketing agency.