In recent years, the relationship between PR and SEO has blossomed. This article covers how these two marketing channels became good bedfellows and what you can expect when they work harmoniously.
Despite comments that backlinks are losing relevance in today’s SEO landscape, there are plenty of signals that they’re more important than ever. SearchEngineLand makes the very valid point that in the AI content era, backlinks and mentions from reputable sources make for an important way to distinguish genuine, well-researched content. However, this is only true for websites following SEO best practices.
In fact, trying to attract backlinks is a pretty wasteful strategy (time, energy, budget and opportunity) if your website’s foundations aren’t strong enough.
What is a backlink?
A backlink, also known as an inbound or incoming link, is a hyperlink on one website that points to another. In simpler terms, when one website links to another, it creates a backlink for the linked-to site.
We’ve written a whole blog on them and why they’re important.
So, before we move into the who, why and how, here’s a quick glossary of terms that will be used in this article:
- Link juice: The name given to the value passed onto a page/domain by backlinks. Search engines see link juice acquired by a webpage as votes toward your site. Note that this is not an official term but one coined by the SEO community.
- Proactive PR: A traditional PR technique that involves a company's PR arm actively nurturing relationships with publications to find out what features are coming up and writing an article or press release about them. The PR team can also send press releases to targeted publications that are either announcement-related or campaign-driven.
- Reactive PR: Responding to requests from news outlets and journalists. This is also a traditional PR technique.
- SEO PR: PR driven by strategy, keywords and competitor backlink analysis with the aim of improving visibility and trust online.
- E-E-A-T: A principle coined by Google but used by most search engines where websites demonstrate high-quality content in the following areas: Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust
- Domain Authority: The authority score developed by Moz that is given to a website has as a whole.
- Page Authority: Like Domain Authority but in relation to the authority of a page on a website.
- No-index No-follow: A “treatment” given to links to hide them from search engines so as not to associate the website that is linking out externally to the website it is linking to. This means no link juice is also attributed to the linked site.
- SERP: Stands for Search Engine Results Page and there are three types. Organic, paid and features.
WHY
Trust Built to Last
PR and SEO supercharges the search engine EEAT machine, particularly Trust, and supports the Helpful Content Update(s) by adding expert knowledge and opinion to the mix.
While PR builds a brand’s credibility and trust with an audience, SEO carries that trust through to the website with security, proof, UX and more.
A survey by Edelman in 2023 found 79% of Gen Z say it’s more important than ever to trust the brands they buy, more than any other generation surveyed.
Can't I just do PR?
The impact of doing PR without SEO could be one or a mix of the following:
- You won’t get as much coverage and/or linkbacks as you hope because your domain/page authority is poor. It is common practice for online publications to do their due diligence, as linking to a website in poor health can negatively impact their rankings. So, even if the content is good, they may publish it without a link. Or, if you are lucky, a no-follow, no-index one which means search engines won’t see that they are linking to you. The result is zero link juice.
- If your business manages to bag a backlink, but the website is in poor health, it will not get the link juice boost it had hoped for. Sure, it might get some, but investing in your SEO and website experience will make a significant difference and encourage more links. Without SEO, you would have to work hard to get enough links to that killer piece of coverage, which takes time, money, and resources. With a well-optimised site, you would get these links easily and wouldn’t need as many to have a positive impact.
Nothing goes to waste
Positive outcomes of PR and SEO working as a team
Maximum Value
The data and insights you can get from SEO data can help ensure that your campaign content gives your audience what they want. By this, we mean that the keyword and trends data that SEO experts see and can translate can be incorporated into the releases and articles your PR team is working on.
The combination of creative PR copy and SEO data means not only will your business expertise shine through, but you will also get the SEO boost of being discovered, link juice, and possibly coveted SERP features.
"When a new site and brand launches, you’re working with a clean slate. Especially when it’s an innovative product that might not have loads of people searching for it yet, as was the case with our client Bisviridi. We used this very dream team combination of PR and SEO to ensure they had a stand-out launch."
How we did it
- When the site went live it had been optimised correctly from both a technical point of view and from a content and helpfulness perspective
- Our PR team got the word out about the brand and what they were offering
- This meant that the site went from not even ranking for its own brand name, to grabbing featured snippets for key phrases in their industry because the PR features and backlinks meant Google understood who they were and what they offered, giving the site the key trust metrics to start ranking for the right terms.
- Keep to your content strategy to produce authoritative, shareable content that will hopefully bring you some good quality backlinks
- Regularly review your website to make sure it’s representative of who you are and what you’re doing
The result? They went from 0 clicks from search to nearly 300 in the first 3 months post-launch.
Higher Chances of Results:
- Look at where your competitors are ranking above you
- Do a backlink analysis for this keyword and competitor
- Make a list of the publications, focusing on those with a high domain authority, that support that ranking
- Look at what articles that you can create that are better or give a different viewpoint
- Contact the publication
- Hope they add you in to the article or publish your article with a backlink
“It helps that BioteCH4 has a topical and relatable message which, from a media perspective, is imperative. There needs to be a story, which has substance, to ensure it will grab a journalist’s attention. Without this, the PR activity is meaningless and will not support the other communications activities.”
How we did it
Becky shares:
Over the past 18 months our PR activity with BioteCH4 has grown and grown. We identified key messages, opinions and news from the organisation and built up strong relationships with trade and regional media which has resulted in successfully pitching proactive news stories and thought-leadership pieces, as well as providing reactive comment to breaking news stories.
This has all gone hand in hand with the company’s content and SEO strategy, ensuring no activity is wasted but instead, complements and enhances each other. The highlight of this work was securing BBC Look North broadcast and online coverage, which included a backlink!
More qualified traffic:
While we try to avoid pushing a vanity metric, it is true that you will see a growth in organic traffic as PR-driven backlinks boost your search engine rankings. The hope is that the strategic SEO + PR activity has helped search engines rank you for specific key terms, services, or products you provide, so this traffic is super rich with potential leads and sales.
The mission is simple: Don’t let your brand fall behind the curve. Embody the power of SEO and PR to propel your digital presence to new heights.
PR AND SEO TIPS
How do I smash my PR-driven SEO activities?
Check out our top tips to ensure that you get the most out of your SEO and PR partnership.
But remember, the main aim should be to grow your trust and credibility in the eyes of your audience, not just about beating your competitors.
Customers are king after all.
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Ensure your PR activity has substance and meaning. Don’t just issue a news release which isn’t going to be picked up.
