What is digital PR for SEO? Everything you need to know

Link building has long been hailed as a pivotal SEO tactic. The prevailing notion was that acquiring numerous links, particularly from reputable sources, would significantly bolster search rankings. However, SEO has undergone transformation over time, with Google's algorithms becoming increasingly refined. To enhance search rankings in the present landscape, a robust digital PR approach is essential. This involves nurturing expertise, strategically engaging with buyers at various stages of their journey, crafting compelling narratives around data, and establishing influence through reputation and acclaim.

Main takeaways:

• Digital PR for SEO serves as a departure from traditional link building, presenting an alternative approach.
• The convergence of SEO and PR is evident, driven by Google's AI, which assesses reputation akin to human judgment.
• Digital PR for SEO encompasses more than just acquiring links and brand mentions; it revolves around cultivating online reputation.
• It involves managing a company's online reputation, optimizing customer journey touchpoints, and ensuring widespread dissemination of company information across platforms.
• Data-driven campaigns that align with media trends are instrumental in securing media coverage and bolstering reputation.

How do generative AI and search engines comprehend topics?

The recent year has revealed remarkable advancements in the capabilities of generative AI and large language models (LLMs). What's particularly fascinating is their ability to grasp the reputation and expertise of websites, content, or individuals in specific domains. This capability is continually improving. To witness this firsthand, you can inquire with ChatGPT Plus about someone's identity and their areas of specialization.

Integrating PR and SEO

PR has long been utilized as a means of managing reputation. According to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), PR entails influencing, engaging, and cultivating relationships with key stakeholders across various platforms to shape the public perception of an organization.

When applied to SEO, PR is concerned with the reputation of individuals, entities, and content among the target audience, rather than solely focusing on search engines. This approach ensures that strategies, tactics, and metrics are centered on the signals that Google considers for improving rankings.

Therefore, establishing a reputation with Google is contingent upon prioritizing reputation with the target audience.

However, it's important to clarify what digital PR for SEO does not entail.

What digital PR for SEO doesn't encompass?

Digital PR for SEO doesn't equate to link building alone. While links are important for ranking, they are just one aspect of the algorithm's evaluation process. Despite being skeptical of Google's advice on link building, John Mueller's statement aligns with the understanding that AI plays a crucial role in assessing various factors for ranking.

"In the future, the importance of links may diminish slightly as we develop better methods for understanding how content relates to the entire web landscape. However, links will always remain relevant since they are crucial for discovering web pages. Nevertheless, I anticipate that their significance may decrease over time, as we've already observed some changes in this regard."

Digital PR for SEO involves more than just links. It's not solely focused on:

• Building link profiles.
• Generating brand mentions.
• Manipulating rankings.
• Conducting link inserts or guest posting.
• Selecting sites based solely on metrics like Domain Rating (DR) or keyword-optimized articles.

Instead, it's about creating a comprehensive program that enhances user experience and reputation, with links being just one aspect of the strategy.

What exactly is digital PR?

Digital PR for SEO involves enhancing both search engine visibility and audience engagement. It aims to bolster the reputation of the product, service, website, content, and the individuals associated with it.

Here are some essential characteristics of digital PR for SEO:

It pertains to a specialized area of knowledge

A topical field of expertise refers to a particular domain where an individual or organization possesses substantial knowledge and skills.

These areas of expertise may encompass:

• Individual expertise: Assessing whether an individual holds expert-level proficiency and experience within a specific field, ideally related to the product or service.
• Organizational expertise: Determining if the organization excels in a particular culture, industry, niche, or product/service, which may be derived from its positioning, cultural values, processes, or unique technological expertise.

When assessing expertise, I consider three key aspects:

• Depth of knowledge: Expertise entails having a profound understanding of a subject matter and a comprehensive grasp of the field.
• Experience and practice: It involves applying knowledge in practical scenarios across different situations over an extended period.
• Demonstrated skills: This refers to showcasing proficiency through real-world examples that illustrate expertise in action.

Messaging is also an integral part of expertise, influencing the behavior of others.

It’s proof of expertise

Demonstrating expertise involves showcasing real-world examples rather than just stating claims. This can include:

• Unique research: Conducting original research in your area of expertise to provide valuable insights to your audience.
• Customer/client stories: Highlighting how your product or research has helped customers address their challenges or achieve their goals in specific scenarios.
• Expert commentary: Leveraging your experience to offer simplified explanations or guidance on taking actionable steps.

The evidence of expertise should inspire others to take action.

Crafting narratives driven by data

Unlike traditional link building, digital PR for SEO involves pitching journalists and publishers with compelling storylines. With journalists often pressed for time, they seek experts and data to craft engaging narratives.

While conducting customer research is crucial for marketing solutions, it may not always align with the data-driven narratives preferred by journalists. To address this, I conduct a thorough media trend analysis to identify relevant research topics and then generate data that either uncovers or substantiates these trends.

Once the data-driven storyline is established, securing media coverage becomes the next step.

• Reactive PR involves staying updated on trends linked to the data and offering insights and expert commentary to journalists reporting on these topics.
• Passive PR entails monitoring journalist requests for information tied to the data.
• Bylines and op-eds serve as avenues to disseminate the data to audiences through thought leadership with guest posts and other contributions.
• Inbound PR focuses on optimizing articles to attract journalists actively seeking research on specific subjects.
• Podcasts provide another platform for sharing research with the audience.

A helpful tip is to anticipate trends rather than simply following them. Identify unaddressed pain points that resonate with people but have not yet been covered by the media. These severe pain points often garner significant interest and engagement.

Establishing influence and recognition

Influence and recognition represent the impact of your expertise on motivating others to take action, which can manifest in various ways:

• Sharing links to your research, content, products/services, brand, or individuals.
• Referencing your brand, research, products, customer stories, etc.
• Purchasing and discussing a product/service.

Usually, these shares stem from seven key sources:

• Journalists
• Podcast hosts
• Bloggers
• Influencers
• Content marketers
• Customers
• Awards

It's essential that influence and recognition resonate within a specific and pertinent audience.

It’s relevancy to an audience

Digital PR must aim at a distinct audience that aligns with your expertise.

• What constitutes the specific audience segment?
• Within that segment, who are the personas?
• What are the typical archetypes associated with these personas?

Journalists, editors, and content creators continually strive to produce valuable content for their audience. These audience members engage with specific touchpoints to identify their challenges and seek solutions, essentially undergoing a buyer's journey.

Navigating the buyer's journey

A buyer’s journey map, also known as a customer journey map, influence map, or experience map, visually outlines an individual’s process or actions when interacting with a company.

Typically consisting of three stages—awareness, consideration, and decision—in digital PR for SEO, I’ve found it beneficial to:

• Awareness: Recognize the problem and the internal trigger prompting a search for a solution, often tied to a unique value proposition.
• Identification: Explore all potential solutions, including indirect competitors or maintaining the status quo.
• Consideration: Assess solutions similar to yours.
• Further considerations: Delve into your solutions and conduct research.
• Decision: Make a purchasing decision regarding your solutions.

As customers progress through these stages, they encounter various touchpoints during their research, either passively acquiring information or actively seeking it out.

I employ six categories to investigate the specific touchpoints of an audience:

• Search engines: What keywords and intentions does a person have when actively searching on platforms like Google or Bing?
• Podcasts: Which podcasts or hosts does the audience listen to regularly?
• Blogs: Which blogs rank highly on search engines or have an engaged readership discussing relevant problems and solutions?
• Press: Which journalists or media outlets does the audience follow for news and information?
• Newsletters: Are there any newsletters that are pertinent to the audience or discuss topics related to your competitors?
• Social media: Is the audience or your competitors focused on specific social media platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit, or others?

By leveraging these touchpoints within the customer journey, it enables the creation of integrated SEO and PR funnels. One can also explore these touchpoints to identify audiences engaging with a competitor's brand name.