SEO and Digital PR: Combining Forces for Brand Visibility

Want to boost your brand’s online visibility? Combine SEO and digital PR.

Here’s why: SEO improves search rankings and drives organic traffic, while digital PR builds authority through media coverage and quality backlinks. Together, they amplify your reach and credibility.

Key Takeaways:

• SEO: Focuses on site optimization, keyword targeting, and organic traffic growth.
• Digital PR: Builds brand authority via media outreach, influencer partnerships, and engaging content.
• Combined Benefits: Secure high-quality backlinks, improve search rankings, and enhance brand trust.

For example, one company gained 5,000+ backlinks, ranked for 182 top keywords, and saw a surge in organic traffic by merging these strategies.

How to Start:

1. Optimize PR content for search engines with targeted keywords.
2. Use digital PR for quality backlinks and media coverage.
3. Track results with metrics like organic traffic, backlinks, and brand mentions.

This approach ensures your brand stands out in search results and earns trust across digital platforms.

PR x SEO: Boosting Your Brand’s Visibility with Smart Strategy

How SEO and Digital PR Work Together

SEO and digital PR are a powerful duo for boosting online visibility and authority. By combining their strengths, brands can enhance their presence across multiple channels. Let’s break down how each works and how they complement one another.

SEO Basics: Getting Found Online

SEO focuses on improving a website’s visibility in search engine results. This involves:

• Optimizing site structure for better performance and user experience.
• Crafting content that aligns with search engine guidelines.
• Using targeted keywords to attract the right audience.

Digital PR Basics: Building Credibility and Exposure

Digital PR merges traditional PR practices with online marketing techniques. Here’s a quick overview:

By leveraging these elements, digital PR enhances a brand’s visibility and reputation.

"Digital PR doesn’t just straddle traditional PR and digital marketing strategies – it serves as a bridge to enhance overall effectiveness and significantly increase a brand’s footprint, leveraging both thought leadership and search engine visibility."
– Andrea Aker, Forbes Councils Member

Combining SEO and PR Methods

"I love some of the things I see from digital pr, it’s a shame it often gets bucketed with the spammy kind of link building. It’s just as critical as tech SEO, probably more so in many cases."

Here are three key ways SEO and digital PR work together to deliver results:

1. Link Building Through Authority
   Digital PR helps secure quality backlinks from respected outlets. As Ron Evan Del Rosario explains:

   "Getting a good amount of organic traffic is possible only with a solid link building strategy."

2. Stability During Algorithm Updates
   Strong PR relationships can safeguard rankings during algorithm changes. Del Rosario highlights:

   "Google is now able to identify websites that manipulate keyword rankings more easily. External relationships and links from major publications shield your websites from getting penalized, especially when Google updates its algorithm."

3. Content Amplification
   SEO-optimized content shared via PR channels reaches broader audiences. For example, one campaign drove 21.7 million readerships and over 700,000 views through integrated efforts.

The key to success lies in creating high-quality content that serves both SEO and PR goals. Focusing on quality over quantity ensures lasting impact.

Steps to Mix SEO with Digital PR

Combining SEO with digital PR can amplify your reach and deliver better results. Here’s how you can bring these two strategies together effectively.

Keyword Planning for PR Content

Keyword planning helps your PR content connect with both journalists and search engines. By focusing on relevant topics and using keyword research tools, you can uncover what your audience is searching for. For example, Lectric eBikes aligned their PR efforts with search intent, leading to over 40,000 monthly searches for their brand and related terms.

Here’s how to approach keyword planning for PR:

• Research and Group Keywords: Identify main and supporting keywords that match your PR goals. Group related terms to create content clusters.
• Analyze Search Intent: Understand what your audience is looking for and tailor your content to meet those needs while following SEO principles.
• Study Competitor Keywords: Look into the keywords your competitors rank for to uncover opportunities and gaps in your strategy.

Getting Quality Backlinks Through PR

Digital PR is one of the most effective ways to build backlinks, with 67.3% of SEO professionals preferring it over other tactics.

For example, Visit Iceland’s "/OutHorse_" campaign earned over 900 backlinks from nearly 500 domains. The campaign succeeded by blending humor with local authenticity to grab attention.

"Journalists are always on the lookout for unique data points that can either inspire or support a new story. If you can get them to link to your data, you instantly build credibility and authority on the topic. Then organic links will follow."
– Laura Kutch, Digital PR Specialist, Siege Media

While acquiring backlinks is essential, don’t overlook the importance of optimizing your content for search engines.

Making PR Content Search-Friendly

You can make your PR content search-friendly without losing its journalistic appeal by following these tips:

• Craft Strategic Headlines: Combine newsworthy angles with relevant keywords to improve visibility.
• Organize Your Content: Use a clear structure with an H1 for the main topic, H2 subheadings for sections, concise paragraphs, and keyword-optimized image alt text.
• Build a Link Strategy: Host exclusive, newsworthy content on your website to encourage journalists to link back. For example, Hippo’s Preparedness Pulse Report secured six major media placements in just two months by blending evergreen themes with timely topics.

These steps can help you balance SEO and digital PR, ensuring your efforts resonate with both audiences and search engines.

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Tracking Results and Performance

Evaluate the impact of SEO and digital PR by focusing on both short-term and long-term metrics.

SEO Performance Metrics

Keep an eye on these key metrics to understand how digital PR boosts your search visibility:

For example, Signs.com ran a campaign that earned over 200 quality backlinks, leading to a noticeable increase in organic traffic.

In addition to these quantitative metrics, qualitative measures are equally important for understanding PR’s impact.

PR Success Indicators

To evaluate PR’s effectiveness, consider tracking:

• Brand Mentions: Monitor mentions across media, whether linked or unlinked.
• Social Engagement: Measure shares, comments, and overall social reach.
• Media Coverage: Look at the quality of placements and the size of the audience reached.
• Sentiment Analysis: Gauge public perception to understand how your brand is viewed.

For instance, Samsung’s monitoring efforts recorded 708,000 mentions in just 30 days, reaching approximately 3 million people. Impressively, 96% of these mentions had a positive sentiment.

These insights, combined with SEO metrics, provide a full picture of how integrated campaigns perform.

Combined Impact Measurements

Bringing both SEO and PR metrics together allows you to measure the total success of your strategies. Here’s how:

1. Share of Search Analysis

Use tools like Google Trends to see how your PR activities influence search interest. Look for "Rising" topics that show growing interest and "Breakout" searches with explosive growth (over 5,000%).

2. Engagement Tracking

For example, a 90-day study by PainePublishing.com revealed that 835 users scrolled through pages 1,450 times and interacted with 2,153 blog posts.

3. Revenue Impact

Leverage Google Analytics 4 to connect your efforts to lead generation, online sales, and brand awareness. With over 50% of searches ending without clicks, it’s crucial to track both traditional metrics and zero-click search visibility.

Common Problems and Solutions

Combining SEO and digital PR efforts comes with its share of challenges. Here’s how to address them:

Enhancing Team Collaboration

Silos within organizations often block effective collaboration between SEO and PR teams. Dana Tan, Director of SEO at Under Armour, points out, "A large obstacle in siloed corporations is educating the PR team about SEO capabilities".

Here’s how to break down those barriers:

"To get SEO and PR to collaborate, they have to align around the common business goal, or a significant collaboration will not be possible".

The next hurdle is balancing short-term demands with long-term planning.

Managing Short vs Long-term Goals

The tension between delivering quick results and building long-term SEO success is a common pain point. According to research, 61% of B2B marketers feel pressured to show short-term ROI to justify their strategies.

What successful companies do:

• Allocate resources to balance immediate needs with future opportunities, which can lead to 30% higher revenue growth.
• Use measurement frameworks to increase the likelihood of achieving marketing goals by 1.6 times.
• Apply agile methodologies to better align marketing activities with strategic objectives.

"Balancing short-term wins with long-term success in Organic Search strategy is an art! As a seasoned SEO strategist, I’ve found that integrating both perspectives is key."
– Being Rajbir, Full-time International Local SEO Expert

Another major challenge comes from unpredictable search engine updates, which we’ll tackle next.

Handling Search Engine Updates

Search engine algorithm changes can disrupt even the most carefully planned SEO and PR strategies. For example, Overstock.com had to overhaul its backlink strategy after the Penguin update penalized them for manipulative link-building practices.

Here’s how to stay ahead:

1. Monitoring and Response
   Use tools like the Google Search Status Dashboard and analytics platforms to track performance and spot issues early.
2. Focus on Quality

   "We need to go beyond traditional tactics and focus on high-quality content, brand-building, and earning trust. SEO should support this wider mission, not be the sole focus".

3. Regular Audits
   Conduct periodic content and technical audits to catch problems such as slow loading speeds, poor-quality backlinks, or duplicate content. This ensures your site stays aligned with the latest search engine guidelines.

What’s Next for SEO and PR

As SEO and digital PR strategies continue to grow together, new technologies and changes in how people search are opening up fresh ways for brands to stand out. Here are some key areas driving this shift:

AI Tools and Automation

Artificial Intelligence is shaking up SEO and PR, making tasks like content creation, data analysis, and trend forecasting faster and more efficient. In 2023, 84% of bloggers and SEO professionals said AI played a role in shaping their SEO strategies. On average, marketers are saving 12.5 hours per week – that’s like gaining an extra 25–26 workdays every year.

"AI is transforming SEO, making it more efficient and user-centric by improving search accuracy, optimizing content creation and helping you focus on user intent. Embracing AI tools while balancing human expertise is key in this era."

Voice search trends are another game-changer in the way content strategies are developed.

Voice Search and PR

Voice search is changing the way brands create and share content. With 57% of voice command users using it daily and its market expected to grow by 23.8% annually from 2024 to 2030, PR strategies need to adapt to this shift.

Some key trends include:

• Local Focus: Mobile voice searches are three times more likely to be location-based compared to text searches.
• User Habits: Around 65.4% of people frequently use voice search, and the U.S. voice assistant user base is expected to hit 157 million by 2026.
• Content Adjustments: Strategies are shifting to focus on answering questions in a conversational, natural tone.

"To keep up with these advancements, SEO and content strategy has become less about matching specific keywords and more about providing relevant, conversational answers that fulfill the searcher’s need."

As technology reshapes user behavior, maintaining credibility becomes even more critical.

Google E-A-T Requirements

Google’s E-A-T principles – Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness – are crucial for SEO and PR success. For example, when NP Digital applied E-A-T strategies, their client achieved:

• 1.6 million monthly organic impressions (a 32% increase)
• 28% more organic clicks
• Nearly 7,000 new backlinks
• A 20% boost in top-three Google rankings.

"E-A-T is a template for how we rate an individual site. We do it to every single query and every single result. It’s pervasive throughout every single thing we do."

Agencies like Energy PR emphasize that content created by real people – not just brands – builds trust and authority, which are essential for ranking well.

Forward-thinking companies like SearchX (https://searchxpro.com) are already combining these advancements with proven strategies to deliver measurable results. As the industry evolves, blending new technologies with strong SEO and PR practices will be key to increasing visibility and achieving online success.

Conclusion

Combining SEO with digital PR is shaping the future of brand visibility. When done right, this approach boosts backlinks, improves keyword rankings, and strengthens your online presence.

Here’s how to make it work:

• Content Strategy Alignment: Turn PR materials into search-friendly assets by weaving in keyword research without losing the storytelling edge. This way, your content meets short-term PR goals while supporting long-term SEO efforts.
• Team Integration: Break down silos by organizing joint meetings, aligning KPIs, and planning together. This ensures your messaging stays consistent and impactful across all platforms. As Dale Hanstad puts it:

  "When these stories are optimized for search, they become engaging and easily discoverable".

• Measurement and Optimization: Keep an eye on both immediate PR wins and the broader SEO results. Denis Sinelnikov highlights this perfectly:

  "Digital PR is all about getting your links into the hands of high-trust websites such as newspapers, industry resources and other authoritative resources… it’s featuring your expertise in someone else’s blog or article".

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