Digital PR for SEO

/ The importance of the "authoritative link" in the past

Link building has been a cornerstone of SEO for a long time. No one can deny that, and those of us who've been doing SEO know that the more links you could acquire, especially from sites with high mathematical authority (DR, DA, TF, etc.), the better your search rankings would be.

Going back even further, when PageRank could be seen numerically through a toolbar you could install in your browser, buying and selling links became part of any SEO's day-to-day work.

Personally, I think Google (with that little bar) publicly displaying any page's PageRank was, unintentionally, one of the reasons this business grew so much. Don't worry, I won't bore you with it. Here are a couple of links in case you want to learn more about PageRank.

That little bar was called the "Google Toolbar" and it showed up right in the browser.

/ Google's algorithms are now far more sophisticated

You've probably heard, in recent times, Google representatives like "Gary Illyes" or "John Mueller" state that links don't carry the same weight they used to. I largely agree with these statements, since Google is now able to pick up on new signals it couldn't process before, when mathematical values were almost its only lifeline. With the rollout of BERT or MUM, Google can, or at least tries to, understand a site's authority through its reputation, much like a human would. That's where the pressing need to approach SEO from a broader, more strategic angle comes from.

In this video, John Mueller is asked about the importance of links, and he basically answers that links will always matter, but the better a search engine gets at understanding a piece of content's context, the less weight they'll carry. Here's the video if you want to hear it straight from him.

Even though plenty of people are pretty sceptical about statements from Google reps on links (myself included), they do at least reveal their intentions. How many years it'll take them to get there, or whether they ever will, is another matter, but knowing their goals makes it a lot easier to work with the future in mind.

To improve your search rankings today, you need a strategy that demonstrates credibility, targets key points in the buyer's journey, tells compelling stories backed by data, and earns influence through reputation and recognition. What's more, with generative AI and AI overviews now in the mix in search engines, brand relevance matters even more. That's exactly where digital PR for SEO comes onto the board.

/ Digital PR for SEO

As Kevin Rowe explains in this Search Engine Land article, PR for SEO is an alternative to traditional link building and isn't limited to just earning links.

PR is going to help us improve the reputation of a brand, product, service, or even the people behind it. To do that, you need to forget about the link itself.

I've even heard, at talks at major online marketing events, people discussing online reputation and digital PR when what they were actually describing was classic, outdated link building based on buying authoritative links. Search Engine Land does a great job explaining what PR for SEO is, and what it isn't.

/ The convergence of digital PR and SEO

Not that long ago, digital PR departments almost completely ignored SEO, and SEOs, in turn, worked with their backs turned to digital PR. What's always struck me is that companies take the utmost care over the message they put out online through their communications and digital PR departments, yet let their SEO teams or marketing agencies publish just about any message on a website with no oversight at all, beyond the DR of the outlet where the link was placed, or its organic traffic. If you think about it, that doesn't really make much sense. Truthfully.

With AI now built into Google's algorithms for assessing a brand's reputation, both disciplines need to understand they can't, or shouldn't, work without each other. An SEO who doesn't care about brand reputation and the credibility of the messages being published won't get very far in the rankings. Remember, getting a link just for the sake of it is NO LONGER what it used to be.

In turn, a digital PR department, with very little extra effort, can get a huge amount of value out of its actions for improving rankings.

"Use the power of stories and case studies, strategically distributed, to capture the attention of both media outlets and search engines" — José B. Moreno Suárez

"Digital PR for SEO takes things a step further — it's not just about earning links" — David Ayala

/ What does digital PR for SEO actually involve?

As I already mentioned at the start of this article, it's not about obsessing over links. Of course, they're still welcome.

Reaching out to journalists, bloggers or any content creator with truthful data that shows demonstrable experience will be key. Remember, these content creators are perfectly capable of writing a great article on any topic using GPT or by hand. What will set you apart from everyone else is exactly the experience they don't have in your field. Your pitches will be welcome because they help these creators stand out.

Keep in mind that E-E-A-T isn't something exclusive to SEO.

Create market studies, look for trends in your industry, and bring that value based on your knowledge and experience. Regardless of your sector, there are always news stories and trends you can build your digital PR campaigns around.

There are tools out there that let you receive collaboration requests from media outlets based on their needs at any given time. You need to be ready to respond to these requests with a differentiating edge. It's the age of AI, and that's exactly why it's the best time to stand out from AI.

Reactive collaborations

Tools like "HARO" — now "HERO" — or Source Bottle can help you receive this type of request. Link Affinity also gives you several features for receiving collaboration proposals. Plus, with our affinity scoring, you make sure the collaborations you receive come from outlets that are semantically relevant to you. On top of that, Link Affinity lets you chat directly with the person making the request, with no middlemen, so you can share your phone number, send documentation, or anything else they might need. You can rate collaborations, and since it's a direct chat-based exchange, you avoid the AI spam that's caused so many problems for systems like "HARO."

Proactive collaborations

Find media outlets that are topically related to reach out to as an expert source. Offer to be interviewed, provide additional data, or even help with the writing. Here are some tips to make your strategy work:

• Don't spam.
• Do your homework on the people you're contacting (it's important to remember they're people, just like you), before reaching out.
• Make a clear, no-nonsense pitch that adds value right from the first contact.
• Make sure you're offering value for their audience.
• Forget about the link.
• Don't choose an outlet based on its DR, DA or similar.
• Don't choose an outlet based on its organic traffic.
• Forget about keywords. With a classic SEO mindset, your strategies won't work.

At the Caffinity session we held with Gisele Navarro, CEO at NeoMam Studios, we talked about how important it is to craft quality content when reaching out to media outlets to land collaborations. Her team spends roughly three months creating content that's compelling enough for outlets to take an interest.

/ Summary

Digital PR for SEO is an evolution of digital PR that leverages its potential to improve visibility in search engines. And in turn, SEO is evolving toward improving brand reputation, because search engines are increasingly oriented toward understanding reputation the way a human would, rather than relying solely on a mathematical value transmitted through links.