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What is the most important aspect of marketing for a brand that wants to increase its visibility online? Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? Search Engine Marketing (SEM)? Or is it public relations (PR)? As is often the case when discussing marketing and PR strategies and tactics, there is hardly any single answer.
Establishing or expanding domain authority and online visibility requires thoughtful work with search engines. But these goals also depend on the reputation of a brand and the trust that consumers place in the products and services offered by the company. Public relations are among the most vital tools for building that trust and reputation. Therefore, to stand out in today’s digital landscape, brands must integrate PR into their SEO strategy.
At the same time, tactics that were once the gold standard, like backlink building, are becoming less important. In this article, we’re taking a look at the new relationship between PR and SEO.
Related: What are backlinks and why do you need them for your SEO?
Why it is important to combine SEO and PR
Less than ten years ago, building high-quality backlinks from external websites to a brand’s own was vital to achieving high rankings on the results pages of search engines like Google. Backlinks told Google’s crawlers that a website was trusted by other people and was likely to be useful to search engine users with relevant queries.
Today, search engines use much more sophisticated algorithms to determine the value of a website and its ranking. While backlinks are still part of the equation, they are no longer the deciding factor. Part of the reason for this change is that backlinks were too easily manipulated. Some could be bought or traded, so search engine owners began looking for alternatives.
Organic media coverage has become one such alternative measure to help determine a website’s ranking. That’s why the integration of PR and SEO is critical when it comes to increasing your brand’s online visibility.
Benefits of PR for SEO
Public relations or Editorial coverage builds trust in a brand Journalists and the media for which they write or produce content are generally perceived as third parties who do not automatically take content supplied by a company at face value. Instead, they scrutinize and question what has been supplied and seek verification from other sources before considering publication.
To put it more simply, while brands can easily fill their own media channels with company messages, those messages must stand up to scrutiny if published in a magazine or on an online platform of great prestige
As part of an optimized marketing strategy, PR supports a brand’s search engine optimization strategy in a number of ways, including:
Improve ranking in search engines. Increase website traffic. Develop a more diverse backlink profile
Furniture retailer IKEA’s award-winning “Cook This Page” campaign is an example of how PR can benefit SEO. The campaign featured recipes printed on parchment that made it easy to measure ingredients and leave users with an easy-to-clean kitchen.
Media com Adweek, fast company i HuffPost collected in the campaign and linked to the retailer’s website. These stories not only drove direct website traffic to the campaign, but also generated high-quality, third-party endorsed backlinks.
How SEO and PR work
Using the power of PR to improve search engine rankings works best when both aspects of marketing are integrated from the beginning of a campaign or project.
Consider optimizing the content of your brand’s PR campaign for the keywords your business wants to rank for. Remember that search engine algorithms have become very adept at identifying keyword stuffing and unnatural sounding content. However, well-crafted press releases and other materials can easily contain important keywords without appearing artificial.
Remember that the strength of the story, its relevance and newsworthiness are still the most important criteria for a media outlet. But none of these requirements prevent PR professionals from writing with SEO in mind. As posts capture a brand’s story, PR can increase the number, quality, and variety of backlinks generated for the brand.
In particular, web-based publications often include links to a relevant product website in their content. The brand benefits from the link and the growing credibility, thanks to the endorsement of a third party.
Related: 5 Ways Solid SEO and Web Design Work Together to Build a Google Rapport
Best practices for combining SEO and PR
To make the most of the combination of SEO and PR, digital marketers need to approach their campaigns with both aspects in mind from the start. Integration is the key to successful execution.
Here are some of the most promising best practices:
Conduct keyword research and optimize PR pitches for SEO before contacting reporters. Use the brand’s own social media channels to amplify pitching efforts and emerging media coverage. Create highly engaging social media content that’s too good not to share. This type of content will naturally increase exposure and generate backlinks.
Both PR and SEO are essential to improving a brand’s online visibility. Treating them as equals during message development, pitching and campaigning sets the stage for exceptional coverage and strong backlinks.
conclusion
Backlinks alone no longer determine a website’s ranking on search engines like Google. Search engine algorithms look for current, consistent, and relevant content that aligns with a user’s search query. Integrating keyword research results with PR pitches to journalists, social media posts, and other content supports SEO rankings.
Each of these tools and tactics plays an important role in determining search engine rankings and increasing brand visibility and credibility. To maximize a brand’s media and commercial opportunities, marketers must combine as many tools as possible into compelling stories that resonate with both journalists and consumers. As the conversation around these stories builds, your online visibility will naturally improve.
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