Search Engine Optimization is an important aspect of a brand’s content marketing. For a brand’s SEO to be effective, comms pros need to have a keen understanding of their target audience and design a relevant content strategy. This is where SEO and content marketing overlaps with PR—they both require a thorough comprehension of who their target audience is, and how to effectively reach them.
When a PR professional puts a PR strategy together, they focus on content and methods that will help the brand speak to its target audience. Currently, the work of SEOs and digital PR professionals overlaps considerably. A PR professional who understands SEO can incorporate the relevant data into their PR strategy, and achieve great results when it comes to organic searches.
Another spot where SEO and PR intersect is the building of authority. Both traditional PR and digital PR focus on creating brand awareness and reaching out to potential target audiences. While traditional PR focuses on avenues such as television, newspapers, magazines, and radio—digital PR focuses more on social media and influencer outreach. But both forms of PR strive to build the reputation of the brand. SEO also helps build the authority of the brand’s website in search engine results. The use of backlinks, mentions, and widespread awareness helps with the brand’s authority and reputation.
SEO and Digital PR can often have a symbiotic relationship. Digital PR can measure their success with online coverage using SEO metrics, while SEO can build off the positive impact of PR. When it comes to SEO and PR, there are three types of links that should remain in focus:
Links from digital PR campaigns
PR and SEO can work together to create an effective PR strategy. The key here is being able to identify content that can create a buzz, or is newsworthy. The PR strategy can benefit from SEO data in this case. Since SEO data focuses on keywords and audience research, brands can gain authority when their content ranks for relevant keywords. This in turn helps them reach out to their target audience. It also helps when news websites link back to the brand’s landing page. A link from a trustworthy website will help build the brand’s authority, and make it rank higher.
Paid links
While paid links are not a recommended route for brands that want to build authority, the fact remains that there are sites that sell links. Paid links may help a brand with their content in the short term—but that rarely lasts. Paying for links is a well-known strategy that is used by many, but it is highly risky and unethical. It can also cause the brand harm when search engines, especially Google, penalizes the brand for this unethical maneuver.
Reclaiming links
To gain link equity, PR professionals can incorporate reclaiming links as an effective strategy. When a blog or news site mentions the brand without a link, the PR professional can reach out to them and ask them to link back to the brand’s landing page. Usually, this is accomplished by dedicated tools that keep track of any brand mentions.
