If you’re spent any amount of time doing or managing SEO for your site, then you know that link building is a critical part of any successful SEO strategy. But why do high-quality links remain so important more than two decades after Google was born and even after its PageRank patent itself has expired?
The simple reality is that the more links you have pointing to your site, the higher your ranking will be in SERPs.
In this post, we’ll discuss one of the most effective link building strategies – one of the few that Google doesn’t consider to be spammy: and that is digital PR.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR – or public relations – is the process of promoting your brand or product online through digital channels such as social media, blogs, video clips and industry news outlets. It’s about generating positive buzz and exposure for your company – with the goal of building relationships with customers and prospects, and ultimately boost sales. If you’re able to keep up engage your community and demonstrate brand leadership, digital PR will help your business scale exponentially.
Digital PR is a digital marketing method designed to enhance a brand’s online presence, particularly in the world of link building. In the digital era, traditional PR has evolved past what we may already know, focusing not just on continuing a positive public image, but also on utilizing online strategies to secure high-quality, high DA backlinks. These backlinks are essential as they serve as key endorsements from other high-ranking websites, signaling to search engines that your site is trustworthy and authoritative.
Digital PR requires creating engaging content and stories that attract attention and encourage other websites to link back to your site. This can include press releases, articles, infographics, and interactive content designed to capture the interest of both journalists and bloggers. By securing these backlinks, your website’s visibility in search engine results improves, driving more organic traffic and enhancing your site’s domain authority.
In the context of link building, Digital PR is an ideal tool. It goes beyond traditional SEO techniques by fostering genuine connections with industry influencers and media outlets. This not only helps in acquiring quality backlinks but also boosts the overall reputation and credibility of your brand. As a result, your site not only ranks higher in search results but also gains the trust of your target audience, establishing a robust online brand.
Why is Digital PR Link Building Crucial for SEO?
Increasing the Authority of the Site
Digital PR link building is pivotal in boosting a website’s authority. When high DA websites link to your content, search engines see these backlinks as endorsements. This signals to search engines like Google that your site is a trustworthy source of info, thereby improving your domain authority. Higher DA not only enhances your Google ranking on search engine results pages, but also builds a reputation with your audience.
Increased Visibility and Traffic
One of the key benefits of Digital PR is the significant increase in visibility and organic traffic. By getting featured on high-traffic websites and influential blogs, your brand reaches a broader audience. These mentions and backlinks lead to higher search engine rankings, which in turn drive more visitors to your site. This increased exposure is crucial for attracting new customers and expanding your reach within your industry.
Creating a Diverse Link Profile
A diverse link profile is a key component of a strong SEO strategy, and Digital PR excels in this area. It involves earning backlinks from a variety of sources, such as news outlets, industry blogs, and authoritative sites. This diversity signals to search engines that your backlink profile is natural and not manipulated, which is critical for maintaining a healthy SEO status. A well-rounded link profile also protects your site from algorithm updates that target unnatural linking patterns.
Brand Reinforcement
Digital PR is not just about link building; it’s also a powerful tool for brand reinforcement. By consistently appearing in well-known publications and earning high-quality backlinks, your brand’s reputation is bolstered. This consistent visibility helps establish your brand as an industry leader, making your content and offerings more recognizable and trusted by both consumers and search engines.
Long-term Benefits
The benefits of Digital PR are not just immediate but long-lasting. Unlike some short-term SEO tactics that may offer quick wins, Digital PR builds a foundation for sustained growth. Quality backlinks continue to provide SEO value over time, ensuring that your site maintains high rankings and visibility in the long run. This long-term approach ensures that your investment in Digital PR continues to yield returns well into the future, solidifying your brand’s online presence and authority.
How Link Building Has Evolved Over Time
In the early days of link building, a lot of techniques such as web 2.0, blog commenting, article syndication, private and public blog networks, backlink exchanges, widget/theme backlinks, etc. flourished. These were labeled as “black hat” and progressively devalued and penalized by Google, first with manual and then with algorithmic penalties. Over time, these unnatural links lost their intrinsic value – the squeeze is no longer worth the juice. There are many ways to recover from Google penalties and identify unnatural links that look spammy and suspicious.
Source: https://victoriousseo.com/blog/bad-links/
These days, some of the effective link building tactics are:
- Guest posting, which involves writing articles for other blogs or websites in your industry, so that you can get a proper citation or mention along with a link to your profile or site.
- Digital PR, which involves publishing thought-leadership content on high-authority publications that then links back to the page on your site that is relevant to the article or post.
By using such safe and above-the-board linking strategies, you can create a strong link profile that will help improve your SERP visibility.
Digital PR vs Traditional PR
Traditional PR relies on media outlets to get the word out. This means that there always needs to be a third party vouching for your message. However, traditional PR can be comparatively expensive, and it can be difficult to track the results – you only know the reach of the media; you never know how many people actually saw or engaged with your content.
Digital PR, on the other hand, is more affordable and easier to measure. There are simple metrics that track how many views or clicks your content actually got you.
Source: https://socialanimal.com/digital-pr/digital-pr-vs-traditional-pr/
Digital PR allows you to directly engage with your target audience – in real time, when they are online – making your message more relatable. In the end, the best approach is to use a combination of both traditional (for trust) and digital (for engagement) PR.
How Digital PR Benefits Your SEO Strategy?
Digital PR tactics have become an increasingly important part of any SEO strategy. By building relationships with online publications, bloggers and influencers, you can earn high-quality links as well as drive traffic to your product or service pages.
Here are some benefits that directly or indirectly boost your SEO efforts and search visibility:
- Increase Brand Awareness
It’s a no-brainer that a business should have a strong social media presence. Some social channels are being touted as strong competitors, if not alternatives, to Google. Digital PR is an effective way to create and maintain a positive image for your brand. It can help you reach a wider audience through social and other online channels. By creating compelling content and engaging with customer segments and influencers online, you can build trust and credibility for your business.
- Improve Organic Traffic
By getting coverage on high-quality websites and blogs, you can generate valuable interest in your product – supplemented by a direct link to your website – that brings in more referral as well as organic traffic (by way of ranking higher in the SERPs). Digital PR can also help build brand and site authority, both of which are important (even if indirect) ranking signals. Investing in digital PR is a great way to boost your organic traffic and improve overall visibility online.
- Generate Natural Links
Digital PR can help you build relationships with key influencers and thought leaders in your industry. By creating compelling content targeted at specific audience segments, you demonstrate subject matter expertise, which in turn gives you the “credibility” to earn natural links from high-quality websites.
These links don’t appear “forced” or plugged into the text just for the sake of mentioning your brand. On the contrary, the whole article – or at least major parts of it – are speaking about how awesome you are.
- Increase Sales and Revenue
While digital PR is generally considered top-of-the-funnel content, it generates direct interest in your brand. A simple link from an article to a landing page can turn that into middle- or bottom-of-the funnel content in a single step.
Data from Google says that 9 out of 10 consumers conduct online research before making a purchase decision. Consequently, any brand that has a credible online presence and reputation is far likely to see a positive impact on sales and revenue.
Social media or industry publications give you immediate access to their large reach – compounded by the inherent trust in the mention. This means that a reader who clicks through to your site is already half-convinced of your credibility. You could call them true marketing-qualified leads (MQLs).
- Build Relationships
Content marketing, influencer campaigns, media placements – all of these are not just means of doing high-quality link building. They help your brand to build relationships with your target audience as well as industry thought leaders, and establish your company as a trusted source of information along the way. The more relationships you have, the more your brand authority, and the easier you’ll find it to get editorial links from other publications. It’s a virtuous cycle.
With so many benefits, no wonder that John Mueller of Google has equated digital PR with high quality SEO, clearly differentiated from run-of-the mill link spam.
Effective Digital PR Tactics for 2025
By creating engaging and interactive content, you can connect with your audiences on a deeper level. Digital PR can help you reach new audiences, try out new platforms, and understand how consumers respond to your content. So what are some tactics that help you ace your digital PR efforts?
- Reactive PR
Reactive PR involves searching for and responding to media requests to earn media coverage. One popular reactive PR platform is HARO, or Help a Reporter Out. This involves subscribing to a daily email list of media requests, and then responding to any requests that are relevant to your brand or expertise. By doing this, you can earn valuable media coverage and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. In addition, you can build relationships with key influencers who may be interested in promoting your products or services in the future.
HARO became so successful in its first few years that it was eventually acquired by PR giant Cision, who currently owns it.
Another alternative is to conduct and publish your own research and then approach journalists for to promote it or write about it. While we’ve all seen umpteen “State of the Industry” reports – which are very useful and informative, mind you – that is not the only way to put out your data.
Just spend a minute to listen to Fery Kaszoni who landed 20 links with a single campaign, including one from the BBC. His team analyzed the success rate of driving tests in cities across the UK and proactively sent out the stats and results to over 1,800 journalists across the country. Here’s how he did it:
- Data-Driven Research
Using data to drive digital PR efforts is the most efficient way of using your resources and connecting with your target audience, not just reaching them. There’s a plethora of ways, (including surveys and user tracking) to gather and analyze consumer insights relevant to your industry. These are the “State of ____” reports that everyone in your niche wants to lay their hands on.
For example, Dialpad, a business communication platform for global teams, came out with a data-driven report titled the State of Videoconferencing, which enabled them to generate a staggering 185,000 links from a mind-boggling 11,000 domains.
Most of these links are natural and high-quality. The report continues to receive links from high authority websites such as Owl Labs and HubSpot.
- Newsjacking
Newsjacking is the art of “hijacking” a current event or news story and creating clickbait content that is relevant to your brand. This can be done via blog posts, social media posts, infographics, or even press releases. Done correctly, newsjacking can generate a great deal of media exposure as well as search visibility for your business. It can also help you gain a large amount of links in a short amount of time.
Plus, your site starts ranking for a whole new set of keywords or topics that Google never considered you for earlier, just because you were one of the first to provide fresh data or information when no one else did.
Important Metrics for Digital PR Success
Evaluating the effectiveness of Digital PR campaigns involves analyzing several key metrics:
Number of Backlinks
The number of backlinks acquired is a primary indicator of a successful Digital PR campaign. Quality backlinks from reputable sites signal to search engines that your content is valuable, helping to boost your SEO rankings.
Domain Authority
Domain Authority (DA) measures the strength of your website’s backlink profile. A higher DA suggests that your site is trusted and authoritative. Monitoring changes in DA can help assess the impact of your link-building efforts.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic refers to visitors who find your site through search engines. An increase in organic traffic indicates that your content is ranking higher in search results, a direct benefit of successful Digital PR strategies.
Media Mentions
Tracking media mentions helps gauge the visibility and reach of your PR efforts. Mentions in high-profile publications enhance your brand’s credibility and can drive significant traffic to your site.
Social Media Engagement
Social media engagement, including likes, shares, and comments, reflects how well your content resonates with your audience. High engagement rates can amplify your content’s reach and generate additional backlinks.
Search Engine Rankings
Improvements in search engine rankings for targeted keywords indicate the success of your Digital PR efforts. Higher rankings lead to increased visibility and traffic.
Overall Reach and Visibility
Overall reach and visibility measure how widely your content is distributed across various methods. This includes the number of unique visitors, geographic reach, and impressions. Greater visibility boosts brand awareness and the potential for quality backlinks.
Examples of Successful Digital PR Campaigns
Airbnb’s “Live There” Campaign
Airbnb’s “Live There” campaign is a prime example of effective Digital PR. By creating a series of engaging videos and unique content that highlighted local experiences, Airbnb garnered significant media coverage. This content was widely shared, resulting in a number of high-quality backlinks from travel blogs and major publications, boosting Airbnb’s SEO and visibility.
Spotify’s ‘Year in Review’
Spotify’s annual “Year in Review” campaign generates personalized reports for users, showcasing their listening habits over the year. This innovative content not only engages users but also encourages them to share their reports on social media. The campaign consistently earns backlinks from influential music blogs, news sites, and social media platforms, enhancing Spotify’s place in the market.
GoPro’s User-Generated Content Strategy
GoPro leverages user-generated content to fuel its Digital PR efforts. By encouraging customers to share their adventure videos, GoPro creates a wealth of engaging, authentic content. The best ones are featured on GoPro’s website and social media channels, attracting media attention, and earning backlinks from various sports and lifestyle websites, thereby improving GoPro’s SEO and domain authority.
Practical Tips and Tools
Serpzilla
Serpzilla is an essential tool for any digital marketer. It offers a comprehensive platform for discovering and gaining backlinks from high DA websites. Here are some practical tips and additional tools to boost your Digital PR efforts:
Practical Tips
1. Craft Compelling Content: Create attractive, valuable, and unique content that naturally attracts backlinks.
2. Leverage Influencers: Collaborate with industry influencers and bloggers to amplify your content and gain credible backlinks.
3. Monitor Competitors: Analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles to identify opportunities for your own link-building efforts.
4. Use Press Releases Wisely: Distribute well-crafted press releases to gain media coverage and backlinks.
5. Engage on social media: Actively share your content on social media platforms to increase visibility and attract links.
Additional Tools
1. Ahrefs: For comprehensive backlink analysis and competitor research.
2. BuzzStream: To manage outreach and build relationships with journalists and bloggers.
3. Google Alerts: To monitor mentions of your brand and identify link-building opportunities.
Conclusion
In summary, Digital PR is a handy tool for building high-quality backlinks and enhancing SEO. By leveraging strategies like creating and distributing press releases, organizing online events, developing unique content, collaborating with bloggers and journalists, and using social media, you can significantly impact your site’s authority, SERP visibility, and incoming traffic. Tracking important metrics such as backlinks, DA and traffic ensures your efforts are effective.
