Link building has been around for years and originally emerged as a way to support SEO efforts, with the primary goal of gaining backlinks to support search engine rankings. In the early days, this was sometimes achieved using black hat tactics. However, as Google’s algorithm evolved, it became clear that links needed to be earned and relevant to the organisation. This shift prompted a merging of SEO with traditional PR strategies aimed at building brand awareness while simultaneously supporting website visibility. Digital PR was born out of this need.
At the time, when digital PR was still a relatively new industry, the primary KPI that businesses focused on was simply “building a large number of links.” As long as you were generating a high volume of backlinks to your site, it was seen as a sign of success.
But we now know that this approach is flawed. It’s not just about the number of links, what really matters is the impact those links have on meaningful metrics. Are they driving relevant traffic to the site? Are they supporting improvements in search rankings? Are they contributing to revenue growth?
You need to ask yourself, are these links helping your business grow?
You could generate 50+ links from a digital PR campaign, and in a report, this looks impressive. But what was the actual impact? Without measurable outcomes, it’s just a vanity metric.
The goal of digital PR should go beyond link volume. It should focus on visibility, brand awareness, reputation, and real business growth. If link count is still being paraded as the top outcome of a campaign, we risk missing the bigger opportunity which is to create campaigns that drive genuine, measurable impact.
Build your brand before building links
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: Brand building should come first, and links second. In the past, businesses were obsessed with getting as many links as possible back to their site. If a mention didn’t include a link, it was seen as useless. But that’s no longer the case.
As a consumer, you don’t care how many backlinks a site has. You care about whether the brand is trustworthy, one that provides you with quality solutions, advice, or products. And Google rewards the brands that consumers trust.
These are the brands people see in the press (whether it’s a linked mention or a brand mention), on social media, and consistently across multiple touchpoints. Google isn’t just looking for the site with the most links, it’s looking for the brand that deserves to rank because it consistently provides value to its audience.
How to demonstrate to Google that you deserve to rank?
To show Google you deserve to rank, you need to stay active in your industry and the conversations your audience is having. That might mean:
- Putting yourself forward as a spokesperson on relevant news topics
- Sharing expert commentary with journalists on emerging trends you know inside out
- Launching a digital PR campaign with unique, valuable data that proves your authority and brings something new to the discussion
The focus shouldn’t be on the campaigns that will get you the most links, but the ones that will help your brand own the most share of voice in your space. When PR is done right, it helps you become more visible than competitors who aren’t thinking this way.
If you do this well, you’ll likely earn links anyway. So while links can be a byproduct, and we know brand mentions are still valuable, the real goal should be brand building.
Due to agencies and PR once putting so much emphasis on links, brands started believing that brand mentions don’t matter, syndicated links don’t count, irrelevant links are fine as long as they’re from authoritative sites, and nofollow links pass no value. But that’s not true. All of these play a role in building brand awareness, and that’s where the real impact starts.
What digital PR metrics should I measure?
If you’re only measuring the number of links as a success factor in your digital PR efforts, it’s time to ask: Is that truly driving meaningful growth for your business?
Instead, focus on metrics that reflect real impact:
- Website visibility (how often your brand appears in relevant searches)
- Keyword rankings for commercially important or strategic terms
- Organic traffic and referral traffic to your site
- Share of voice within your industry or niche
- Engagement metrics on your landing pages (e.g. bounce rate, time on page)
- Conversions or revenue influenced by referred sessions
- Coverage quality (relevance and authority of the publications that link to you)
- Brand sentiment and reputation signals
For example, you might only secure five links from a campaign, but if they’re from highly relevant, authoritative publications, point to a key priority page, reach the right audience, and are part of the right conversation, they can drive targeted traffic and even sales.
On the other hand, you could get 50 links from irrelevant sources. If the campaign wasn’t built with your audience and brand in mind, those links may do little to nothing. In that case, it’s just noise, not growth.
At Wild PR, we aim for real, measurable impact from every PR campaign we deliver. A great example of this is our work with toy brand The Kid Collective.
To increase visibility for their educational toy category, we initially planned a Rainy Days campaign, promoting indoor activities for families during the summer, timed around weather forecasts predicting regular downpours. However, when a prolonged heatwave hit the UK, we quickly reangled the campaign to focus on indoor play ideas for children during extreme heat.
This pivot was essential to stay relevant and aligned with the news agenda. To strengthen the campaign, we secured expert commentary from an NHS doctor, who reinforced the importance of keeping children indoors during high temperatures to protect their health.
While the campaign secured 140 backlinks, its success went far beyond that. The day after coverage appeared in regional media outlets, referral traffic to The Kid Collective’s site increased by 50%. eCommerce metrics also improved significantly:
- Total revenue increased by 36% compared to the day before launch
- First-time purchasers rose by 9%
- A week later, the site saw an 8% increase in users and a 9% increase in new users
This is the kind of impact we aim for, where media coverage doesn’t just look good on a report, but drives real business results.
To learn more about driving business growth using digital PR tactics, get in touch with the Wild team.
Credit to James Brockbank at Digital Loft for providing an insightful talk on metrics that matter at the digital PR summit 2025, and don’t forget to explore our key takeaways from the digital PR summit.