When it comes to PR and SEO, these two services naturally go hand in hand. When teams understand how SEO can fit into a PR strategy. it can help to elevate a brand’s PR game to a whole new level.
SEO, social media and PR activity streams can actually all be combined to bolster organic rankings, increase brand awareness and boost online traffic which can also result in sales. And as Google places an increasing value on high quality, relevant content, it’s never been more important for all services to work together.
The first step to blending PR and SEO activity is aligning strategies that complement each other. For example, SEO analytics can be used to develop an improved PR strategy and existing PR relationships can be used to improve overall SEO strategies.
To highlight just how well PR and SEO go together, we’ve pulled together a list of seven reasons why brands should be thinking about the two services hand in hand:
Identifying media targets and contacts
Sourcing the correct journalists to send a story to can be tricky but SEO can be one way of identifying the right reporter. Searching keywords that relate to the story you are looking to issue out will highlight journalists who have recently covered the topic. PR’s can either do this manually through Google or using tools such as SEMRush to identify media contacts based on keyword searches through brand monitoring.
Drive traffic and reach your target audience
SEO insight can be used by a PR team to delve deeper into a clients audience and widen the scope of their activity to reach the desired audience. Analysing a client’s website performance in search engines with various keywords in tools such as Google Analytics can reveal what audiences the brand is reaching, as well as where they are less visible.
This insight can then be used by PR teams to adjust the focus of a campaign and add keywords into their content so it resonates and reaches the desired audience.
Increase domain and brand authority
Strategic PR activity can help to strengthen a brand’s website Domain Authority (DA). For those not familiar with this metric, DA is a 100-point logarithmic scale that predicts how a website will rank on search engines.
By publishing content on high DA websites and achieving brand mentions and links to a clients domain, PR’s are helping to bolster ranking for targeted keywords. With the PR and SEO teams working together to plan and target this activity, brands will begin to see higher positions in the SERPs, meaning more traffic to their website.
Build trust and authority
Achieving brand mentions and backlinks from high DA sites and being referenced as a source helps not only users see brands as credible, but also increases Google’s trust and place authority in a domain. If PR and SEO teams work together to identify relevant topics and websites for clients, this will feed into brand authority which is a key ranking factor in Google’s recent E-A-T update.
Keyword visibility
PR’s can also make use of keyword research to get the most from press coverage. Keyword insight can be used regularly to identify relevant phrases which should be included in the content, ensuring it is fully optimised and working towards a client’s SEO goals.
Including search keywords within press releases and other forms of content can help to expose clients’ news to anyone who is searching for similar content, ultimately driving press releases, articles and blog posts even further for clients.
Search engine rankings
Having a strong backlink profile is a key contributor to improving search engine rankings. When PR teams are working on press releases or developing content for the press in order to achieve brand mentions, a backlink to supporting onsite content should always be included. Earning this coverage with authoritative domains can help boost the impact of those placements and work with ongoing SEO efforts to improve a client’s search rankings.
Hot topics
When developing PR campaigns and stories, SEO analysis can help to identify key events or themes you can incorporate which people are likely to search at specific times of the year. SEO and PR can work together to monitor trends in keyword searches and topics, considering which to leverage proactive storytelling to boost clients SEO.
Earlier in the year, Google’s John Mueller shook up the industry as he labelled Digital PR as more important than Technical SEO (in some cases). See his original tweet below:
His comments were well received within the PR industry and echo the strong relationship between the two areas of the marketing matrix. When PR, specifically Digital PR, and SEO work together it helps to create a great website for visitors and ensures that everyone (including Google) believe how great your website is.
If visitors recognise your brand as being amazing and right for them AND your website also technically meets their needs by functioning effectively, you will be sending all the correct signals to Google. If one of the two doesn’t match up, Google will spot the cracks and won’t give your website the recognition it deserves.
Ultimately, SEO and PR go hand-in-hand, as both activity streams have the same goal of increasing a brands visibility among the public. Whether you are currently part of a traditional or digital PR team, it’s essential to not only understand what SEO is but also how you can leverage it in your work for clients, in order to create the most online impact.
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