Digital PR is a communications discipline that increases a brand’s online presence and authority through linkable assets, including online articles, blog posts, podcasts, and videos.
On the other hand, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is responsible for driving traffic to a website from a search engine’s organic rankings by creating valuable content including certain keywords, and building backlinks.
Despite their differences, digital PR and SEO are becoming increasingly integrated as brands seek to amplify their visibility in the virtual world. Given that digital PR and SEO are two sides of the same coin, there are three key reasons for the two disciplines to work cohesively in your teams.
Improve your website’s domain authority
Suppose your digital PR tactics manage to get your brand featured on top tier publications or websites with links directing back to the content on your website. This will increase your overall domain authority. Domain authority is how a search engine measures your site’s credibility. The higher your website’s domain authority is, the better it ranks on Google, making it more visible to those searching for related content.
Generate diverse backlinks
Higher reach is not the only benefit of getting featured by a well-known online publication. In fact, if less prominent content creators or online publications in the same sector cover your brand and create backlinks, this will also benefit your visibility; having a diversified backlink portfolio means enhanced ranking on search engine result pages.
This is supported by an analysis published on Backlinko in 2020. The analysis revealed that inbound links from different sites (as opposed to multiple backlinks from the same source) can have a considerable positive effect on your website’s ranking.
Strengthen your online position as an industry expert
Backlinks from high-profile online publications are essential in establishing your authority as a thought leader or industry expert because it contributes to your website’s E (Expertise) – A (Authoritativeness) – T (Trustworthiness).
E-A-T is the standard on which Google bases its assessment of a website’s quality and is a vital element of SEO. As soon as your website reaches a high E-A-T standard, search engine users will view it as a trustworthy source of information, thereby driving organic visits and transactions.
In a digital-first global market, brands and businesses need to understand how they can cut through the noise online and reach the audiences they need to achieve their goals.
On average, over 60% of all website traffic comes from search engines like Google or Bing. This means integrating digital PR into your SEO efforts can benefit the performance of your business amid fierce competition for online visibility.
Tune in for our next article to understand how this integration works.