How PR Adds SEO Value

by Maya Harruna

​Public relations continues to prove itself as a useful tool for businesses. It’s a discipline that has adapted and evolved to fit the changing digital ecosystem, in which appearing at the top of the search engine results page is as valuable as appearing on the front page of a national newspaper or trade publication.

In today’s digitally-driven PR world, you need to understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to survive. Even if you’re not familiar or comfortable with SEO, it’s important to appreciate its importance, and how your PR efforts can affect your client’s SEO goals.

According to a recent report, PR agencies reported that 90 percent of their clients wanted their media coverage to link back to their website, an increase of 80 percent over two years. 

But how does PR and media coverage improve SEO? 

PR is about more than just press releases and schmoozing journalists. It can be used to build backlinks which improve your company’s website domain authority, which impacts where you show up on an internet search.
​
To achieve maximum success with public relations, you should develop common campaigns that use principles from both SEO and PR. Such as integrating your clients keywords/messaging into all the content that you create, or including backlinks.  

For example, all content produced should be appropriately optimised to ensure the maintenance of a consistent voice and that it ensures that it appears under the search terms their target audience uses.

In order to ensure that your PR activity is SEO optimised, it is recommended that you work alongside an experienced public relations practitioner. They are knowledgeable on how to structure newsworthy content and how to promote it effectively.

Understanding the overall SEO health of your site is also a crucial step in the PR process. An SEO audit should be recommended for all businesses considering using public relations and/or content marketing to increase awareness and traffic from search engines. If there are fundamental flaws in the structure of your website, your work may prove fruitless in improving traffic and search rankings.

If you haven’t already tried the Digital PR approach in your SEO strategy, you should definitely be doing so. When used correctly, public relations can be a helpful asset in accomplishing these SEO goals.