PR SEO: Synergy for Success [Tips, Tactics, and Best Practices]

By Intelligent Relations Team

August 25, 2023

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In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, a cohesive working relationship between PR and SEO is essential. 

Together, they form a mutually beneficial combo — PR SEO — that’s necessary for maximized results and industry impact. 

Many businesses still don’t understand the value of pairing PR with SEO and how each compliments the other. It’s time to make use of this dynamic digital marketing duo and take your business to the next level.

But what is PR SEO? 

And how can it help your business reach and even exceed its goals? 

For a more comprehensive understanding of PR SEO and its best practices we’ve included the following: 

• What is PR SEO? Why is it important?
• Are Digital PR and SEO the same?
• 6 Big Ways PR and SEO Work Together
• 5 Key Tips and Tactics for Tracking PR SEO Impact

What is PR SEO?

Before diving into the deep cuts, let’s get a handle on the basics. We first need to understand what PR SEO is, why SEO is important for PR, and why PR is important for SEO. 

What is PR SEO?

PR SEO refers to the integration of PR and SEO strategies to boost the online visibility, credibility, and reputation of a brand. PR is traditionally concerned with press releases, media relations, and reputation management, while SEO seeks to optimize online content to rank higher in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). 

Let’s say a company wants to generate buzz for a new product launch while boosting its online visibility. They should implement the following PR SEO campaign: 

• Press Release Optimization: They should publish a well-optimized press release about their product launch that incorporates relevant keywords and phrases.

• Media Outreach: They should reach out to relevant media outlets and journalists to offer exclusive insights into the product. This can result in online articles and valuable backlinks. 

• Influencer Collaboration: They should partner with relevant influencers to review and promote the product on their blogs and social media. This can generate further brand mentions.

• Social Media Promotions: They should share engaging content about the product launch on social media to encourage likes, shares, and comments. 

• Online Reviews Management: They should actively monitor online reviews and address customer feedback promptly to maintain a positive online reputation. 

• Measurement: They should track search engine rankings for target keywords, observe increases in organic traffic, count the number of backlinks acquired, and monitor social media engagement. 

Over time, their product will gain online visibility, increased sales, and boosted brand recognition. 

This PR SEO campaign example blends PR tactics with SEO techniques for improved online presence and brand reputation. 

Joining these disciplines creates an effective strategy that helps businesses tell their stories and build relationships. It also aids in attracting and engaging their target audience.

Why is SEO Important for PR?

Let’s take a look at 4 crucial reasons SEO is important for PR: 

1. Enhanced Online Visibility: An excellent way to ensure your target audience will discover your PR content is through an effective SEO strategy. When people search for relevant topics, your optimized content is more likely to appear in their search results.

2. Increased Authority and Credibility: A high SERP ranking denotes authority and credibility. When you have top-ranking PR content, your brand is positioned as a trusted info source, strengthening its reputation. 

3. Amplified PR Efforts: SEO can expand the reach of your PR efforts. Optimized content allows your brand’s messaging to be more impactful by reaching wider audiences.

4. Long-Term Benefits: The effects of SEO last longer than paid ads. Well-optimized PR content can generate long-term traffic and engagement, providing your brand with continuous benefits. 

Pro Tip: If your SEO target keywords are competitive, consider making a video. Google will prioritize content containing video. Plus, the second most popular search engine is YouTube. Consider uploading video content to YouTube and other social media channels as well. 

Why is PR Important for SEO?

The collaborative nature of each discipline is what makes PR SEO so effective. Where SEO optimizes PR content and amplifies its efforts, PR strengthens SEO primarily through the generation of authoritative backlinks — one of the cornerstones of SEO.

High-quality backlinks are valuable for numerous reasons: 

• They are free and organic.
• They are difficult for competitors to copy.
• They signify expert status on a particular subject.

Focusing on authoritative sites for high-quality backlinks will also improve the domain authority (DA) of an optimized site over time. 

Another way SEO benefits from PR strategy is the improved click-through-rate (CTR) of a website. A highly optimized page does not always guarantee traffic, but the level of trust that comes with brand awareness is more likely to drive traffic to a high-ranking page.  

Building trust is integral to decreasing bounce rates — people leaving your site after viewing only one page. A trustworthy web page keeps users around, even if the content is lacking in comparison to similar pages that are less recognizable. 

Social proof coupled with brand awareness drives traffic and boosts conversion rates through trust. Users will stay on your site longer and are more likely to return. 

Are Digital PR and SEO the Same?

Short answer, no. But it’s a little more complex than that. 

Digital PR and SEO do share common goals, and many benefits are found at their points of intersection.

But they are still very distinct strategies. 

Let’s take a look at how they differ. 

How Digital PR and SEO Differ

While there is some complimentary overlap between digital PR and SEO, key differences lie in their areas of focus. 

Digital PR focuses on:

• Managing Brand Reputation
• Securing Media Coverage
• Building Relationships
• Influencer Outreach

SEO focuses on: 

• Optimized Content and SERP Rankings
• Site Speed and Crawlability 
• Third-party Backlinks 
• Regular Updates  

The digital landscape has blurred the lines between these strategies. Recognizing this and familiarizing yourself with the areas of overlap will help you glean a better understanding of PR SEO and its effectiveness. 

6 Big Ways PR and SEO Work Together

PR SEO is a powerful combo, because PR and SEO are conducive to each other’s objectives and success. Check out these 6 big ways PR and SEO work together: 

1. Keyword Research and Integration: A collaboration between PR professionals and SEO experts can pinpoint relevant keywords that resonate with brand messaging. These keywords can then be integrated into PR content — blog posts, press releases, etc. —  for a higher SERP ranking. 

2. High-quality Content Creation: PR efforts often center around creating captivating content that grabs and holds the audience’s attention. Brands can earn valuable backlinks from authoritative and trustworthy sources by creating content that is both newsworthy and useful to readers. These backlinks are SEO goldmines that boost search ranking and authority. 

3. Influencer Outreach: PR involves building relationships with influencers and thought leaders. By working with these individuals, brands can gain exposure to their followers and secure valuable backlinks from their websites.

4. Social Media Amplification: Social media channels can amplify PR efforts, driving traffic and engagement. SEO benefits from increased social signals, indicating to search engines that the content is valuable and shareable. 

5. Press Releases for SEO: Press releases are a principal of PR campaigns and can be optimized through backlinks and keyword inclusion. When these optimized press releases are picked up by media outlets, they generate backlinks and drive traffic to the brand’s website. 

6. Guest Blogging: Guest blogging collaborations with authoritative websites helps establish brand expertise and generate backlinks. This is beneficial to the objectives of both PR and SEO. 

Pro Tip: When optimizing press releases, avoid over-linking. This makes your release look spammy to search engines and could even lead to site penalties. Only add links where necessary, adhering to press release layout best practices.

Want to know more about how to write a press release? Not sure where to place links? Then check out our guide: How to Write a Press Release for Great Results [Examples + Tips]

5 Key Tips and Tactics for Tracking PR SEO Impact

Tracking the impact of your PR SEO efforts is crucial to understanding what’s working and what’s not. These 5 key tips and tactics can help you track your PR SEO impact for future success and crisis mitigation:

1. Keyword Rankings: It’s important to monitor the rankings of keywords targeted in your PR content. Google Search Console and third-party SEO platforms can help you track how your content is doing in search results. 

2. Website Traffic and Engagement: After publishing optimized PR, track the increase in website traffic and engagement. Use Google Analytics to monitor these metrics and understand user behavior on your site.

3. Social Signals: Keep an eye on social media metrics. Monitor shares, likes, and comments on your PR content to get an idea of how your content is resonating with its audience. 

4. Media Coverage: Measure the quality and quantity of media coverage secured through your PR efforts. This can include mentions in online publications, guest posts, and interviews. 

5. Backlink Analysis: Backlinks generated from your PR efforts should be analyzed regularly. Use available backlink monitoring tools that provide insight into the quality and quantity of backlinks to better assess the impact and authority of your website.

Pro Tip: Earning good backlinks takes a lot of time and effort, so monitor them with your preferred backlink monitoring tool, make sure your content is up-to-date, and keep an eye out for broken links. 

How to Take Advantage of a Broken Link Building Strategy

Broken link building is an effective PR SEO strategy for earning backlinks. 

Here’s how it works:

There are authoritative sites out there that have broken or dead links. 

And you can exploit that.

Let’s say your competitor migrated their website to a new URL or deleted content from their blog. When that happens, any backlinks they gained from across the Internet are dead. They have to go back and request that their old links be replaced with new ones.

If they aren’t doing that, you can identify those links and reach out to the site to request that their links be replaced with your links.

Here’s how it works:

Start by identifying broken links on desirable websites where you’d like to garner a backlink — links returning a 404 Not Found error message is a common indicator. Make sure you’re looing through content that would make sense linking back to yours. Use one of many available broken link building tools to simplify this process. 

Prioritize your list of broken links based on domain authority (DA). This will save you time and yield the most valuable potential backlinks. 

Once you have a comprehensive list of repairable links, you can look into your competitors’ broken backlinks, or assess which links are worth fixing based on the site’s domain authority. 

After that, you can begin the outreach process, but have a strategy in place before you start reaching out to admins. Your strategy can be as simple as planning who to contact first to test that your outreach emails work and when to trigger drip emails.

Consider using an outreach email template. It’s a great timesaver and will streamline the outreach process. You don’t need to personalize every email inquiring about broken links. 

Broken link building is sometimes more effective than other link building strategies because you are assisting in solving administrative issues on that site. 

Pro Tip: If you’re using Ahrefs or SEMrush to do your SEO work, both tools have features that allow you to identify broken links. If you’re working with an SEO agency or PR agency with SEO services, you can also ask them to help you identify opportunities as part of your SEO strategy.

Final Thoughts

No, you won’t find any peanut butter and jelly comparisons here — just an acknowledgment of how well PR and SEO work together, and how PR SEO can benefit your brand.

PR SEO is the perfect strategy for maximizing impact and results. These once disparate departments now form an essential, symbiotic strategy for brand success.

After taking a peek inside the world of PR SEO, and understanding its importance, it’s time to take advantage of this highly-effective digital marketing mashup for yourself. 

Still not sure how to create a PR SEO strategy that works? Let us help! Simply book a free consultation with us to get expert insight into how to start or improve your PR SEO strategy.