How Public Relations Can Improve SEO Ranking. SEO and PR.

With the rapid growth of today’s digital ecosystem, especially in recent years, businesses and brands alike are flocking to build an online presence in hopes of garnering similar success.

Whether via social media, digital marketing, or search engines like Google or YouTube, and considering the value that businesses and brands place on these outlets, it’s imperative to explore on a deeper level these online pursuits to learn how to reap the rewards for yourself.

One important component of today’s digital ecosystem? SEO.

SEO is a key marketing strategy that should be implemented no matter what business or industry you’re in. Some, in fact, would argue that it’s a necessity. With the primary intent of making your business visible online, it’s a viable argument to suggest that without SEO, your business is irrelevant, non-existent even.

With that said, in this chapter, we’ll be exploring the synergy between SEO and PR. More specifically, we’ll explore how PR efforts can ultimately improve your SEO ranking. But first, let’s define SEO and gain a better understanding of its importance.

What is SEO?

SEO, otherwise known as search engine optimization, is an organic marketing strategy that seeks to improve webpage rankings and other online visibility metrics via its own unique tactics.

Although SEO is used for several purposes in many unique capacities, its primary function is to increase brand awareness and visibility, boost web traffic, and capture new leads through targeted keywords and improved SEO scores, ultimately ranking atop search results on engines like Google.

Notably, the reason we keep mentioning Google is that it comprises over 92% of overall online search volume; all but a monopoly.

So, how does SEO work, you ask?

While algorithms are fluid and ever-changing, it can be difficult to conclusively suggest any ONE strategy or tactic to employ. Instead, there are several strategies that can be employed to optimize your online efforts to increase visibility, improve reach, and garner online authority.

While we won’t go into much detail regarding specific SEO practices, some of the most common include sharing high-quality content, ensuring relevancy of said content, using keyword research and strategy, link-building, and implementing other more sophisticated SEO practices involving web speed, load time, or otherwise.

So, you might be thinking, how do public relations fit into the SEO equation?! Let’s get into it, shall we?!

The Role of PR in SEO Ranking

Sharing similar tactics as SEO, PR efforts often involve content-sharing to boost brand awareness and visibility, increase traffic, and build industry authority.

Whether through the publication of blogs, press releases or otherwise, PR content is an opportune place to employ SEO tactics, whether link-building or otherwise, to improve the overall SEO ranking of your business/website.

Notably, as we’ve discussed already, link-building is an effective SEO strategy often used to improve SEO ranking!

With that said, below are four ways in which PR can help improve SEO ranking:

PR Complements Link-Building Strategy

While PR content gets a fair amount of exposure independently, inbound links have proven effective in furthering that exposure, especially in the context of media coverage and brand mentions.

At its most basic, the more PR content that’s being published, the greater the opportunity for link-building, thus the best chance at improving SEO ranking.

PR Promotes Keyword Recognition

No matter what type of PR is being published, it’s essential that its contents are optimized, both for readability and grammar as well as SEO. How do we optimize content for SEO? Apart from link-building, ensuring that it has been optimized for keywords is essential.

Not only will an SEO-based keyword strategy integrated within PR publishing help widen the audience and improve reach but it’ll also help content become more visible in search, thus increasing the overall SEO ranking of said publishing.

PR Boosts Domain Authority

Having a high domain authority is a primary predictor of search visibility. Lucky for you, PR efforts have been proven to inevitably improve domain authority!

By creating high-quality PR content that garners top-tier media coverage, domain authority can and will be improved, thus improving search engine ranking in the process!

PR Increases Awareness and Visibility

Finally, as we’ve already discussed, public relations, similar to that of SEO, seeks to improve brand awareness and increase visibility. By relying upon highly credible PR content that’s both authoritative and reputable, attention will be garnered, and search rankings will be improved.

A Synergistic Relationship for the Ages

While PR and SEO aren’t among the first two departments that would be thought of as synergistic, they just so happen to be the perfect match! The best part about it is that there’s no additional effort needed on behalf of you, the business.

By simply prioritizing quality PR, SEO will inevitably be complimented. Similarly, by ensuring that SEO best practices are being executed across content, PR included, SEO rankings will only be improved.

Ultimately, by targeting brand mentions in your PR and ensuring optimal link-building in your SEO efforts, it’s all but inevitable that brand visibility will be accomplished