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What is PR Link Building?

PR link building extends your content marketing strategy, aiming to generate publicity. But what does that have to do with link building? Let’s discuss!

What is PR Link Building?

When you search for how to boost your website’s visibility, chances are you’ve come across numerous articles on link building, all talking about the importance of earning high-quality backlinks. And PR link building is the epitome of securing valuable links to your websites.

It is all about adapting traditional PR tactics to promote your online presence. When executed correctly, it not only swings your website to the top of search engines but also establishes you as the leader in your area. But what exactly is digital PR, and how does it achieve this level of success? First, let’s discover what digital PR is.

What is Digital PR?

Digital PR is the process of earning reputable backlinks to support your SEO strategy. The goal is to present your brand as a thought leader and pitch to influential online publications. PR link building is an extension of your content marketing strategy, aiming to generate publicity around your brand or specific products and services.It differs from traditional PR in many ways, with the latter targeting conventional media outlets like TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. On the flip side, digital PR focuses on digital media platforms like content creators, bloggers, influencers, websites, podcasts, and other affiliates to promote your website’s organic growth.

Digital PR is a critical link-building tactic that solves most SEO troubles , blogging and guest posting is crucial for brand promotions and can help attract the attention of industry leaders. Like acquiring relevant links and scaling a website’s online presence while maintaining good domain authority. This is what makes digital PR invaluable for SEO and link building

Digital PR is becoming popular by the day since it delivers results. And despite being a harder tactic, it has numerous takers. One of the main reasons behind the growing popularity of digital PR is it cultivates high-quality links, which are tough to replicate. A robust digital PR strategy complements your SEO efforts, boosts domain authority, and improves organic traffic.

Authority links have well-researched, high-quality content, and such web pages attract and retain the readers’ attention. However, it can take months to earn links individually. For optimum results, you must incorporate PR link building with traditional link-building methods like guest posting, social media backlinks, etc.

A good PR link-building strategy can help establish your brand as an industry leader. Hence, the goal is to connect with top-tier publications in your niche.

6 Reasons Why PR Link Building is Beneficial for Your Business

PR methods and link-building tools are crucial for ranking and can help boost referral traffic, brand awareness, and even sales. Let’s analyse the top six reasons PR link building benefits your business.

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Improved SEO Performance

A successful digital PR tactic improves a website’s domain authority and backlink profile. These factors directly affect SEO and help increase organic traffic. With the help of a powerful digital PR tactic, you can secure high-quality links from authoritative sources. High-quality links send positive signals to Google’s search engine crawlers and help assert your website’s authority. Trustworthy websites are more likely to appear for user search queries, and the website automatically ranks higher on SERPs, drawing more traffic.

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More Social Engagement

Unlike traditional PR strategies, digital PR tactics promote your business naturally. The promotions don’t appear as paid adverts or recommendations to the readers. This is crucial for engaging the audience, as most readers view paid media campaigns as intrusive. PR link-building strategies subtly promote your business by organically merging it with the surrounding content. Hence, your link placements do not stop readers from having a positive experience. And since you are sharing helpful content, people are naturally inclined to listen to what you’re saying, driving up social engagement.

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Increased Brand Awareness

Digital PR plays a vital role in generating brand awareness among the target audience. By publishing user-focused content, you automatically attract the readers’ attention. If the content is newsworthy or contains original research, it’s more likely to be syndicated. Natural syndication increases brand awareness by introducing new audiences to your content. Top-tier publications eventually catch the wind and want to link back to your posts. Regardless of where they heard of you before, more brand mention equals higher conversions.

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Improved Visibility

As authority websites cite your content as a source, you earn better backlinks. Over time, the audience becomes aware of your website, automatically improving website visibility. One of the most efficient strategies for improving visibility is reaching out to complementary brands for your link-building campaign. Since you share a similar audience, your chances of improving brand visibility become much higher.

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Enhanced Credibility

When your readers look up to you as a reputable source of information, you have gained brand credibility. One of the best ways to improve credibility is by increasing SERP rankings. Top-rated websites on Google are seen as authorities in their respective niches. And since Google finds your content invaluable for a specific search query, the audience will soon follow suit. Another crucial strategy for improving credibility is getting industry leaders to link to your content. Finding good quality backlinks takes time, but it’s worth the effort. If you don’t know where to start, Revpanda’s exceptional white hat link-building services are ready to help you.

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Becoming a Topical Authority

Topical authority measures your expertise in your field of operations. The more high-quality content you publish, your website will likely be seen as an industry expert. There are several perks of becoming a topical authority, increased visibility and greater conversions. Since digital publishers build links to authority websites, becoming a topical authority organically boosts your backlink profile, leading to greater outreach over time.

How To Get Started with PR Link Building

Now that you know the positive impacts of digital PR on your brand’s online presence, let’s walk you through the four steps of PR link building.

Review Your Target Customers
1

Review Your Target Customers

Identifying the target audience for your digital PR strategy is crucial for earning media exposure. Creating your ideal audience persona and then determining any pain points or problems with your brand is an excellent way to start. Where does your target audience go for breaking news? What are their interests and hobbies? What podcasts do they follow? What hashtags do they share? These are a few pertinent questions you must answer to identify your target audience. By analysing your audiences’ online activity, you have the information required to reach out to them. Stay at the forefront of their attention by sharing expert opinions and ideas about topics they value.

Ideation and Research
2

Do Your Research Well

The time spent on content ideation is crucial. Well-researched content always leaves a mark on the audience, urging them to think. But you must nurture ideas as they cannot survive in the void. Talk to colleagues or round up a small group of active thinkers to bounce new information off. Take notes of new ideas and cultivate them individually before settling for the one with the most hook. Once you’ve lined up a few concepts, it’s time for further research. You might find relevant articles online. Weigh the pros and cons of running with the idea before prepping for the next stage.

Content Creation
3

Create Your Content

Whatever route you choose, data must remain the core philosophy of your campaign. The trick is finding the most intriguing way to communicate this data to the audience without boring them to death. The easiest way is to ask yourself, “would I care if someone shared this data with me?” If your answer is yes, the process just became a lot easier. Create and save multiple drafts from setting the tone and headlines right. Once you feel you are on point, proofread the final draft and publish the content.

Outreach and Dominate
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Outreach and Dominate

Promoting content is at the core of any digital PR strategy. You must be proactive in your efforts to find website owners, publishers, bloggers, influencers, and journalists to generate enough buzz around your content. The right content promoted through proper channels attracts attention. However, not every digital PR campaign will strike gold. So, don’t be disheartened by failed attempts and continue to persevere.

Best Digital PR Strategy for High-Quality Links

When looking for the best PR link-building strategy for your business, you must understand that no universal strategy works across industries. You need in-depth knowledge of multiple tactics and know when to use them. Not all tactics will work for every business. So, you must learn the ropes to figure out which strategy best suits your scenario. With that in mind, these are the six most popular digital PR tactics today.

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Product PR

You can use digital PR to promote products online. If publishers are referring to your product in a blog, and these links get clicks, you have an organic lead generation platform. Just build a story around the product to generate hype. Products by themselves aren’t much of a story. But offering discounts during a major sale makes a great story. Don’t worry about going overboard when highlighting the benefits of your product. It’s vital to think from the reader’s perspective. What would make you go all out and buy your product? Once you have that sorted, build your product PR strategy around that idea.

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Data-Driven Research Studies

Data-driven research studies work wonders when convincing the audience about your business. It’s hardly surprising that key performance indicators are widely used in digital PR. Statistical analysis is an excellent way to share your brand’s story – no wonder journalists love them. Top-tier publications prefer new and unique stories, and data-rich studies are the perfect medium to start implementing in your next digital PR campaign.

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Creative Campaigns

While data is critical for performance analysis, a common misconception is that campaigns without data struggle to gain traction. But that is far from the truth. In reality, while data plays a crucial role in hooking the audience, creative campaigns play a similar but vital role. You can leverage creative stunts, visual elements, predictive imagery, etc., to get people talking about your brand. It all boils down to having a great idea and executing it flawlessly. Having a fantastic product is hardly enough to succeed if you have a mediocre campaign to support it.

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Thought Leadership

Now more than ever, readers seek industry experts for advice and guidance. Leverage this opportunity by promoting your people and their knowledge to gain links when you don’t have a news story lined up. Converse with a product or service specialist in your ranks about common concerns the audience might have and how your brand or product helps solve the problem. You can then turn these conversations into expert opinions. Share this wealth of knowledge with independent journalists and reputed publications to build rapport. This can help you earn authority links consistently as they return to you for expert advice when covering similar topics in the future.

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Newsjacking

Newsjacking is all about reacting to the latest news stories with expert advice, opinions, and comments. It’s an effective PR link-building tactic that does not require complex content marketing skills. All you need to do is assert your expertise in the domain. There are three conditions for newsjacking to be effective.

  1. You must have access to breaking news. Most top-tier publications seek expert opinions on the recent news that is making the headlines.
  2. You must share original insights, comments, and opinions about trendy topics. Your views must add value and not repurpose available information.
  3. You must respond promptly. Sitting on breaking news is one of the worst decisions you can make.
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Guest Blogging

As one of the most effective off-page SEO tactics to gain high-quality backlinks, guest blogging is also one of the oldest and most prominent digital PR methods used today. You must identify websites that complement your brand, products, or services and approach them with a mutually-beneficial proposition. By promoting your business on guest blogging sites, you are reaching out to a new audience base. Conversely, the website that publishes your content gets access to high-value materials, increasing its viewership. You must choose topics relevant to your brand and the target website for the best results.

PR Link Building for SEO

Like every other SEO strategy, digital PR and link building has several pros and cons. Let’s look at the top benefits and consequences of digital PR.

Pros Pros
Pros Earn authority backlinks from top-tier publications.
Pros Earn high-quality backlinks that are difficult to replicate.
Pros Land organic links that actually get clicked.
Pros Build brand awareness through subtle promotion.
Pros Establish yourself as an industry expert and generate credibility.
Pros Increase social engagement through genuine interactions.
Cons Cons
Cons Time-consuming to set up and see results.
Cons The constant need to regularly secure high-quality links.
Cons Consistently producing well-researched, high-quality content.

How Digital PR Outreach is Conducted?

Now that we have established everything you need to know about PR link building, let’s walk you through the basics of how to start a digital PR campaign.

Connecting to Digital Content Creators
1

Connecting to Digital Content Creators

Digital content creators and social media influencers can sway popular public opinions in your favour. Reach out to the top creators related to your field with a mutually-beneficial proposition to stay ahead of the competition. This way, you gain attention from a previously untapped audience group, while the content creators gain access to well-researched data.

Joining Media Lists
2

Joining Media Lists

Media lists are a crucial part of digital PR. You must build a comprehensive list of the top journalists, publications, and guest blogging sites that you can reach to share useful information. Use your resources wisely to promote your brand with exciting updates about the latest news, events, and other monumental achievements like award nominations and wins.

Finding Prospects
3

Finding Prospects

Networking with the right people has its perks. This is especially true for digital PR professionals. You must promote your brand consistently to keep the audience talking. Staying connected with top-tier publications, journalists, digital content creators, online influencers, link creators, and marketing managers helps your cause.

Sending Out Outreach Emails
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Sending Out Outreach Emails

You must be persistent when reaching out to publications and journalists to stand out from the competition. Reach out to journalists and media houses with your best content periodically, rather than waiting for them to approach you. You must send outreach emails to increase the reach of your digital PR campaigns.

PR Link Building vs UGC Link Building

UGC, or user-generated content, is a relatively new attribute that Google uses to analyse links. The audience can create UGC links in the form of photos, videos, and text reviews. UGC plays a crucial role in influencing purchasing decisions. Let’s compare the top attributes of PR link building against UGC link building.

Digital PR Link Building
UGC Link Building
Pros

Created by industry experts, top-tier journalists, and professional influencers

Cons

Created by the audience and may not reflect the quality you aspire

Pros

Vetted source of information

Cons

The reader’s personal opinion

Pros

Takes a while to acquire but is everlasting

Cons

It can be created in minutes but only has short-term gains

Cons

Part of paid media that audiences may find biased

Pros

Created by unbiased people

Cons

Not much scope for directly engaging the audience.

Pros

Drives audience engagement through reviews, testimonials, forum discussions, and comments on blogs and social media posts.

Conclusion

Digital PR represents a new era of link building and SEO. And businesses must evolve to keep up with the changing times. Apart from traditional SEO tactics, you need a vast network of media contacts to execute PR link-building campaigns and generate organic traffic over time. And while that may take a while, a single high-quality link is more beneficial to your backlink profile than several run-of-the-mill cloned links.

If you don’t have contacts in the media and can’t find the time to execute a digital PR campaign, let our experienced pandas share your story with the right audience.

FAQ

If you aren’t using digital PR for link building, you are missing out on a major opportunity to gain an edge over the competition. Digital PR helps earn relevant links. And marketers today recognise the need for high-quality backlinks to boost SERP rankings. Digital PR strategies can help you earn links from authority websites, drive referral traffic, and put your business at the forefront of the competition. So, it’s safe to say that PR link building is worth the effort.

There are several innovative ways you can earn high-quality PR backlinks. You can follow various strategies to build your backlink profile, from guest posting and manual outreach to running creative campaigns, newsjacking, and thought leadership. However, not every strategy will deliver the same results for different industries. So, it’s crucial to understand the unique scenarios of your business and adapt a PR strategy for the best results.

Public relations is one of the newest SEO strategies for boosting a website’s visibility and credibility. Marketers today use traditional and digital PR tactics like finding prospects, joining media lists, connecting to digital content creators, and sending outreach emails to build rapport with top-tier publications, independent journalists, and online influencers for brand and product promotions.

Digital PR is surprisingly efficient for earning authority links and boosting a website’s SERP rankings. PR agents use several strategies, like data-driven research studies, product PR, manual outreach, etc., to reach out to industry leaders and top-tier publications. And while the link-building process might only yield a few high-quality links every month, they build a more robust backlink profile, drawing more organic traffic every month.

Every website can benefit from PR link building. With enough time and resources, every business and website can pull off PR link building independently. However, the best way to have a successful PR link-building campaign is to work with an industry-hardened award-winning digital marketing agency with an extensive network reach. Get in touch today to learn how to leverage digital PR for your brand!