Digital PR (Public Relations) is an important component of any marketing strategy; however, it is often overlooked.
Predominantly believed to be just a link-building tactic, digital PR has long been misunderstood. When executed well, digital PR extends far beyond backlinks, delivering measurable results that can transform a brand’s visibility.
From elevating SEO results to increasing brand awareness and authority, the right strategy can generate both immediate and long-term impact. Yet, achieving this isn’t simple.
Digital PR requires careful alignment with client goals, creativity that ties seamlessly into the news cycle, and an understanding of the wider search landscape.
This means digital PR can be a minefield to navigate. And now, as Google continues to mature and LLMs (learning language models) rise in popularity, the search landscape is evolving faster than ever and DPR must adapt.
This guide brings together expert insights, practical tips, and digital PR-specific tactics to help you understand how to elevate current strategies and outline what needs to change as search continues to advance.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR is the practice of using online channels, like websites, social media, blogs, and digital news outlets, to build and manage a brand’s reputation, increase visibility, and gain media coverage.
Predominantly done through creative campaigns, digital PR is a form of online marketing that relies solely on the web and generating results from online channels, through links and mentions in news publications.
This means, with a good strategy, there are no limitations to how far a Digital PR campaign can go – sometimes this is even viral.
Whilst in the past the success of a digital PR campaign was judged purely on backlinks, as Google’s algorithms have matured and SEO has evolved, it’s become clear that digital PR is about far more than backlinks on online sites.
Today, the most impactful campaigns that garner the most quantifiable results are newsworthy, topical, relevant to clients, and add authority.
And as the way people search changes, DPRs must adapt their strategies to ensure their content is seen and absorbed in the right way.
But firstly, why is digital PR important?
Why is DPR important?
As mentioned, DPR now extends far beyond link-building and offers a wide range of benefits, making it easier to demonstrate measurable ROI.
A good DPR strategy can also enhance SEO efforts. From strategically using keywords in campaigns, leveraging authoritative figures to earn credibility, and gaining links on hyper-relevant high DR (domain rating) sites, these techniques can accelerate SEO performance.
In turn, this helps Google perceive your site as more authoritative and trustworthy, improving how you rank in the SERPs.
This is exactly why, as previously mentioned, digital PR is an important component of any digital marketing strategy.
But before talking strategies, let’s explore the various benefits of DPR in a little more detail…
What are the benefits of DPR?
DPR can be measured and analysed through a variety of metrics.
To keep it simple, here’s a breakdown of the key metrics and benefits you can measure DPR against and what they mean.
Build credibility and brand authority
Using authoritative voices, creating campaigns that position the brand as a market leader, and creating relevant content can increase a brand’s credibility, making it rank higher in the SERPs.
Make gains against competitors
Gaining coverage on sites where competitors have landed and rivalling them with similar content that pushes boundaries will allow brands to gain a competitive advantage.
Generate backlinks
Having a higher number of credible and relevant backlinks from a diverse range of sites can increase the domain rating of a site, enabling its content to rank higher in the SERPs.
Improve keywords
Creating campaigns around the target keywords can marry up the SEO and DPR goals and boost the overall effectiveness of the SEO performance.
Build links to product pages
Using the PLP (priority landing pages) from the SEO strategy, you can incorporate these into the DPR ideas and encourage publications to link back to them, again, increasing the organic rankings for particular services.
To ensure strategies meet the above metrics and perform effectively, there are crucial steps to take when crafting the strategy.
Creating a DPR strategy
First and foremost, it’s essential to align client expectations and onboard them thoroughly.
The importance of understanding client goals
It’s essential not only to understand what clients expect from the service but also to grasp what they hope to achieve through their DPR efforts, as these goals can vary depending on their industry, company size, and current performance.
To help meet the desired goals, it’s essential to clearly define the aims and goals of the DPR strategy, as this will help steer ideations.
For example, if a client wants to increase authority, then doing reactive PR with a thought leader author attached to the comments will be a better approach than a data-led index. In contrast, if a client wants to build links to PLPs, then creating campaigns around those topics that have multiple outreach angles will be more appropriate.
Understand the world of search
Once you have clear goals for the DPR work, you can begin to ideate. This process, put simply, is coming up with newsworthy ideas that will generate results.
This is where research and a solid understanding of search become critical. It’s important to know what your target audience is searching for, what content competitors are producing, and which keywords are currently ranking.
This way, you can work backwards and ideate concepts that naturally incorporate this. Not only will this allow you to have campaigns that offer SEO value too, but it encourages you to put the audience and search first – something every successful DPR idea should do.
But why is a search-first approach so important?
Impact of search engines of DPR strategies
In today’s digital world, it’s more essential than ever to put search first. As the use of LLMs continues to rise, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Gemini, the game of search continues to evolve, and DPR must go along for the ride.
Whilst practices like LLM seeding, where people flood sites such as Reddit with brand mentions and citations to be seen as a positive authority, can generate short-term results, ethical and traditional methods should still form the foundation of your approach.
Google and AI platforms are constantly evolving, meaning strategies that work today, like LLM seeding, could become counterproductive in the future.
To achieve sustainable, long-term results, DPR strategies must still adhere to best organic practices, naturally addressing the questions your audience is asking, both on Google and new platforms like ChatGPT.
This ensures campaigns remain relevant, topical, and authoritative whilst increasing chances of being seen across broader search engines and results have longevity.
Start with search and remember your roots
Search is constantly evolving, and so is digital PR, so the industry must adapt to keep up. In short, it’s no longer about building links, and strategies must put search first to create effective, creative campaigns that deliver results.
Kickstart your DPR with MRS Digital
With over 25 years of digital marketing experience, MRS Digital’s award-winning team has helped businesses across a range of industries drive high-quality traffic, increase conversions, and maximise return on ad spend.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or want to optimise existing campaigns, our PPC specialists are here to help.
Learn more about our DPR services or get in touch via our quick and easy contact form – one of our experts will get back to you within the hour.
