Jason Khoo April 23, 2021 Digital PR might be an industry buzzword, but there’s definitely a reason for all of that buzzing you’re hearing. Digital PR is fairly relatively new to the marketing world, but business owners utilizing this type of content marketing are seeing massive returns, both in overall brand exposure and their search engine optimization.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR is similar to traditional PR in that the central purpose is to generate excitement about your brand and drive media attention to what you’re offering. But, unlike traditional PR, digital PR allows for a compounding return on investment. Companies that invest in these campaigns see results in the form of web traffic, general exposure, and SEO backlinking.
Digital PR can be implemented in various ways, including:
- Podcasts
- Video features
- Influencer marketing
- Interviews
- Thought Leadership & contributorship
One of the most popular (and arguably the most effective) digital PR strategies is Thought Leadership & contributorship, because of the high-quality backlinks it generates.
What is a Backlink?
Exactly what it sounds like, but a lot more complex. A backlink is a clickable hyperlink that directs back to your website from an external source. Backlinks can be found in blog posts, news articles, social media posts, business directories, YouTube descriptions, or anywhere else on the internet that allows you to create a clickable link.
When web crawlers “crawl” the internet and find links back to your site, this signals to search engines that people are talking about your site, and that it therefore must be relevant and important, and moves your domain higher up in search results.
Sounds easy enough, right? But, it’s a lot more complex than simply placing links back to your website around the internet. That can actually harm your website, and we’ll take a deeper look into that next.
Why High DA Backlinks Matter
Let’s first look at what a high DA website is and what exactly qualifies as a high DA site.
DA is an acronym for domain authority, which is how relevant a website is to its niche and the population it serves. The DA scale is 0-100, with higher numbers being more relevant. While the higher the number the ‘better.’ when getting your articles published on a website, it is most important that the domain you’re submitting content to has a higher domain authority than yours.
So, why does Domain Authority matter when it comes to digital PR? The higher a website’s authority, the more likely it is that Google and other search engines will view your content as relevant. Because a higher DA site is more “trustworthy” in the eyes of search engines, any outbound links on those sites are viewed as more important.
This is why it is absolutely crucial that you do deep research on any outlet to which you submit your content. There’s no use in doing all of the work to get a link back unless it’s a high quality link.
What Else Should You Know About Backlinks and Digital PR?
While general backlinks are effective, digital PR does you one better with your anchor text and targeted links.
Targeted Links
When you write content for a publication, you can often choose specific pages on your site where you want to send traffic. This is often done using a link to a popular blog post on your site, digital download, or your app.
Anchor Text
As with targeted links, you can very often control your link strategy when writing content for digital PR pieces. This means linking to specific pages on your site using the anchor text you want to use.
How Does Digital PR Affect SEO?
Digital PR boosts your website’s SEO strategy in a number of ways. High quality links are on the top of the list, they’re not the only factor that plays into your search engine rankings.
Other ways that digital PR can enhance your SEO include:
Increased web traffic
Web traffic plays an indirect role in your search engine optimization. While clicks to your website don’t necessarily equate higher rankings, the more popular your site is, the better. Once a user clicks on your site and finds enough value to return, you’ll start seeing the effects of that traffic in the form of higher rankings.
On-Page Time
The time a user spends on a page is a definite ranking factor in search engine optimization. While someone may stumble on your site through a paid ad or by accident, click around a minute or two and exit, digital PR can have the opposite effect.
If someone is reading your content on an external site, it means they already find the subject matter interesting. If the content is good enough that they then click through to your website, they’re definitely invested. If they’ve clicked through to your site, it means they’re looking for deeper information, or more on what you, specifically, have to say. This means longer dwell time on websites.
Can You DIY Your Digital PR?
Technically, you can DIY just about anything, but before you dive into the world of digital PR, you should know that ideating and implementing a digital PR campaign is both time consuming and very, very tedious, Publications must be approached in a very strategic way. Your pitch must be presented in a way that will definitely garner a “YES!” from target publications, and you absolutely must have a strong grasp of SEO.
Digital PR is an investment of both time and money. To generate the desired results, it is a good idea to choose a digital PR company to help you achieve your goals.
Is Digital PR Worth It?
Digital PR, when done correctly, is absolutely worth it. There is no better way to get the compounding results that digital PR provides, and there is no better way to generate high quality backlinks to skyrocket your SEO.
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