Link building has been a big focus for a lot of brands for the past few years. It allows their sites to get a boost in the SERPs and provides a new way to get more traffic back to their site. While link building is still important, public relations (PR) is currently taking center stage in the outreach efforts that can help build brand awareness, drive relevant traffic to your site, and improve your search rankings.
This was the topic of discussion in last week’s #SEMrushchat, and we were joined by Gini Dietrich, the CEO of the PR firm, Arment Dietrich, who had a lot of great advice about how to create and utilize great PR content to improve your SEO. Check out our chat recap to see what Dietrich and our other chat participants had to say.
Q1. In your opinion, is it possible to replace link building with PR? Why or why not?
PR doesn’t necessarily swoop in to replace link building as an entirely unique strategy; instead, PR offers a new strategy to get links back to your site as a result of interesting, engaging content. Therefore, both PR and link building can and should be closely aligned instead of trying to replace each other. You still need the latter, after all, to effectively drive traffic to your site and see an increase in page rankings.
Today, PR works hand-in-hand with SEO to build CREDIBLE links. It's relationship-building. And creating valuable content. #semrushchat
— Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) February 7, 2018
A1 Links are not replaceable with mentions or PR because it appears that PageRank is still in use, and some Algorithms, such as onces determining local authority require anchor text in links. PR is a good way to increase coverage of a topic, however. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) February 7, 2018
A1) Replace? I’m not sure. Amplify? Yes. Massively. Links seem to appear much more naturally through PR when a brand or person passionately immerses iself in / theirself in a community of like minded or topically interested others #SEMrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) February 7, 2018
A1: Not at all.
PR is a one shot strategy.
Link Building is the continuous way of getting your brand in-front of the people. #SEMRushChat— Saad AK (@SaadAlikhan1994) February 7, 2018
A1) We can't be so binary anymore. PR is part of holistic SEO/digital marketing what-have-you.#semrushchat
— David Rosam (@davidrosam) February 7, 2018
A1.) For enterprise, if you haven't replaced manual link-building with link-earning at scale, I feel bad for you son. #semrushchat
— Ryan Glass (@RyanGPhx) February 7, 2018
A1. In our opinion, when trying to replace link building with PR marketers need to keep in mind that the end result of link building goes one step further than that of PR. Just a brand mention isn't enough. You occasionally want to get links too! #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/BM9lHC2jBL
— AccuraCast (@AccuraCast) February 7, 2018
Your link building campaigns, after all, will be most successful when they are combined with an outreach effort. Content that is PR-driven often can help to build strong brand awareness, and it is also rooted deep in great storytelling, which increases the emotional investment readers are willing to make. This means they are more likely to click back to your site through that link and find out what else you have to say. Due to the nature of public relations campaigns, which are sometimes distributed on more credible sites, this may also help get you more reputable and high-quality links.
A1: We all know the very best way to get a link from a high domain authority, credible site is thru content contribution #semrushchat
— Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) February 7, 2018
A1 Linkbuilding doesn't have to mean begging people for links by email or spamming blogs or forums. Creative content campaigns can be effective at building links, and can be enhanced by the use of PR. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) February 7, 2018
A1. PR is strategically articulating your brand purpose that formulates an external story or narrative. This should include your customer success stories i.e. why you exist. If done well, the tactical results are links back to you AND your customer. #semrushchat
— Raj Nijjer (@RajNijjer) February 7, 2018
A1. Show you care before you want them to care about you. If it’s the right Influencer it should be a mutually beneficial relationship.
The goals and expectations must be established upfront & then the Influencer should give the CTA that fits best for them! #SEMrushchat https://t.co/LQ88iH2QXt— Brian Fanzo 😎Millennial Speaker (@iSocialFanz) February 7, 2018
A1: Good digital PR drives linkbuilding. They go hand-in-hand. Don't attempt to build links with content that doesn't have a compelling story. #SEMrushchat
— Domenica D’Ottavio (@DOttavio_PR) February 7, 2018
A1 PR is a fine art of spin doctoring and diversion of attention from bad press. Linkbuilding is a tactic of getting links back to a site - done in different ways . PR could help this if that was the focus.#SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) February 7, 2018
A1: Links are not replaceable, but PR does provide supplemental influence for your brand, domain, and overall exposure #semrushchat
— John Gibbings (@JohnGibbings) February 7, 2018
A1: In link building, PR is a tool - it cannot replace it. At the same time, just shooting out press releases with backlinks can backfire hard (seen quite a lot of penalties for that before). #semrushchat
— Kevin_Indig (@Kevin_Indig) February 7, 2018
Similarly, PR campaigns can have the most impact if you are intentional about link building efforts. Knowing which links to place, and where, within your content will help you get the most traffic back to your site from your PR content. Link building skills are a must to maximize the opportunity you are getting from the PR exposure.
a1) Where PR is important: Getting your content onto more popular sites where people can see it & you can get a good backlink #semrushchat
— Ryan Johnson (@rsj8000) February 7, 2018
A1) Link building without PR is like a one oared rowing boat I imagine. Also, if the brand is not pushing itself out and building audience do the links look unnatural anyway? I’d say so #SEMrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) February 7, 2018
A1 It's simply part of the linkbuilding mix imho #semrushchat
— Arnout Hellemans (@hellemans) February 7, 2018
Q2. How do you find influencers in your niche to build a relationship with them so they will link to you?
Building relationships with influencers in your niche — which can include everyone from popular bloggers to keynote speakers — can be one of the most important parts of your PR and link building outreach. You will be a lot more likely to get your content shared and distributed on great sites if you have a good relationship with the individual running the site first.
There are a number of different and excellent ways to find influencers in your niche that you can reach out to. Social media, however, will provide you with the largest pool of different influencers in one place; you can find everyone from journalists to bloggers to speakers to industry experts and more. You can use Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, Twitter, and even sites like Quora to find industry leaders and influencers who are open to social engagement and relationship building. Search for hashtags or topics of discussion, and see who is involved in the online communities you are in.
A2: You can find influencers in your niche via social media. Search relevant topic or hashtags and join Twitter chats to find the right people. #semrushchat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) February 7, 2018
A2: Look at your market place for what you think are good links and then apply the onion effect so each layer, customers, peer group, location, competitors, etc. This will all provide a plethora of potential links for your link building list #SEMrushchat @ginidietrich @semrush
— Alexis Huddart (@Flexoid) February 7, 2018
A2) Search (web, social media), check Twitter lists, ask your client which blogs they read.
Start helping them. Build relationships.
Shall I say 'bribe' again this week? :-)#semrushchat
— David Rosam (@davidrosam) February 7, 2018
A2 Where do I find them? SEMrush, Twitter, LinkedIn, Etc Etc
How do I approach them? I ask to do something together. I don’t ask to link to x content. That seems robot-ish. But asking to do something cool together, that seems fun. #SEMrushchat
— Hilary St Jonn (@HilaryStJonn) February 7, 2018
A2 Know your niche, use tools like quora, twitter search and fb groups to figure out where they are and start helping them without anoying them. But again it "all depends" on the niche and your positioning #semrushchat https://t.co/WqfzOspXkA
— Arnout Hellemans (@hellemans) February 7, 2018
And the key part is the relationship building. It is often much more effective to build an actual relationship with someone than to just ask for something up front (including just offering to pay them, as many influencers in the journalism and blogging fields may find that to be unethical). Help them and engage with them on social media; it doesn’t need to be an in-person friendship, a virtual relationship can work perfectly fine. Talk to them, instead of at them. Link to and share their content long before you ask for a favor in return.
A2 Influence the influencers - great content attracts links as we know. #SEMRushChat
— Simon Cox (@simoncox) February 7, 2018
A2 I've interviewed many marketing experts -- including @ginidietrich -- and posted them to either leading blogs (IDG Connect, etc) or my own. Using some in a book I'm writing, too. One hand washes the other. #semrushchat
— Louis Gudema (@LouisGudema) February 7, 2018
A2 Getting social on social networks is one way to build relationships, as is meeting people IRL. Be human and reach out a hand in friendship. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) February 7, 2018
A2 These were interesting strategies I've heard of: Make Good Friends and make good enemies. Takes the building of relationships one step further. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) February 7, 2018
If you have checked out social media and still haven’t found the influencers you are looking for, you can check out other tools like Buzzsumo, which makes it easy for you to find influencers, see what they share, and evaluate how well their content performs. Sometimes the most obvious answer will be right in front of you in the form of brand advocates.
A2: Here are some (free) tools: followerwonk, buzzsumo, https://t.co/sSNLy3FpLz, https://t.co/BQkIkoAr06 #semrushchat
— Kevin_Indig (@Kevin_Indig) February 7, 2018
A2: Look for true brand advocates. Those who already have an affinity for your product or those who you connect with at a conference or on social. Ultimately look for people you can call a friend and a colleague, not just a hired gun #SEMRushChat
— Joe Martin (@joeDmarti) February 7, 2018
A2. Partners programs. If my clients buy things from my partner by promocode.. and so on. Ask my partner link on my project. More partners — more links, MORE links! Give me MOOORE links! #semrushchat
— Алексей Махметхажиев (@vigodnee) February 7, 2018
In some industries, you may even have your best luck offline. Industry conferences, trade shows, or local networking communities can provide opportunities to connect with peers and influencers face-to-face. While virtual is easiest and has become commonplace, having an in-person interaction never hurts.
A2) Obviously identify who’s doing the talking both offline and online. Ask the client (because they will know the movers and shakers in their vertical better than you). Bear in mind an influencer might not even have a huge social presence online #SEMrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) February 7, 2018
A2: We find ours in person at trade shows and conferences. Invite them or pay them to speak at our user conference. Invite them to present on a webinar that we host and promote. Ask for an interview for a podcast or article. Meet face to face first! #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/UiHFJEaMoi
— Mike Bryant (@MichaelRo22ss) February 7, 2018
Q3. What are your top tips on using PR strategies for Link Building?
When we asked our chat participants about their top tips for using PR strategies to generate more link building opportunities, they had a lot of great (and diverse!) advice to share.
One of the most common tips was to do your research really, really well. Gini Dietrich said that she starts by doing a Google search for her keyword, and then recommends creating a list of the publications and blogs that come up. These are sites that you would want to share your content on, for your content to be published on or that you would want a link from. After all, you don’t just want your content to live on your site; you want it to be where most people in your target audience will see it. In many cases, that means having some content on other big-name sites, too.
A3b: You can also do a Google search for your keyword and create a list of publications and blogs that come up #semrushchat
— Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) February 7, 2018
With that in mind, you should make distribution part of your content planning from the beginning; you don’t want to wait until it is done and published before considering this. Ask yourself what publication would it best be suited for, who the audience is for the piece, and how you can best reach them. Sometimes, the answer will be on your blog, but when it comes to PR, there will be plenty of times when it won’t.
a3) Your best content shouldn't necessarily live on your site, but live where the most people in target audience can see it. #semrushchat
— Ryan Johnson (@rsj8000) February 7, 2018
A3. Our biggest tip is to focus on the angle that is most RELEVANT to your audience. Ask yourself what will make my data, my story, my opinion resonate with the target reader. #semrushchat https://t.co/J1wV9I3TZ7
— Digirank (@Digirank) February 7, 2018
A3 Build a list of Journalists you want to reach in twitter / facebook and start (paid) pushing / amplifying your awesome content / pr piece. But even bigger > promote your PR / content, it won't work by itself (sooo often forgotten, work your PR) #semrushchat https://t.co/xhXzgPXDdO
— Arnout Hellemans (@hellemans) February 7, 2018
You will also want to optimize the actual content you are publishing. This means choosing unique, story-driven content that will resonate with influencers and your audience alike. You should choose your links well, linking back to valuable content but never to service or home pages. You can use your author bios to do this strategically instead. Preferably, use full links instead of URL shorteners.
A3:
1. Unique content
2. More than 700 words
3. Addressing their audience
4. Clearly formatted
5. Apt author bios
6. Right linking to reference and sources if any
7. No links to product and service pages#semrushchat— Khushboo Chhatbar (@khush_chhatbar) January 31, 2018
A3: Make sure you have links in the actual Press Releases. Some URL shorteners give off false spam flags so you don't want that if you want to be trusted online. Plus, this gives great organic link juice to the website as well. #SEMRushChat
— DamianS (@DamianS1) February 7, 2018
A3. Only because it's relevant I'd like to share the success and what we learnt from a PR / Linkbuilding campaign last year. https://t.co/XU4XEZMpdp #semrushchat pic.twitter.com/DZYvMwBOJt
— Kirk Fletcher (@kirksfletcher) February 7, 2018
a3. Creating newsworthy content is as good a way as any for link building, but the news has to be good, in your face and has to become viral for maximum impact. Good knowledge of how to pitch a journalist is helpful as is tools like Pressrush. #semrushchat
— Craig Campbell (@craigcampbell03) February 7, 2018
A3 Don't be self promotional!
Have a brand purpose and story
THEN connect & follow journalists/contributors in your industry
Offer great/actionable reports or case studies to share & quotes
Offer a unique or contrarian viewpoint
Offer "Lessons Learned"#semrushchat— Raj Nijjer (@RajNijjer) February 7, 2018
Ultimately, it comes down to being human and building those valuable relationships. This takes time, and you should eliminate automation or avoid it as much as possible. Use tools like SEMrush, Buzzsumo, and HARO to track down everyone from journalists to bloggers and then build relationships with them. You can set up event interviews with influencers, or hire them to speak at your event, but remember that it should never be an “I did this so now you have to do this for me.” Instead, relationship building will be mutually beneficial over time.
A3. No automation. Be human in your communication and focus on building relationships. Link building follows #SEMrushchat
— Ankitaa G Dalmia (@Anki_Live) February 7, 2018
A3. Make sure it is mutually beneficial. If it's not a win win it won't be successful #SEMrushchat
— Rachel Miller (@rachelloumiller) February 7, 2018
A3: Build actual relationships with people (like you guys do at @semrush). There's no tool or way to automate this. It has to be built from the ground up and be real. #semrushchat
— Kevin_Indig (@Kevin_Indig) February 7, 2018
Q4. What are some examples of PR content that can be optimized?
PR content may not sound particularly interesting as a title, but the types of content you can create for PR purposes are very diverse.
You can, for example, write guest posts and submit them to publications. Not only will you get the valuable link building and relationship building, but you will also gain some credibility for being published on these sites. And if your content is well-written and valuable enough (and doesn’t resemble a thinly-veiled sales pitch), you shouldn’t have a problem landing any of those big publication guest spots. You can also be interviewed or conduct interviews for big publications. Even just giving or obtaining expert quotes can serve this purpose well.
A4b: If it’s valuable, strategic, & educational, you can place it in nearly every one of your targeted publications or blogs #semrushchat
— Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) February 7, 2018
A4. Using Inc interviews or big name publications guest posts as paid Facebook ads work as they’re more relatabile causing more shares & engagement than a brand ad or marketing spewage! #semrushchat
— Brian Fanzo 😎Millennial Speaker (@iSocialFanz) February 7, 2018
A4 I'd say real world interviews. I see these often put up onsite (and sometimes not, WTF!), but will lack critical pieces like being transcribed or not having an organized link building campaign around it. That's just leaving link equity on the table #SEMrushchat https://t.co/pcXjgvVsn7
— Jared Carrizales (@JaredCarrizales) February 7, 2018
A4) I absolutely hate overly optimised content pieces or PR pieces. There are many ways to signal topical relevance via information systems without pieces looking unnatural #SEMrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) February 7, 2018
A4) Also, please bear in mind you do not always want optimise PR pieces to death... and then cannibalise your own commercial transactional pages SEO in the process. PR is for buzz, winning hearts and minds, halo and semantic hints not a sledgehammer #SEMrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) February 7, 2018
Presenting original research or original data in the form of case studies can also be a great way to go. This is content that will be immensely valuable to your readers and industry peers, and since it is hard data and it is only yours, the odds of gaining backlinks is very high.
A4 What Proprietary data do you have that your consumers might be curious about. Fulfill that curiosity & answer those questions. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) February 7, 2018
a4. Content is content and can always be optimised, timing is key in my opinion and some form of strategy, it can go on your site, or any other site to be fair. Dont just throw stuff around do your research. #semrushchat
— Craig Campbell (@craigcampbell03) February 7, 2018
Written content isn’t the only option, either. Diversify what you are creating. Appear on or host podcasts, do live video events and don't forget webinars since you will likely reach a different audience with each. You can also create infographics or interactive data representations, both of which are engaging and easy to share. And you can never go wrong with custom images.
If your content doesn't seem to get enough traction, you can always check out pay per click options, like Facebook Ads or Google Adwords to help it get more visibility and engagement.
A4: Personally, I'd never send out anything that wasn't optimised. I get so frustrated when agencies are encouraging clients to run ads or PR campaigns that point to crappy landing pages. Optimise as much as poss first, then promote. Rinse and repeat. #semrushchat
— Peak District SEO (@PeakDistrictSEO) February 7, 2018
A4 You need to be realistic about SEO. Ahrefs says that only 5% of new content gets to Google pg 1 within a year. (And those are prob on sites w high domain authority.) Content marketing/SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. #semrushchat
— Louis Gudema (@LouisGudema) February 7, 2018
Q5. What are some metrics that you look at when measuring your PR and SEO efforts?
Your PR efforts will have a number of different goals, and SEO may only be one of them. That being said, it is still important to monitor how your public relations content is impacting your SEO and link building so you can decide if any changes need to be made.
A5) ALL brand content is advertising. If it doesn't have goals, isn't performing or isn't being measured you're doing it wrong. #semrushchat
— Ryan Johnson (@rsj8000) February 7, 2018
Over time, you should start to see changes in both your SERPs and your domain authority. If your PR campaigns are truly having the effect they should on your SEO, you should see gradual increases in both of these factors, which should lead to a direct increase in web traffic from all sources — organic and referral included — as a result. This should translate into more backlinks being acquired, and more contact form submissions and conversions. Ultimately, after all, you want your marketing goals to be tied to concrete, financial business goals.
A5b: Domain authority, SERP changes, increase in web stats, referral traffic #semrushchat
— Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) February 7, 2018
A5: Website Visitors, Backlinks range in size, Mentions, Qualified Leads, Engagement, Social Shares to improve overall reputation, Bounce Rate etc. are important metric when measuring the PR and SEO efforts.
#semrushchat— Ashok Sharma (@Ashok83) February 7, 2018
A5) Metrics vary depending on campaign, BUT whether PR or SEO, ALWAYS remember metrics should be tied to REAL business goals. Often SEOs use metrics that are confusing or meaningless to the company board. Try to speak the board's language! #semrushchat
— Mike Gracia (@MikeGracia_) February 7, 2018
A5 Some success metrics include things such as social shares; page views, links acquired; contacts, notable mentions. #SEMRushChat
— Bill Slawski ⚓ (@bill_slawski) February 7, 2018
A5. I personally always look at traffic to a website and rankings, 3rd party metrics like Domain Authority, Trust and Citation flow are 3rd party metrics, good as a guide but never chase metrics IMO. I want links on sites with decent traffic #semrushchat
— Craig Campbell (@craigcampbell03) February 7, 2018
A5: New links and their value, DA changes (upwards in the long term, one hopes!), genuine visitors (of course), bounce rates, pages visited, most valuable referral sites, inbound enquiries, keyword ranking in SERPs #semrushchat
— Chris Lee (@CMRLee) February 7, 2018
A5: Traffic, links, engagement, leads, money. #SEMRushChat https://t.co/TaSeofbbq0
— Gyi 🌮 (@gyitsakalakis) February 7, 2018
As the results from your PR content become more widespread, you will not only see more traffic, but you will see better quality in traffic. Users coming to your site will be more relevant to your brand, and you will see an increase in things like CTR and time spent on the page, while bounce rate may decrease. Eventually, this should lead to an increase in ROI.
A5: CTR, Time on Page, Shares, Referral spikes, and of course conversions ie: leads and sales. Not all pieces will win in all areas, so it's important to work out which strategy ticks which box. #SEMrushchat
— Peak District SEO (@PeakDistrictSEO) February 7, 2018
A5. Reach. Visitors Driven. Engagement of those visitors. Conversion from those visitors. #SEMRushChat
— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) February 7, 2018
A5: Duration, scroll activity, pingbacks, genuine engagement, goal completions. #SEMRushChat
— Narmadhaa (@s_narmadhaa) February 7, 2018
You should also see an increase in brand mentions, which any social listening tool can help you identify. In terms of social media, you should start seeing more traction on your social content, including engagement in the form of retweets, likes, shares, and general conversation. Make sure you are monitoring the conversations about your brand to make sure that the sentiment is positive.
A5: Brand mentions, backlinks, referral traffic, social mentions #semrushchat
— Kevin_Indig (@Kevin_Indig) February 7, 2018
A5. Brand Mentions is one to track when running PR. Also will want to factor social media reach into that espcially if your PR is focused around a piece of content. For SEO You want to see a diverse range of *industry* specific mentions and links being generated #SEMrushchat
— Kirk Fletcher (@kirksfletcher) February 7, 2018
A5) Positive brand mentions versus any negative brand sentiments. NPS of course is one minus the other (advocates minus detractors). In reality too increased search volume on brand name, mentions online and in press. #SEMrushchat
— Dawn Anderson (@dawnieando) February 7, 2018
Metrics that you should look at when measuring #PR and #SEO efforts include:
* Referral traffic earned
* Social shares earned
* Domain PR (or some measure of authority)
* Related mentions
* Secondary links earnedA5. #semrushchat
— AccuraCast (@AccuraCast) February 7, 2018
A5: 1:Rankings
2: Engagements
3: Brand- Awareness (As a Whole)
4: Brand Name in Google's Related Searches.
5: Traffic. #SEMRushChat— Saad AK (@SaadAlikhan1994) February 7, 2018
A5: Engagement on social (retweets, likes, shares), website traffic - which pages are people spending more time on? What outlets are bringing in more traffic? Analytics is a powerful tool that helps measure all of these. #SEMrushchat
— Smartly Done Websites (@SmartlyDoneWebs) February 7, 2018
That is all for today! Make sure you join us this week on #SEMrushchat as we host a Content Writing Bootcamp with special guest, Brian Honigman!
