What are backlinks?
If you have been reading articles on the internet, you will notice some URLs attached to texts. These hyperlinks are called backlinks.
They are links to other websites or other pages on a website.
The quality and quantity of backlinks on your website affect its SEO performance. But not all backlinks have the same value. Links from authoritative websites have more value than those from small lower-value websites.
Learn more about the difference between a link and a backlink
Outbound links
If you link to other websites on your site, these are called outbound links.
The linking web page uses these outbound links as resource links and recommendations to increase the article's authenticity.
Inbound links
These are links that you receive on your site. The quality of inbound links on your site affects your website's performance on SERP.
Why are back-links from public relations activity important
There are many tactics to attract links, including content marketing, asking for links, and running competitions. However, press activity generates higher-value backlinks than other link-building activities.
Newspaper websites and journalists' blogs have high levels of authority, so if you get ‘follow’ links from these sites, you will inherit some of this authority.
Due to this, press links are good for SEO because they meet Google’s guidelines of expertise, authority, and trust.
Imagine getting your brand name on famous news websites! Getting links brings credibility and authority to your website. The tactic for getting backlinks for SEO using PR links is called digital PR backlinking.
Some examples of media news outlet PR websites include:
But don't get the wrong idea that you can easily land your links on these authority websites.
Get your first high PR backlinks using these tips:
- Make a strong email pitch. This will determine the success of your PR activity. Make sure to create a striking email that gets the attention of journalists immediately.
- Prepare a high-quality guest post to submit as a resource. Ensure that you have relevant industry data to share.
- Make a HARO profile and log in as a source of relevant information. This makes you a valuable media resource for upcoming industry stories and exclusive interviews.
Benefits of digital PR backlinks
In this section, we will discuss link-building using PR best practices and its benefits. Like any other PR, digital PR aims to maintain relevance and influence in your industry. This section will discuss link-building using PR best practices and its benefits. Some of the other benefits are:
You get editorial links
First, let's define editorial links. Editorial links come from digital news outlets that reference your website as a point of reference in their news story using a link. Because of your primary research, your brand name and content get featured on editorial websites. You are the source of the news.
As such, editorial backlinks are more likely to have a rel="dofollow" attribute.
Some media outlets may give you a 'dofollow' backlink. If this happens, other industry websites will see your content from the feature and consider your website an authority website. You may also get inbound links from these websites without the need to reach out to them one by one.
Editorial backlinks are high-quality backlinks from the industry that bring a lot of value to your website's SEO performance.
High-quality links are unique
If your news story gets an exclusive feature in Forbes, you will have one link that your competitors do not have. This gives you an edge in Google’s algorithm. All links are unique.
Once you get high PR ‘dofollow’ backlinks from a news website, you have to promote the content.
Treat it as a valuable resource in the industry to increase your authority. This increases the chance of other niche websites linking to your PR content, giving you more backlinks!
Increase E-A-T for your website
Expertise, Authority and Trust are some of Google's major ranking factors.
Expertise
If you get featured on news sites for relevant industry data, Google sees you as an expert in your field. In turn, other websites see you as an industry expert and a reliable source of information.
Authority
Since you are now regarded as an industry expert, your authority in your niche increases too. This authority is inherited by other pages in your website to bring in more organic traffic.
Trust
Google sees backlinks as votes of confidence from other websites. The more inbound links you have from your niche, the more your content's seen as trustworthy. Since you are already an industry expert and authority, other webmasters can easily trust your future content.
Thus, you can boost your SERP ranking with a single high-quality PR backlink.
Increase domain authority and organic traffic
While it is true that link-building tactics increase domain authority, some don't convert to organic traffic. However, using public relations to build links often translates to organic traffic. You are more likely to get clicks from customers when your content is published on media websites.
For example, if you get an exclusive interview on Sports Illustrated, other sports blogs and enthusiasts are inclined to check out your website. This drives organic traffic to your homepage or any other web page on your site. As a result, your website's domain authority increases.
Build brand awareness to drive sales
The AIDA sales funnel model starts with brand awareness to drive sales to your website. Moreover, you are not simply building awareness to a generic audience. You are establishing brand awareness to a relevant audience in PR backlinking.
Let's say you gain a high PR dofollow backlink from an agriculture publication website. Your brand sells gardening tools for local farmers. Since the publication's audience is relevant to yours, awareness of your brand leads to sales.
Unlike other link-building tactics, link-building using public relations ensures that the audience you are writing for can be converted to sales. With a good digital PR approach, referral traffic from news websites proceeds to your sales funnel model.
What is digital PR, and how can it get backlinks for you
Digital PR is not just about backlinking; it is the sum total of different tactics to gain traction and presence in the online world. Sure, some tactics involve SEO and link building for PR, but digital PR uses different metrics to track progress.
Some of the metrics for digital public relations strategies are:
- Brand awareness and authority
- Online or offline sales
- Website traffic from digital PR
- Social media following and engagement
- Organic ranking
Digital PR and SEO are overlapping strategies to maximize positive results. Digital PR aims to increase brand awareness and sales for your website. On the other hand, SEO aims to bring organic traffic to your website through site optimization.
Digital PR and backlinks
You can also make comments containing links to your article. It can be on other local news websites or relevant niche sites.
Reach out to local news publications to get backlinks for your media article. Even if the news website doesn't link to you, you might be lucky enough to get your brand name mentioned. In the end, this benefits your digital PR campaign and brand awareness.
Other advantages of combining SEO and PR
There is no doubt that PR link building generates high-quality backlinks. In turn, this positively affects the SEO performance of your website.
But there are other benefits from combining SEO and digital PR strategies:
- Your website can get measurable and consistent high-quality traffic from news websites.
- News websites are high-authority domains. Getting links from these sites passes authority onto your website.
- PR backlinks are votes of confidence that, in essence, promote your website for free.
- Since you have a good brand reputation, PR websites see your website as an authority. They consider you a relevant and credible source of information. A good SEO performance makes digital PR campaigns easier.
Even though there are premises to meet before securing PR backlinks, there are workarounds if your website does not meet these premises. You can always talk to a digital PR agency to help you with your cause.
