An introduction to Digital PR in Australia
Digital PR
An introduction to Digital PR in Australia
Digital PR is an SEO strategy using PR tactics to build high authority and relevant links. Digital PR is booming across the world; however, in Australia, it is a relatively untapped tool for businesses. This is a missed opportunity, as it can significantly benefit Australian businesses by boosting organic rankings and enhancing brand awareness.
In this guide, I’m going to explain what digital PR is, why you should invest in it, and how to get started.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR is a tactic to acquire backlinks. But not just any backlinks. If we look at all backlinks as being in 3 different tiers, Digital PR is Tier 1. It focuses on securing top-tier, high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant online media outlets by implementing PR tactics to pitch stories from your brand to press. In contrast, traditional link building falls under Tier 2, while social and citation links constitute Tier 3.
Why Does My Website Need Backlinks?
A backlink refers to a link from one website to another. These links hold significant weight in SEO as search engines interpret them as endorsements of your site’s reliability. Accumulating backlinks from a diverse range of authoritative websites is crucial for SEO, as they enhance your site’s perceived trustworthiness and contribute to ranking higher on search engine results. When your website appears high in these search results, you will see a boost in organic traffic to your website.
If you’ve already been building backlinks to your website without Digital PR, you’ve probably been doing traditional link-building, and that’s great! A diversified link profile is pivotal for gaining a competitive advantage in the eyes of Google and it is wise that you continue traditional link building in line with Digital PR efforts. Nonetheless, given that many businesses have long engaged in traditional link building, gaining a competitive edge through this method can prove challenging, as many struggle to differentiate their link profiles. Going after tier 1 links with a Digital PR approach can set them apart from the rest, as not many businesses will have these types of links.
Digital PR Is The Best Method For Building High-Quality Backlinks To Your Website
Google and other search engines prioritise high-quality links, a point highlighted in a recent leak of Google documentation. This leak underscored the importance of backlinks from reputable news outlets with significant traffic, which is precisely what Digital PR aims to deliver. By leveraging Digital PR to secure links from authoritative sites, you can greatly enhance your website’s ranking on Google.
Digital PR also focuses on earning backlinks organically through the creation of shareable content. Unlike paid links, which Google often deems as spam and disregards, these naturally acquired links are more likely to be recognised, boosting rankings and search visibility rather than risking a drop.
Additionally, Digital PR helps diversify a website’s backlink profile by securing links from a range of different sites. The more unique websites linking to yours, the stronger the signal to Google about your page’s credibility, leading to higher rankings on the search engine.
Moreover, Digital PR enhances brand reputation. Google places significant importance on online reputation. If your brand is viewed as reputable and trustworthy, it’s more likely to achieve better rankings. Strengthening your online reputation also contributes to improving Domain Authority (or Domain Rating), which further increases visibility in search results.
The Halo Effect of Digital PR
Digital PR offers several additional benefits beyond improving search rankings. At its core, Digital PR is a branch of public relations, delivering many of the same advantages as traditional PR strategies.
Not only does Digital PR enhance your online reputation for Google search results, but it also builds brand reputation among potential customers. When people see your brand featured in a trusted news source, they are more likely to trust and engage with it, which can lead to increased sales.
Furthermore, Digital PR boosts brand awareness by connecting your brand to relevant conversations and reaching new audiences. This not only drives traffic to your website but can also lead to conversions.
How To Get Started With Digital PR
Journalists are often pressed for time and actively seek out experts and data to develop stories. Digital PR involves offering such expert insights, focused on topics of which your business has significant knowledge.
Securing placement in top-tier publications requires crafting a compelling story to pitch to journalists, which generates interest and encourages coverage for your brand. Generally, there are 3 main tactics used to do this. Let’s begin with hero Digital PR campaigns.
Hero Digital PR Campaigns
Hero Digital PR campaigns usually involves data-driven research studies or creative campaigns created specifically for Digital PR purposes.
Data-driven campaigns showcase your industry expertise and are a great way to establish credibility and trust with both journalists and your audience. Such campaigns offer journalists unique insights supported by trusted data. This encourages journalists to write a story on the data which includes your client.
Creative campaigns on the other hand can be anything from dream job campaigns to visual experiments, fun interactive sites to fake products. These creative campaigns must have an element of virality and can capture reader’s attention.
Here are the examples of hero Digital PR campaigns:
Quick Win Digital PR campaigns
Quick win Digital PR includes reactive and proactive campaigns. Reactive PR is a PR technique that involves reacting quickly to breaking news, trending topics, and external events. By providing commentary or data to journalists, you can insert your brand in relevant conversations, generating links and boosting brand awareness. Proactive Digital PR is similar, however, these are events we can preplan for, such as Christmas and Halloween.
Here are the examples of quick win Digital PR campaigns:
Product- or Service-Led PR
If you have a strong product or service can also use product- or service- focused PR to earn links and media attention. This can work particularly well near shopping events, such as Christmas, Black Friday, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, EOFY Sales or if your product or service has a marketable USP, such as low cost during the cost of living crisis or helps solve a common problem which is of newsworthy importance.
The Approach and Execution of your Digital PR Strategy Hinge on Various Factors
- Audience preferences – What topics resonate with them? What type of content is useful to them?
- Competitors’ backlink profiles and link-building strategy – Which publications do they have links from? How did they attain these links? Emulate their success while also diversifying your sources for acquiring links.
- Publications you aspire to be featured in – What do they deem newsworthy? What content does your brand offer that aligns with their interests and criteria?
Campaign Outreach
Once your campaign is ready, the next step is to capture the attention of journalists. This involves employing traditional PR methods, such as pitching to appropriate journalists at target publications using press releases or email pitches. At this stage, it’s crucial to identify the news angle of your story, share the key information necessary for the story and customise your pitches to each journalist.
The Final Word
Digital PR is extremely important for SEO strategy and has numerous other benefits outside of just search engine optimisation.
At Prosperity Media, we specialise in leveraging digital PR to achieve remarkable results for your brand.
Explore our digital PR services and connect with our team to discover how we can elevate your brand’s visibility online.
