How to Combine SEO and Digital PR to Boost Online Visibility

First of all, let’s start by correctly defining the sphere of Public Relations (PR), which means those communication activities that aim to build and consolidate the brand’s relationship with its audience.

A public is made of customers, employees, shareholders, business partners, representatives of institutions or industrial associations or other sector organizations, and, more generally, the entire company’s entire community.

Those involved in public relations essentially carry out branding work, which transposed to the web world translates into Digital PR.

Alongside traditional PR activities, Digital PR activities play a complementary role. The focus is on the online presence, interaction with the public, and, in general, everything that influences the brand’s perception.

Therefore, it is easy to understand how an SEO strategy can constitute a competitive advantage in public relations, providing for a series of operations that aim to improve visibility and credibility on the web.

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Domain Authority Equals Trust

The purpose of a PR strategy is always to increase brand awareness by maximizing exposure. But how then to measure all these things and quantify the result achieved?

Here is where SEO PR comes into play, a strategy based on measurable data and accurately returns the ROI of traffic volumes and backlinks received.

The Domain Authority (DA) is an essential metric to consider in this area. It is a score attributed to the domain that determines how reliable the content within the website is.

By improving the DA, the credibility of the pages under that domain in the eyes of search engines will grow in parallel, which is to be considered a preparatory step to extend the network of links to your site through backlinks, as we will see in the next paragraph.

Extend the Audience and Get Backlinks

From a ranking standpoint, anyone involved in SEO knows how crucial a link-building strategy is to get to the top of the search results in the SERP.

This aspect also involves Digital PR. A backlink strategy is a basis for building a network of contacts within the sector, expanding the public, and creating more and more curiosity around the brand.

The positioning of a link on third-party web pages can guarantee reliability both for users and for the search engine, especially if the backlink comes from a site or magazine that already enjoys certain notoriety.

In the editorial field, receiving backlinks from an author or a newspaper that is already well-positioned on the web means associating the brand image with a voice already recognized as authoritative.

The user will undoubtedly have an extra incentive to click on the link and expect to find reliable information.

Sentiment Analysis: Keywords and Trends

It is another aspect not to be overlooked when discussing SEO PR.

Sentiment analysis deals with extracting and analyzing the opinions expressed by users about products or services and, more generally, pulling ideas from keywords, starting with natural language processing.

To build a clear picture of user sentiment, you can use sources such as user-generated content, like reviews and comments on social media. This activity is called social listening.

Analyzing sentiment is an action that can be carried out manually or using tools based on machine learning systems, such as Talkwalker or MonkeyLearn.
Usually, the second option is the most recommended, although its limitations. For example, the machine cannot understand jargon or sarcastic, or ironic comments.

In general, sentiment analysis technology helps process more significant amounts of data in less time and understand what users interacting with your brand channels are talking about.

Many of these analysis tools have features that allow the extraction of keyword lists, which are very useful for outlining a more precise overview of sentiment, and better understanding what the users talking about your brand on the internet are talking about.

How can I better understand sentiment starting from the keyword lists?

Isolating recurring words and phrases can be handy for identifying trends and understanding which aspects are most discussed and how people talk about them.

What aspects are people’s favorites?

For example, sentiment analysis of this type could reveal a public that is very satisfied with the products purchased on your e-commerce but highly disappointed with the quality of the shipping service.

Having this type of information available will allow you to work to improve the customer experience and provide targeted content on those topics that your audience seems to appreciate less and regain their trust.

The Role of the Press Release in SEO

A press release is a fundamental tool in PR activities. It essentially serves to share helpful information with those who want to write about it, whether the press, bloggers, or other websites.

Not all news and brand updates need to be conveyed by a press release, typically used when the announcement takes on more official tones.

But what role do press releases play in SEO? Conveying a press release on the web is, above all, a job of brand awareness, but how can it bring traffic to the site?

Firstly, a press release that appears in the search results in the News section of Google will undoubtedly attract a more significant number of clicks. Secondly, if the content is original and captivating, it will be easier to find sites, magazines, or bloggers who share it.

This strategy translates into an increase in traffic to the site through backlinks and referrals, consequently bringing the site to the top of the search results.

Attention, however. Today press releases are no longer a direct means of optimization for search engines, but they are instead used to bring traffic indirectly. It does not mean that they should not be taken into consideration within an SEO PR strategy, but simply that they should not be a priority.

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