ChicExecs Co-Founder and Co-President Kailynn Bowling shares how to combine SEO and PR for brand recognition on Newsweek blog. Here is an excerpt to enjoy.
Public relations is much more than press releases. It plays a vital role in SEO as the primary way your business earns high-quality backlinks. Also known as inbound links, these links are crucial for improving your SEO ranking and overall online visibility.
Let’s look at how business leaders can direct their PR departments to better support their SEO efforts.
• High-Quality Backlinks
Search engines like Google direct users to the most reputable, relevant sites for their queries. To figure that out, Google considers the number and quality of backlinks when ranking your website.
PR efforts like media coverage, guest posting, or partnerships can result in these valuable, high-quality backlinks. When authoritative websites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your site is trustworthy and relevant, leading to improved SEO rankings.
• Organic Growth
Some people try to cheat search engines by buying backlinks. This is an SEO no-no that can get you into serious trouble. PR, on the other hand, naturally grows your backlinks over time, which is a green flag to search engines.
PR backlinks are earned, not bought, making them look natural and organic to search engine algorithms. This link-building approach is less likely to result in penalties, keeping you on Google’s good side.
• Well-Rounded Link Profile
Business leaders can encourage their PR teams to acquire backlinks from a variety of sources, including:
- News articles
- Industry publications
- Blogs
- Social media
This variety tells search engines that your brand is authoritative and relevant across different contexts, strengthening your SEO efforts.
• Social Signals
PR activities extend to social media, generating important social signals like shares and comments. Social signals aren’t direct ranking factors, but they do indirectly affect SEO by driving traffic and increasing brand visibility. That leads to more natural link acquisitions, boosting your rankings over time.
Read Kailynn’s entire blog here.
