Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction……………………..………………………………………….……….… 01
How PR & SEO are Intrinsically Linked……………………….………….. 02
Aligning your SEO & PR Content Strategies…………………………... 05
Guest Blogging for SEO………………………………………………………….. 08
The Best Websites for Guest Blogging………………………....………... 12
Winning Press Mentions with Backlinks………………………………... 19
How and When to Use Press Releases for SEO………….…………... 22
Making the Most of Your Content…………………………….……………. 25
Turning Organic Mentions into Backlinks……………….……………... 28
Conclusions…………………………………………………………….…….………... 30
INTRODUCTION
These days, SEO and PR are more intrinsically linked then ever. After all, two of the most
important SEO ranking factors are both natural outputs of PR: backlinks and content.
However, a lot of companies approach SEO and PR as two separate activities, run by separate
teams or managed by separate agencies. This can massively reduce the effectiveness of both
activities, while also increasing costs. Crazy or what?
But the good news is, it’s easier than you might think to create a combined SEO PR strategy. Here
at Publicize we manage digital PR and SEO on behalf of many startups and other businesses. So in
this guide I’ll be sharing all our industry knowledge, including:
01
HOW PR & SEO ARE
INTRINSICALLY LINKED
02
How PR and SEO are Intrinsically Linked
But if you want to rank for as many keywords as
possible, to onboard organic traffic at all stages of the
It’s all about the backlinks baby! purchase funnel, then you have to invest in content.
It really is! Even in 2019, with the hundreds of ranking
factors that Google now applies to organic search Meanwhile, public relations relies on pumping out
rankings, backlinks still remain one of the most great quality content in order to win earned media.
fundamental aspects of SEO. Once again – do you see where I’m going with this
(I’m sure you do)?
And not only are they still vital, getting the “right type”
You can therefore be way more efficient and get way
of backlink has become harder than ever. You have to
more value out of combining your SEO and PR
be reaching for backlinks from high authority sites and
content efforts. From research, ideas generation,
sites within your niche.
content writing and promotion. How you do this is
explained below.
These backlinks need to be “editorially placed” in that
they were placed there because they provide value to
the reader. Think of it as earning rather than winning a
backlink – you have to work hard to earn something! Digital footprint
What a user finds on the first page of Google when
So how do you earn backlinks from high authority
they enter your brand name is really important. It’s
sites?
the first impression you make with the vast majority
Enter stage right: the art of public relations. It’s the job of people who engage with your brand.
of digital PR to win media coverage in online
publications. Hey, we even class this as earned media – You want your website to be in the top spot,
are you starting to see the connection? obviously! Your social profiles should also occupy
some of the results. But to really make a good
When you win a piece of earned media, the article will impression, the average user is going to want to see
usually include a backlink to your site. And these are more than a nice website and witty Twitter account
super valuable backlinks: they’re editorially placed and saying how awesome you are.
in high authority or industry niche publication
websites. For maximum credibility (especially if you’re a
startup), users also need to find mentions of your
brand in high authority websites, such as publications
or review sites. This can propel you from an unknown
Content is king entity into a credible business.
My favourite marketing cliche! You’ve no doubt read
this countless times before, but that’s because it’s true. This is what PR delivers.
In a post rankbrain world, Google places more
While your digital footprint isn’t quite the same thing
emphasis on the quality of content than ever before.
as the SEO of your own websites, it’s all linked. The
more earned media you win – the more backlinks you
Let’s say you only invest in creating a few core pages
win – the more it improves your website’ ranking –
on your site, such as your homepage and product
the more articles mentioning your brand users can
pages, then earn some high authority backlinks, you
find when searching for you – the more visibility and
could be successful in ranking for a few broad keyword
credibility you have.
terms.
On the next page is a model example of a perfect
Google page one for a startup.
03
How PR and SEO are Intrinsically Linked
04
ALIGNING YOUR SEO & PR
CONTENT STRATEGIES
05
Aligning Your SEO and PR Content Strategies
Content strategy may be a grandiose term for many However, combining your PR and SEO objectives
startups and small businesses, but don’t let this deter begins with joining up the dots with your content.
you. You don’t need to intricately map out 12 months Here’s what a combined PR SEO content strategy
worth of blog posts, articles, guest posts and press looks like
releases.
Here’s a super high level walkthrough, but for a far ● Explore all related keywords, and see the
more thorough guide to keywords, I highly recommend monthly search volume and difficulty score of
this Backlinko guide. each. You want to aim for keywords in that
sweet spot of good monthly volume but lower
Step 1 difficulty.
● Think about body keywords that best describe
your product or service. These are short Step 3
descriptive terms. ● Now you’re clutching a fistful of valuable target
● For example, here at Publicize we specialize in keyword phrases, you need to think about the
PR for startups, so some of our body keyword type of content you need to create to capture
terms are “PR companies for startups”, “PR for these searches. This part is really easy. Just
startups” and “PR agency for startups”. Google each keyword phrase and look at the
content that’s ranking on page one.
Step 2
● Sign up to a keyword explorer tool such as
SEMrush or Moz (both of them offer 1 month
free trials, which is plenty of time).
06
Aligning Your SEO and PR Content Strategies
Step 4
● Know which keywords to use when writing
This research not only informs the type of content you press releases, and when providing quotes,
need to create on your website, to capture your target insights and opinions to journalists.
keywords, it also informs your PR strategy, enabling ● Know which keywords you should setup media
you to: monitor for, to track and respond to any news
stories, to win media coverage.
● Plan guest blogs on subjects related to owned
media content. This enables you to place
contextual backlinks into your guest blog
articles back to your supporting owned media
content.
● Plan “impactful” content campaigns, such as
original research or data studies, which are
published on your site. These are then
amplified with PR, such as via press releases.
Journalists can then write these up into
articles, which will usually contain backlinks to
the original content you’ve published on your
site.
-
07
GUEST BLOGGING
FOR SEO
08
Guest Blogging for SEO
Guest blogging is one of the best tools to use in a PR The infographic below shows how you can earn
SEO strategy. It’s the ultimate two birds with one those valuable backlinks from guest blogging.
stone. You get to build your exposure and credibility
with your target market by increasing your digital
footprint, while also earning backlinks from high
authority websites.
09
Guest Blogging for SEO
Not at all! ● There are two places you can get backlinks
when guest blogging: the author byline/bio
What has changed is that quality is now fundamental, and within the body of the actual article.
both in terms of the guest blogs you write and the ● Make sure the websites you’re pitching to
websites they’re published on. In the past, lazy SEO feature author bios for guest posts, which
agencies would spin half a dozen articles from the include a backlink to the author’s website.
same base article, then get them published on a There are two types of backlinks: follow and
bunch of spammy, low authority sites. It’s this nofollow. A nofollow backlink passes no
approach that no longer works. value to the website it’s linking to.
Therefore, when it comes to guest blogging
for SEO, you only want to guest post on
So here are the guest posting for SEO best practices
websites that offer follow backlinks.
in 2019:
● Check whether the author byline backlink
● Don’t guest post just for the sake of earning AND the backlinks within the body of the
backlinks. View this as a byproduct of guest article are follow or nofollow. You want at
posting. The primary purpose of guest least one to be follow, but preferable both.
posting, from a PR perspective, is to establish ● The consensus of opinion within the SEO
yourself as a thought-leader. So approach industry when it comes to guest blogging is
every guest blog you write in terms of how that contextual backlinks (those within the
you can demonstrate this, such as the main body of the article) are more valuable
valuable insights you can provide to the than backlinks within the author byline. So
reader. consider this when checking follow and
● Each guest post you write has to be original. nofollow backlinks.
Do not rewrite variations of the same article ● When it comes to inserting contextual
to get it published on multiple sites, or submit backlinks to your own site, they have to be
content that’s already on your site. This is editorially relevant (i.e. the content it links
called content spinning and can result in a to offers further reading on a subject). The
Google penalty. anchor text shouldn’t be stuffed full of
keywords, and only put one or two in per
article.
10
Guest Blogging for SEO
How to check if a publication uses follow or Step 2 - Press “CTRL+F” and a search bar will
nofollow backlinks? appear beneath the text box containing the HTML
code. Type in nofollow here:
In the next section we provide a list of websites that
accept guest blog submissions with follow backlinks.
But to check the backlink configuration of any
website that offers guest blogging, just follow these
steps.
11
THE BEST WEBSITES FOR
GUEST BLOGGING
12
The Best Websites for Guest Blogging
The below is a collection of websites that accept To learn how to pitch for a guest article submission,
guest posts across a range of industries, along with read our guide here.
the types of backlinks they offer and their DA
scores.
13
The Best Websites for Guest Blogging
14
The Best Websites for Guest Blogging
15
The Best Websites for Guest Blogging
16
The Best Websites for Guest Blogging
17
The Best Websites for Guest Blogging
18
WINNING PRESS MENTIONS
WITH BACKLINKS
19
Winning Press Mentions with Backlinks
Here’s one of the best ways to win press mentions, And when a journalist uses you as a source in an
which is a staple of all PR output. article, you’ve guessed it, you’ll usually get a
backlink. So it’s another great PR SEO win-win. Not
If there’s breaking news in your industry, such as a bad for a 10 minute email or phone call!
huge merger, a major piece of new legislation, or
even a big scandal, journalists will be all over it. But Below is a typical example of an expert comment
journalists don’t want to report the same news as that we regularly win on behalf of our clients.
everyone else. They’re always on the lookout for a
unique angle or original source. There are two ways you can go about this, which are
explained below. Combining both methods will
You can provide journalists with a unique angle, by usually help you achieve the most results.
offering to provide an expert comment or opinion.
After all, you know your own industry better than
most.
Option 1 - The proactive approach - jumping on news industry. Our guide to finding journalists and their
when it happens contact details talks you through how to do this.
Step 1 Step 3
This requires you to have media monitoring in place, to Your media monitoring will then alert you to any
keep track of what’s going on in your industry. Read our breaking news within your industry. Whenever there is
guide to media monitoring to find out how to set this up a big piece of news that you feel you can provide an
and the best free tools to use to do this. expert comment or opinion on, you just need to reach
out to your list of journalists.
Step 2
Read our guide to pitching to journalists for more
Once your media monitoring is in place, you also need information on how to write the perfect pitch.
to have a list of the main journalists that report on your
·
20
Winning Press Mentions with Backlinks
Option 2 - The reactive approach - responding to You can then respond to any requests that match your
journalists requests expertise. But be warned, the average request gets a lot
of responses from would be sources. So just focus on
The other option is to sign up to platforms where requests where you can clearly demonstrate your
journalists are looking for expert sources. The market expertise and suitability.
leader in the PR world is HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
It’s free to use and super easy. Once you sign up you’re SourceBottle is another platform that’s free to use.
sent three emails a day with a complete list of all the While it’s smaller than HARO, it comes with the benefit
stories that journalists are requesting sources for. of being able to filter the requests you receive by
industry. Sign up to both and double your chances of
· winning earned media with backlinks.
21
HOW AND WHEN TO
USE PRESS RELEASES FOR
SEO
22
How and When to Use Press Releases for SEO
A lot of people can get confused when it comes to
When to Use Press Releases for SEO Benefit
the subject of press releases and SEO. You can get
an SEO benefit from press releases, but it’s the
A press release is just a medium to transmit a
message, not the medium, that’s crucial.
message. It’s the message that’s the important
thing. If you’re announcing something that’s
When a Press Release Won’t Provide any SEO actually newsworthy, then there’s a good chance
Benefit a journalist will write up your press release into
an article. And when it becomes an article
A press release by itself won’t give you any SEO authored by a journalist, that article will most
benefit. Here’s why. probably contain a valuable backlink.
One of the ways you can send out a press release Some of the most effective announcements
is to put it onto a press release distribution service communicated via press releases, that generate
(called a wire service in the PR biz). Anyone can media coverage include:
upload any press release release to these
platforms – some you need to pay for, while others ● A company update that has
are free. significance to your industry – If you’re
announcing an update that will be of
In the past, you could upload press releases to interest to your industry, then there’s a
these services with follow backlinks inserted in the good chance the industry press will pick
text. This inevitably resulted in the wide scale this up. Read our guide to press releases
misuse of these wire services. People would just for more information on how to
write press releases about anything, such as to determine a newsworthy announcement.
announce some new carpet that was laid in their ● Original research – Any research that
office, just to get backlinks. sheds new light on a topic, challenges
conventional wisdom or captures the
So both Google and most wire services put a stop zeitgeist has a good chance of getting
to this. Reputable wire services set all backlinks to picked up by journalists when sent out in
nofollow by default. Meanwhile, Google doesn’t a press release. Publish the full findings
place much value in backlinks from these sites. on your website and include plenty of
infographics to encourage backlinks in
articles.
● Data analysis – If you’re a business that
processes plenty of data, form interesting
narratives and insights from this, publish
the findings on your site, then send out a
press release with full details of your
study and findings.
23
How and When to Use Press Releases for SEO
24
MAKING THE MOST
OF YOUR CONTENT
25
Making the Most of Your Content
By making the most of your content, we don’t Syndicating this content will provide a number of
mean the outdated practice of content spinning, indirect SEO benefits:
where you slightly rewrite an article half a dozen
times. As I mentioned above, this is very outdated ● Having lots of longform and engaging
SEO which could result in a nasty Google penalty. content across your website will increase
average session times and average pages
Instead, you want to get the maximum amount of per session. These are both important user
value out of every piece of earned media you win. signals that Google uses to determine the
relevance of a website when returning
Syndicate Guest Blogs on Your Own Site search results.
● Having lots of content that provides in
A great way of maximizing the value of content depth discussion on a certain topic
you’ve written is syndicating guest posts you’ve improves sitewide relevance, which help
authored onto your own site. rankings for target keywords over the long
term
This is where you re-publish a complete
copy-and-paste of a guest blog you’ve written on Below is an example of a syndicated article on our
your own site, such as in a blog post. website.
26
Making the Most of Your Content
Publish Rejected Guest Articles on Your Own Boast About all your Great Media Coverage
Site
The “as featured in” bar is the envy of every
Every now and again a website may accept your day-one startup. If you’ve won media coverage in
guest post pitch, but will then reject it when you top tier and respected publications in your
send the final draft. This is obviously very industry, boast about it on your homepage and all
disappointing. But look at it this way: you’ve other landing pages into your site.
written a great piece of longform content, so put it
up on your website as a blog post where it can This acts as an important trust signal to users,
capture search and gain backlinks. which can lower your website’s bounce rate and
increase your conversion. Lower bounce rate and
average session duration are important user
signals, which are now fundamental to SEO.
27
TURNING ORGANIC MENTIONS
INTO BACKLINKS
28
Turning Organic Mentions into Backlinks
As your business grows and your brand becomes
more widely known, you’ll start picking up organic
media mentions. This is where journalists or
bloggers mention your brand without you having
to do any PR activity.
A fundamental activity of PR is monitoring all If they don’t, send them a polite message asking if
media mentions that a brand receives, to track they can insert a backlink using your brand name
brand sentiments (or in plain English: keep on top as the anchor text. If an article mentions your
of what people are saying about you). But when it company, it’s editorially relevant and beneficial to
comes to PR for SEO you want to track all these user experience to provide a link.
mentions to ensure you gain as many backlinks as
possible. Journalists and bloggers are usually happy to do
this if you ask. But obviously be polite, and don’t
When you gain organic media mentions, it’s kind of keep them chasing them if you get no reply.
pot luck whether or not the journalist or blogger
will think to insert a backlink to your site in the Read our guide to media monitoring to find out
article. how to setup effective monitoring of your brand
mentions. And read our guide to finding
If they do – that’s great, you’ve earned a backlink journalists’ contact details, so you know who to
without having to lift a finger. That’s the SEO contact.
equivalent of finding a $20 dollar bill when you’re
walking down the street.
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Conclusion
Thank you for downloading and reading our PR & SEO Toolkit.
As you can see, PR and SEO have many crossovers. So by combining both of these marketing
disciplines into a coherent strategy, you can achieve more with less.
By using the advice in our toolkit, you can start immediately using PR to boost your website’s SEO.
And if you want to learn more about how to develop and executive your own PR strategy, download
our PR for Growth Playbook.
Our free 35 page guide teaches you everything you need to know to regularly win media coverage
and grow awareness and credibility of your crypto or blockchain product.
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