Digital PR

Why Digital PR Is Essential

Every modern business needs to be competitive in organic search. When customers search for products or services you offer, you need to rank well. Google’s search algorithm is the gatekeeper standing between you and your customers, so you need to impress Google first.

To determine when and how high a website ranks for a given search term, Google’s algorithm assesses more than 200 factors related to that website. The most powerful of those factors is the website’s link profile. If Google notes that the website is associated with other high-authority sites, via links, it will hold that website in higher regard, resulting in better organic search performance.

Digital PR is the most scalable and effective way for businesses to grow their link profiles and increase authority in organic search.

How Digital PR Works

For the uninitiated, earning high-authority links is very difficult. It’s a complex and time-consuming strategy that demands a lot of resources. It’s also the most powerful and sustainable of several dozen link building strategies.

Our Chicago digital PR agency has mastered the practice over many years, and we’re counted among a small handful of agencies worldwide that operate at the most elite level of link building. How do we do it? We make news. Our team produces original, data-driven stories, earning enviable media coverage and high-authority links.

There are two key characteristics that define our strategy: our stories are tangentially related to our clients’ businesses and they are newsworthy. By avoiding overtly promotional subjects, and appealing to mainstream audiences, the media is eager to feature our work and link to our clients’ websites.

What Makes Media Links So Powerful?

The relative authority of all websites—and their ability to rank for search terms—is neatly captured by a Moz-developed metric called Domain Authority (DA). The Domain Authority of a website can range from 0-100, based on how much traffic it serves, how much content it contains, and how much it’s trusted by users.

A vast majority of websites score below 50, many well below that. But the most-trafficked and highly-regarded sites on the internet score well into the 90s—YouTube is DA 99, Facebook is DA 95, Amazon is DA 95. Media entities also score very well—USA Today, The New York Times and Forbes are all DA 95; The Wall Street Journal is DA 94; Buzzfeed is DA 93.

The value of getting a business featured in a high-authority publication is nearly immeasurable. The lasting power of the link’s association, combined with brand visibility, makes this a rare and special victory in digital marketing. Good news is, we do it every day.

Is this more about PR or SEO?

It’s about SEO, first and foremost. Our work certainly increases brand visibility, but that’s not our priority. We are focused exclusively on earning links to build your authority so you rank higher for the keywords most important to your business, whether it's here in Chicago, or on a national scale. Our clients enjoy many benefits from our digital PR campaigns, including social buzz, radio and TV spots, even an occasional feature in print. But the most important results are the ones that influence Google’s algorithm: links.