Do you want to take your SEO to new heights in 2025?

If the answer is yes, it’s time to start using SEO strategies with digital PR (public relations). 

This is because digital PR is excellent for:

  1. Boosting your brand’s credibility to achieve thought leader status 
  2. Attracting top-tier backlinks from respected websites to improve keyword rankings 
  3. Networking with relevant influencers, bloggers, and journalists to form lucrative partnerships 
  4. Exposing your products and services to new audiences 

In other words, digital PR perfectly merges media promotion with SEO. 

Specifically, digital PR techniques are the cream of the crop for generating authoritative backlinks that will help you outrank competitors. 

As a bonus, you’ll build brand loyalty, expand your online reach, and generate lots of referral traffic. 

So, there’s no reason NOT to start using digital PR in 2025, unless you’re happy with ranking at the bottom of page 2 or lower. 

In this digital PR guide for beginners, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about the practice, including how you can use it to revolutionize your SEO – so don’t go anywhere! 

The Components of a Digital PR Strategy 

First, let’s learn a little bit more about digital PR as a practice and how it applies to SEO. 

At its core, public relations is about managing a brand’s reputation through networking with the media. Outside of the internet, PR involves reaching out to newspapers, local TV stations, and mainstream news organizations. 

Digital PR is the online equivalent of this and entails networking with bloggers, social media influencers, and online publications (like The New York Times’s website instead of the print newspaper). 

Since PR campaigns are so effective at reaching new audiences and swaying public opinion, it should be no surprise that they work well for marketing purposes, too. 

Whenever PR entered the digital space, earning backlinks became a major part of the practice. 

This is because backlinks are a major ranking factor on search engines like Google. The idea is that if trustworthy websites link back to your content, it’s a sign that your content is high-quality and accurate. 

Therefore, digital PR professionals pursue backlinks to:

  1. Rank higher on search engines  
  2. Generate referral traffic 
  3. Boost a brand’s credibility 

For example, having one of your website’s links appear on a website like The Washington Post is a major credibility boost to any brand, as TWP readers will take notice. 

Not only that, but TWP is an extremely authoritative website, meaning earning a backlink from it will provide lots of link equity (aka ranking power) to your site. 

As you can see here, it has a Domain Rating (DR) of 93, with the highest possible score being 100. That’s some serious authority! Besides that, the domain sees millions of organic visitors each month, giving you plenty of chances to pick up referral traffic from your link. 

While The Washington Post is a very mainstream example, it’s not unheard of for smaller companies to gain backlinks with DR scores in the 80s and 90s through digital PR. 

Building backlinks like these will make it easier to rank #1 on Google for your most important keywords, which is key to expanding your online reach. 

The 3 main goals of digital PR campaigns are:

  1. Generate backlinks for better SEO 
  2. Boost the brand’s credibility and online reach 
  3. Introduce the brand to new audiences 

Now, let’s take a look at the primary components of successful digital PR campaigns. 

Content creation: Data-driven storytelling, press releases, and infographics 

Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness, generate traffic, and improve SEO – so it should come as no surprise that digital PR leverages its power. 

Here are a few quick stats that back this up:

  • 63% of marketers have used content marketing to foster brand loyalty within the past year. 
  • 88% of purchase decision makers believe that thought leadership status (which you achieve through putting out great content) is effective at enhancing the public’s perception of their brands. 

However, there are certain types of content that best suit digital PR campaigns. In particular, you’ll want to focus on:

  • Newsworthy press releases. Cision’s 2024 State of the Media Report polled thousands of online journalists to see what they wanted from digital PR professionals the most. Topping the list at 76% were news announcements and press releases, meaning publishing these will lead to lots of valuable backlinks from online publications. However, for your press releases to have the most impact, they must cover truly newsworthy topics. Also, if your primary goal is to build backlinks, you should avoid covering time-sensitive events. 
  • Data-driven storytelling. According to Cision’s report, the second thing (63%) journalists most want from digital PR professionals is original research (data-driven stories, studies, surveys, etc.). Publishing original research is another backlink magnet that will help you generate referral traffic and improve your domain authority. The types of original research that generate the most buzz and shares are data-driven stories, so you should leverage the power of storytelling to enhance your findings. 
  • Visual content like infographics and videos. The second you add a visual component to a piece of content, its sharing potential rises by 40%. Accordingly, digital PR campaigns make heavy use of visual content like engaging infographics and informative videos (how-tos, tutorials, etc.). 

Outreach to niche media outlets and influencers 

Networking is another major component of all public relations campaigns, digital or otherwise. 

With digital PR, your networking efforts will center around bloggers, niche media outlets, social media influencers, and online journalists. 

For local digital PR campaigns, you’ll need to dial things in even more by targeting local news websites, social media groups specific to your geographic area, and local community sites. 

Besides distributing press releases and original research, you should reach out to influencers and journalists through platforms like LinkedIn. Instead of hounding these individuals for link placements and brand mentions from the get-go, play the long game and build a meaningful connection with them first. 

This means commenting on their posts, making candid recommendations, and taking a general interest in what they do and post about. 

Only after you’ve built a strong rapport should you broach the topic of forming a partnership for backlinks and shout-outs. 

The same is true for influencers on social media. 

Influencer marketing is enormously effective right now, as 68% of users on social media follow their favorite brands, and 69% of customers state they trust the product recommendations provided by their favorite influencers. 

Also, you don’t need to partner with mega influencers who have millions of followers to find success with influencer marketing. 

That’s because nano-influencers (between 1,000 and 5,000 followers) boast the highest engagement rates with their audiences. Micro-influencers (between 5,000 and 30,000 followers) are also seen as subject-matter experts and can be extremely valuable partners.

Amplification through social media and other digital platforms 

Lastly, digital PR aims to extend a brand’s reach as far and wide online as possible.

Here’s how to amplify PR campaigns online:

  • Social media. It’s a best practice to share all your content through your social media platforms, not just on your main website. At the same time, many digital PR professionals create pieces of content specifically for social media, such as brief videos and image carousels breaking down relevant topics. A common tactic is to repurpose long-form content, such as blog posts, into smaller chunks for social media content like infographics and carousels. 
  • Podcasts. Appearing on niche podcasts provides great opportunities for demonstrating your expertise, building industry connections, and boosting your brand’s credibility. As a bonus, podcast appearances also give you a chance to acquire backlinks (both from a link to your site in the podcast’s description and whenever other site owners share the episode with their audiences). 
  • Webinars and live virtual events. Another way to demonstrate your expertise and establish your brand as a thought leader is to hold live virtual events like workshops. Here, you get to educate your audience and build their trust by answering their questions in real-time. Ideas for webinars include product demos, workshops, and interactive tutorials. 

Why Digital PR is Essential for SEO 

Next, let’s look at the SEO benefits provided by digital PR tactics. 

For one, digital PR is a staple of modern link-building campaigns since it’s so effective at generating extremely authoritative backlinks from trusted websites. 

High-DA (domain authority) backlinks like these will have the most significant impact on your search rankings, which is why they’re highly sought after. 

Additionally, digital PR provides the following SEO benefits:

  • Boosting E-E-A-T. Google’s human team of quality raters uses the E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) acronym as the standard for what a quality website should possess. As a result, Google’s search algorithm looks for these components in the web pages it has indexed for certain keywords. Digital PR for E-E-A-T is fantastic because its tactics typically involve boosting your credibility and demonstrating your expertise (such as the various methods mentioned in this article). 
  • Aligning with Google’s algorithm updates. Google is constantly tweaking its search algorithms to make them more adept at detecting spam and other policy violations. Certain link-building techniques of the past, such as using link farms and PBNs to accrue tons of links, don’t work as well anymore due to constant spam updates. The good thing about digital PR is that it does not violate any of Google’s policies, and is one of the few link-building techniques that they actually praise. 
  • Driving high-quality traffic. Backlinks aren’t the only reward for engaging in digital PR, as the links and mentions you accrue will also drive organic traffic to your website. This will provide you with a steady pipeline of prospects that you can convert into customers. 

As you can see, digital PR checks all the boxes when it comes to improving SEO. You’ll improve your authority, rank higher, and generate more traffic – which is what SEO is all about! 

Future Digital Trends to Watch Out for in 2025

Before we wrap up, let’s take a look at some of the biggest trends emerging in the digital PR space at the moment. 

These trends could wind up shaping your future digital PR campaign, so it’s important to take note of what’s changing. 

Trend #1: The rise of AI-driven personalization 

One of the nearly endless uses of AI tools is to personalize your messaging and customer experience. 

Since AI can process big data, learn from user behavior, and automate cumbersome tasks, you can use it to enhance your customer experience and add personal touches to your messaging. 

A lot of this has already taken place for many years now, such as an Ecommerce store like Amazon recommending related products to you, or Netflix providing movie suggestions based on your past viewing habits. 

However, we’re beginning to see this trend take off in other industries, such as finance, education, and digital marketing. 

AI-powered tools will help you develop custom email marketing campaigns that are smart, efficient, and adapt to user behaviors. They will also provide suggestions for personalization and improving conversion rates, which are definitely helpful. 

Trend #2: A stronger emphasis on data journalism 

While AI tools are amazing, they can also be dangerous when they fall into the wrong hands. As a result, the threat of disinformation and deepfakes is higher than ever before. 

How do you build trust in an era filled with fake news and AI-powered deepfakes?

You can by sticking to the facts and backing everything up with data from credible sources. 

When all your claims are supported by rock-solid data, it signals to your audience that your brand is actually authentic and trustworthy. 

Our suggestion?

Invest heavily into creating data-driven stories this year! 

Trend #3: Using video and multimedia content as core assets 

According to research by the Content Marketing Institute, 61% of marketers expect to increase their spending on video this year. 

This is because, as usual, video content still reigns supreme. 

A recent survey found that 89% of users want to see more videos in 2025 from their favorite brands, so you can expect to spend a lot of time behind the camera over the next 12 months. 

Revolutionize Your SEO with Digital PR Now 

Here’s a recap of what we’ve gone over so far:

  1. Digital PR merges online media promotion with core SEO tactics like content marketing and link-building. 
  2. The components of digital PR include creating thought leader content, networking with media professionals, and amplifying promotional efforts through social media and other digital channels. 
  3. Digital PR provides numerous SEO benefits, like improved E-E-A-T, higher domain authority, and more organic traffic. 
  4. Moving forward, digital PR will see an increased focus on AI-driven personalization, multimedia content, and data-driven journalism. 

Do you want to leverage the power of digital PR for future SEO success?

Our Digital PR Service has you covered. It’s the #1 way to take advantage of the SEO benefits mentioned in this article, so don’t wait to check it out now!