10 Yetis Insight Blog: Is There A Followed Link – And Who Cares? Future Predictions For PR For SEO

Google Panda 4.2 was announced last summer and has had huge implications on the way in which page rankings are assigned. Many companies who relied on the age-old technique of mail merging press releases to all and sundry and buying a heap of back links in order to sustain their positions in the SERPs have had to completely reassess their SEO and online PR strategies, finding their actions ignored at best or penalised at worst.

Instead the focus has turned to creating quality content, over generating a substantial quantity of content and, essentially, doing a simple job well. The move to whittle out the dark SEO tactics is going to be furthered still, as rumours on the grapevine suggest that Google is soon to update Panda once again; becoming ever more see-all and sophisticated.

While Google is remaining characteristically quiet on this front, and it is still anyone’s guess as to when this will roll out or what it will entail. there is enough detail on the PR and PR for SEO grapevine for us to place our bets on what the future will hold – and, crucially, how this will change the operations of the average online PR agency.

Firstly, a lot of those working in PR for SEO (ourselves included!) are well versed at keeping our excitement in check when coverage comes in until we can ascertain if there’s a followed link. We are used to huffing discontentedly over coverage that offers anything less than a followed link, no matter what the domain authority, reach, how many client mentions or how brilliant the piece. That little link makes all the difference between a whoop and a shrug in many an office; between a job well done and a job just done. Nine times out of ten, the average PR for SEO agent (and client!) would prefer to see a negative piece with a followed link, than a positive piece without one; such is the power.

Unfortunately for us, it is also getting far harder to achieve those dreamy followed links, namely because journos have wised up to our tricks and are not always prepared to dish out the promotional goods. It’s very run of the mill in most agent’s daily routine to ping emails and calls around requesting that a mention or no-follow link be changed to a followed one and hoping the journalist complies and alters the article. It may be a cheeky ask, but the fact stands that it all hangs in the balance.

That, however, could well be set to change. One of the predictions in the industry, and one which would brighten the days of both PR for SEO agencies and news publications alike, is that back links will become passé. Google is already beginning to place more emphasis on ‘implied links’ a.k.a brand mentions. If this rumour is to be believed, we could hope to see just as much weight placed on these implications as on links themselves, meaning all that linkless coverage deemed nice but obsolete would suddenly warrant a lot more appreciation.

So, taking this into consideration, the online PR agency could also finally, at long flipping last, win the war against its techy rival, the SEO agency. If mentions become just as important for SEO benefit as links are, PR agencies will doubtlessly storm into the lead; after all, getting good news sites to mention clients has always been a goal for the PR agency, through all the history of the industry, and no one knows how to get people talking about a brand like a public relations practitioner.

As a result of all of this, we can (fingers crossed!) hope to hear the end of the old adages about the PR agency being a dying breed. In actual fact, it has been an evolving breed and, now, it is potentially set to make a comeback; bigger, better and more cross-skilled than ever before.

Perhaps the question may well turn to the purpose of SEO agencies and the benefits they are able to bring, as Google begins to outsmart them once again. It could well be the turn of the SEO agency to evolve, diversify and focus on their PR-based offerings, further learning the tricks of the PR trade as the table is turned on its head. It would certainly make for a nice change if PR were able to step into the spotlight once again and reap rewards for it’s genuine core offering: communicating strong content that engages, interests and excites the audience. What better indication is there of a first-page-worthy brand than that?