10 Yetis Insight Blog - This is Why Your PR for SEO Campaign Might Not Be Working

If you would've asked me nine years ago what SEO was (even if you'd used the un-abbreviated words" search engine optimisation"), I would've given you a blank look and gone to fetch myself a snack. Fast forward to 2017 and it's an area I've worked on for the last few years. I know my follow links from my domain authorities and I've felt the despair that a no follow link on a decent website can bring.

Online PR is really important for SEO efforts and is if pays to focus on the bigger picture rather than just the technical on-page stuff (which I don't pretend to know too much about, but my knowledge ain't too shabby).

What I do know is the following; lots of quality, non-dodgy links from authoritative websites makes Google swoon and improves your rankings, you shouldn't pay for links and content is key for PR for SEO. So if you've had a stab at this whole link building game only to not see the results you were hoping for, where might you be going wrong?

I've had a think and come up with the tips that follow in this blog post. So, without further ado, this is why your PR for SEO campaign might not be working...

1. Poor Targeting

PR for SEO is just another name for digital or online PR, when you drill down to the nitty gritty; it's about getting decent online coverage which has strong links within it. So, it makes sense then that you need to get your media targets just right. You might have achieved 50 follow links in the past month for your website, but the sites the coverage and links can be found on might be pretty shoddy and only have a domain authority of between 1 and 20. Google won't be as impressed by this and whilst you might see a small boost on rankings, it's not going to be anything to write home about.By the way, Domain Authority (DA) is a rank/score out of 100 that the online tool SEO Moz gives to sites (with 100 being the top score). Make sure you're targeting sites with a DA of 40 or above for the best Google lovin'. It's worth noting here that it is good to have a mix of DA's in your link profile. Google likes that.

2. Nothing To Link To

The PR for SEO campaigns that we've done for clients have worked best when there's been a good piece of content for the online editors to link to (and, more importantly, WANT to link to). So, maybe your PR for SEO campaign isn't doing to well because there isn't great content at the heart of it and journalists aren't compelled to offer a link. You can get all the coverage in the world, but without those all-important links the campaign might just be considered a flop. Video, images or some kind of online tool or widget can make links more likely to occur, so bear this in mind when coming up with campaign ideas. We recognise that content has to be link-worthy for the campaign to stand a chance of success.

3. Quality Not Quantity

If you focus too much on getting a set number of links, you might be destined to fail; the reason being that PR for SEO is all about quality links as opposed to the quantity of them. Don't get too caught up on the idea of hitting 100 links, for example, as a link on a site like the BBC or Mail Online is worth its weight in gold in comparison to loads of links on sites or blogs you've never heard of with a low DA.

4. Don't Ask, Don't Get

Not every journalist will put a link with online coverage that they've run for you. Sometimes, we have to ask editors or reports if they'll kindly add a link in. Yes, it's a bit cheeky. No, you won't be the only one asking. Yes, it does sometimes work. I'd say we have a 50% success rate when it comes to asking for a link to be added. Be polite in your approach and don't get shirty of your efforts fail. Your PR for SEO campaign will perform better if you prioritise link reclamation and ask that all important question.

5. You Didn't Link In Your Press Release

I'm not suggesting that you litter your press release with links so that it ends up looking like an advert than a media story, but it's important that you include a link in there to the site you're trying to improve the rankings for. If you just put the brand name without the URL, how is the journalist going to know what address to link to? You can't expect them to go and find this information out, because they simply don't have the time. In my experience, the best place to include this link is right before the quote, as that's the section most likely to get the copy and paste treatment. If a link just so happens to get pasted into an article, there's a good chance it might stay there and be a live (hopefully follow) one when the piece gets posted.

6. Your Campaign Is Boring

PR for SEO campaigns need to be interesting, newsworthy and far from boring. Links need to be earned and the better the idea, the higher the likelihood of links. Your PR for SEO campaign might be failing not because of a lack of images or good content, but rather because there's a lack of story there. Review your campaign and see if this might apply.

If you want to know more about how PR can help your SEO efforts, get in touch with us and we'd be happy to have a chat with you.

Thanks for reading!