Professional SEO services can help a business in pretty much any industry develop its digital footprint, improve its SERP rankings (Search Engine Result Page), increase its number of leads, and boost turnover. When your SEO provider also has their finger on the pulse of modern PR services, a strategically planned PR campaign, along with top-notch SEO, can dramatically improve your business’ online and public profile.
As more and more businesses race for Google’s first page of results, these top rankings become increasingly competitive. By combining your traditional SEO with digital PR services, you can earn valuable backlinks from large and reputable sites, guaranteed to lift your site out of Google’s back pages.
Continue reading to learn how we at Convert Digital have helped our clients launch and run highly successful digital PR campaigns, resulting in hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional sales compared to previous years.
Digital PR services encompass a wide range of strategies and techniques used to increase a business’s online presence. These strategies typically involve networking and working with journalists, bloggers, influencers, private publications, and more. A digital PR campaign could take the form of a standalone project; however, it yields the best results when combined with full-suite on- and off-site technical SEO.
Some examples of digital PR services include
Online Press Releases: Writing and distributing content on digital platforms to communicate your brand’s news, updates, new products or services, or other achievements. A digital PR specialist can help ensure that your new and exciting content gets hosted on reputable and popular sites, directly increasing brand visibility as well as building strong backlinks.
Content Marketing: Creating and sharing valuable and relevant content to attract and engage with a specific audience. Depending on the PR campaign’s budget, this could include blogging, video creation, infographics, or key-word dense professional copywriting.
Social Media Promotion: Promoting a brand, product, service, or event on social media to boost online presence and visibility. In the hands of an experienced digital PR service provider, this provides a high-ROI way to engage with your customers and stimulate customer engagement.
Blogger or Influencer Outreach: Partnering with bloggers and influencers exposes your brand to established audiences that align with your target demographic. This could take the form of guest blogs, collaborations, sponsored posts, product reviews, and sharing social media links or events.
There is a significant overlap between digital PR and traditional SEO services, especially when it comes to their goals. Both are an attempt at raising a business’s online presence and reach; however, they go about it in different ways.
Traditional SEO services aim specifically at making your site more valuable in Google’s eyes. Google and other search engines want to provide their clients with high-quality search results and will push reputable and relevant results to the top. By making your site as accessible as possible to Google, you get your brand in front of more eyes.
Digital PR SEO service providers go about increasing your online presence by collaborating with external partners. These collaborations lead to more links that redirect to your site, signalling to Google that your content is relevant, valuable, and something their users should see. These links, also referred to as backlinks, are incredibly powerful in the world of SEO. Any SEO service provider worth their salt will include some sort of link-building strategy, whether as part of a comprehensive SEO package or as a standalone deliverable. Good backlinks will increase your pages’ authority, relevancy, drive traffic to your site, and indicate a certain level of trust.
While SEO and digital PR services overlap in goal, they certainly don’t overlap when it comes to the skills required to get the job done right. The vast majority of service providers focus on either providing traditional SEO services or digital PR services, with only a select few companies having the skills, experience, and manpower to take on both of these technically challenging and time-consuming tasks. As such, it’s very common to see a business work with separate SEO and digital PR service providers. While this isn’t a problem per se, it does mean having to ensure that both companies are aligned when it comes to brand identity, content creation, and the messaging being put forward.
With some due diligence, you might be able to find an SEO company with the necessary resources to take on the technical ‘nerd’ side of SEO, as well as an integrated digital PR campaign. Having one company take care of both sides of the SEO coin has some significant benefits:
If you’re searching for a digital PR services provider, make sure they have skills and knowledge in the following areas to ensure the best possible return on investment:
They should have a deep and proven understanding of all SEO aspects, including on- and off-page SEO and technical SEO.
Look for partners that have in-house or preferred content creation specialists. This could be copy, video, or other media creation.
Ensure that they understand how to best leverage social media platforms and engage with your target audience.
A PR campaign without a way of measuring progress won’t succeed. Google Analytics, Search Console and media analysis are key.
PR SEO relies on collaboration with third parties. A robust network and networking skills allow for collaboration with known journalists, bloggers, and influencers.
Understanding the challenges and pitfalls of SEO in your industry allows for truly innovative and effective campaign
In October 2019, Convert Digital took on Churnet Valley Railways as an SEO client. While we started out providing technical and on-site SEO services, our responsibilities quickly grew to include off-site and PR SEO as well. With the 2021 launch of Churnet Valley Railway’s The Polar ExpressTM Train Ride, we embarked on a full-swing digital PR campaign that included working with some of the biggest regional publications, as well as smaller, more targeted sites and bloggers.
Within the space of a few weeks, we had managed to secure long-format sponsored articles in publications with in excess of half a million readers, including the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, Leicester Mercury, Derbyshire Live, and the Birmingham Mail. We also managed to get our client featured in publications with a smaller reader base, but with readers much further down the sales funnel. These included visitstoke.co.uk, a trusted regional tourism page, as well as Letsgowiththechildren and Daysoutwiththekids, popular parenting sites that feature family-friendly activities and ideas; perfectly aligned with our client’s target audiences.
The overall effect on Churnet Valley Railways’ leads and sales has been dramatic. By reaching audiences measured in the hundreds of thousands, our clients significantly increased their brand awareness, online visibility, leads, and most importantly – their turnover.
The screenshot to the left shows the knock-on effect on SEO traffic after a PR campaign that Convert Digital ran for our client at the start of 2022. As you can see from the blue line, organic traffic increased many times over immediately after running sponsored articles in large regional newspapers and continued to positively affect sales for months after.
Compared to the same period in the previous year, sales increased by a massive 395%.
Here you can see the effect of an another article we published in the Liverpool Echo right at the start of 2023.
The bump in sales represents people who immediately bought tickets using the article’s link (only a small part of a bigger increase in sales), resulting in just under £10,000 worth of additional sales from a single article in a single regional newspaper.
This final screenshot shows the knock-on impact on SEO traffic after a series of four publications we organised as part of Churnet Valley Railways’ digital PR campaign at the start of 2023. There is an obvious spike in organic traffic (and revenue) as people converted through this channel instead of just directly from clicking links in the PR pieces.
Digital PR SEO services are hard to price right out of the gate. Clients might have vastly different wants and needs, and getting Taylor Swift to do a shoutout for your product will obviously cost a bit more than a thousand-follower local influencer. Other factors, such as the degree of on-site and technical SEO you require, might also affect the final price.
As a rough guide, however, the number of publications you want to be featured in, as well as their readership, will be the biggest factor in the final cost. The prices below indicate the approximate cost of a standalone digital PR campaign that primarily focuses on featuring your brand in large-readership publications:
It’s important to note that these prices aren’t set in stone. Depending on your needs, you could choose to publish in smaller, more targeted publications at a lower cost; or opt for bigger publications with readers in the millions. Our Digital PR Campaign experts will gladly discuss your needs and the pros and cons of all the available options.
The prices indicated above are all-in prices, meaning there are no hidden costs down the line. This includes content creation by experienced and trusted Convert Digital partners, web uploading and SEO optimisation of content (where applicable), as well as accurate and detailed reporting on campaign progress.
The customer is king at Convert Digital, and we’ve made it as simple as possible to get started with your SEO and digital PR services.
Contact us today for digital PR and SEO services made simple and affordable. Our team has decades of combined experience in helping our clients make the most of the internet, combining the best of time-proven and modern, bleeding-edge SEO tools and methodologies to get your brand in front of the eyes that matter!
Our team of experts look forward to discussing how we can help you achieve the same successes that our long list of clients have been enjoying for years.
Mike
Tom Clark
Founder
Paul
The seasoned Digital Marketing Consultants at Covert Digital stand ready to fully commit ourselves to your SEO and Digital PR needs. We provide top-notch SEO and online marketing services to clients operating in all industries, from small, independent businesses, to large, multinational corporations.
We understand that your business’s needs are unique, and we will work tirelessly to provide high-impact, low-risk strategies. Contact us today for a free SEO review of your site, or to find out more about what type of Digital PR services are right for you.
Simply fill in your details below, call 07907 674084 or email info@convertdigital.co.uk to arrange your free SEO review.
