September 28, 2021
2 minutes
One of the many benefits of digital PR is being able to assert your brand as an authority in a specific sector. Once established on-site this not only makes it easier to achieve coverage and links as part of your digital PR strategy, but Google will thank you for it too. This creates a base for your site to build upon, aiming to pass Google’s E-A-T model (Expertise, Authority, and Trust) and enabling your site to rank higher.
Google now crawls websites to see whether they provide a higher expertise than their competitors, whether the content is expertly written by a leading authority, and even trustworthiness based on a site’s backlink profile. Whilst authoritativeness on-site is key, this final point is where digital PR comes in to inform your SEO strategy in an attempt to improve your site’s E-A-T. To get you started, simply read the below three tips.
By high quality we mean genuinely earned media (no paid-for links here), links from sites with a high domain authority, and links in articles featuring relevant content. It might be easy to think you can buy a few links and be on your way, but by doing this you risk being penalised by Google and this would knock you straight back to square one.
We recommend building a coverage-first strategy, creating a story journalists will want to publish and credit your site with a link for. This could be anything from a company announcement or launch, to an informative campaign about a related topic to your business. For example, if you run a company that sells bed frames, you could run a campaign around sleep, wellness, or even interior design.
If you’re collaborating with publications on paid media, this can be great for visibility, however Google is smart and sees this clearly as an advertisement. If you focus too much on advertising as opposed to organic PR and search, Google won’t see you as an expert or as trustworthy. Anyone can pay for an advertisement, but no-one can pay for consistent organic coverage. You need a healthy balance of both.
Helping by both generating backlinks and asserting yourself as an authority, guest posting is a great way to make your expertise visible to Google. All you have to do is know your stuff on a specific topic and reach out to relevant publications to share your expertise.
Very alike to a classic digital PR pitch, you’ll need to provide a new piece of insight or perspective that’s extremely relevant to the publication’s audience. Once you’ve collaborated and achieved the coverage, you can include this on your website to further position you as an authority and expert in your field.
Similarly, you can also apply for competitions with an aim to add awards to your site page. In the same way that guest posting works for E-A-T, so do awards.
Want to know more? Why not look at our Case Studies to see how we apply this or get in touch to ask us a question today.
