Creating newsworthy content and building media relationships to earn high-authority backlinks from publications and news sites.
Digital PR is a strategic approach to earning high-quality backlinks by creating newsworthy content and building relationships with journalists, bloggers, and digital publications. Unlike traditional link building tactics, digital PR focuses on providing genuine value to media outlets through data-driven research, expert commentary, or timely insights that naturally attract editorial coverage and authoritative links.
This strategy has become increasingly important as search engines prioritize editorial links from trusted sources over manipulative link schemes. Digital PR campaigns often involve conducting original research, analyzing industry trends, or providing expert perspectives on current events to capture media attention and earn organic mentions across relevant publications.
Why It Matters for AI SEO
AI has fundamentally transformed digital PR by enabling practitioners to identify opportunities at scale and create more compelling, data-driven content. Large language models can analyze vast amounts of news data to spot trending topics, generate newsworthy angles, and even draft initial outreach emails to journalists. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude help PR teams quickly iterate on press release concepts and tailor pitches to specific publications. The rise of AI-powered search features like Google's AI Overviews has also increased the value of authoritative sources. When AI systems pull information to answer user queries, they heavily weight content from established news sites and publications – exactly the type of coverage digital PR aims to secure. This makes digital PR campaigns essential for building the kind of authoritative online presence that AI-driven search results favor.
How It Works
Successful digital PR campaigns typically start with identifying newsworthy angles through data analysis or industry expertise. Teams use tools like BuzzSumo to research trending topics and analyze which stories gain traction across different publications. HARO (Help a Reporter Out) provides opportunities to respond to journalist queries with expert insights, while Muck Rack helps identify and connect with relevant journalists in your industry. The content creation process often involves conducting original surveys, analyzing public datasets, or commissioning research studies that provide unique insights. AI tools can help analyze large datasets to uncover interesting patterns or trends that form the basis of compelling stories. Once published, teams track their coverage using tools like Ahrefs to monitor new backlinks and measure the domain authority of linking sites.
Common Mistakes
Many teams approach digital PR as a one-way broadcast rather than relationship building, sending generic press releases to mass media lists without personalization or relevance. Another frequent mistake is creating "research" that's transparently self-promotional rather than genuinely newsworthy – journalists can immediately spot studies designed primarily to generate backlinks rather than provide real insights. Teams also often neglect follow-up, missing opportunities to build ongoing relationships with journalists who covered their initial story.