PR link building is getting high-quality backlinks from trustworthy websites by building relationships with journalists, influencers, and publishers. Instead of buying links or getting low-quality links, PR link building is focused on naturally earning links from authoritative sites to help with search engine optimization (SEO).
How to Do PR Link Building
Here are some tips for effective PR link building:
Reaching out to PR sites like publications, blogs, and journalists to pitch your content and earn backlinks takes strategy and finesse. Here are some tips for approaching PR sites effectively:
Research Thoroughly First
Take time to thoroughly research each PR site before reaching out. Read several recent articles to understand their content style, topics covered, and current interests. Make sure your pitch fits into what they typically publish. Checking their “About” and “Contribute” pages provides guidelines.
Personalize Your Approach
Generic outreach emails are easy to ignore. Personalize by addressing the specific writer or editor, referencing their past work, and highlighting why your content aligns with that. Demonstrate you did your homework on them.
Focus on Their Needs
Keep the focus on how your content benefits their audience and provides real value. Avoid too much self-promotion about your brand. Journalists’ priority is serving their readers with useful information.
Make a Specific Offer
Rather than a generic pitch, make a specific offer to provide an exclusive on a data study, contribute an article tailored to their audience, or partner on co-branded link Worthy content. Make their job easier.
Be Concise But Compelling
PR folks are busy. Keep your email pitch concise but compelling. Include just enough details to grab their attention and establish the value. You can provide more info if they want to learn more.
Follow Up Politely
Don’t take no response as a final answer. Politely follow up within a week to see if they received your pitch and reiterate why it’s a fit. Offer to provide any other details needed.
Build a Relationship
Link building is a long game. Nurture relationships with PR contacts over time through great pitches, content, and working collaboratively. They’ll become more likely to work with you again.
Show Appreciation
Always thank PR contacts who give your links – whether it’s a simple quote inclusion or full article. Show them how the mention benefited you. Offer to reciprocate somehow down the road.
With this strategic and personalized approach to PR outreach, you can build the relationships and high-quality backlink profile that drives search visibility and traffic.
Strategies That Work for PR Link Building
Some of the most effective PR link building strategies are:
- Content Syndication: Republish your content on industry sites, guest blogs, and aggregators. Adds new links to your original piece.
- HARO: Help a Reporter Out connects journalists who need sources with people who want press. Being quoted can get you a backlink.
- Link Insertions: Ask to have key phrases linked to your site when interviewed by a publication.
- Linkable Assets: Create free tools, quizzes, calculators that sites may link to as a resource for their audience.
- Sponsorships: Sponsoring events can result in backlinks from listings and event pages.
- Brand Link Building: Contact sites that mention your brand but don’t link to you. Ask them nicely to add a link.
Why Google Likes PR Links
There are a few reasons why PR links are valued by Google:
- Higher Reputation: PR links often come from established publications that are well-known. This is like a vote of confidence.
- Relevant: The text around PR links relate specifically to your brand or content.
- Diverse: PR links come from many different sites on different topics. This variety looks good to Google.
- Trusted: Google trusts links editors choose to add more than self-created, swapped, or bought links.
- Engaging: Real visitors click on these links, signaling the content is useful. Engagement indicates relevancy.
The signals PR links send essentially tell Google your content is valuable and engaging. This passes authority and rankings boosts.
Measuring the Impact of PR Links
You can track the effectiveness of your PR link building using these metrics:
- Total Links: Count the number of new links gained monthly/quarterly from PR outreach. Set goals to monitor progress.
- Unique Linking Sites: The number of different root domains linking to you matters more than total links. Aim for wider variety.
- Referring Site Reputation: Getting links from higher reputation sites has more impact. Track this.
- Organic Traffic: More PR links should lead to more organic search traffic over time. Monitor month-by-month.
- Rankings: See if targeted keywords rankings improve thanks to PR links. Check weekly or monthly.
- Conversions: Links should drive business results like email signups, downloads, purchases. Track outcomes tied to PR.
Done consistently, a good PR link building approach can really improve search rankings, traffic, leads and sales. Tracking the right metrics ensures it’s working and helps optimize efforts. With persistence and the right strategy, PR outreach gets high-quality links that Google values.
