Why SEOs Are Undermining Digital PR Efforts

Focusing solely on cost-per-link in digital PR is limiting both creativity and overall effectiveness. This approach can hinder the true potential of digital PR, which is one of the most powerful methods for earning backlinks and enhancing brand authority.

Currently, many professionals view digital PR merely as another SEO tool, which undermines its real value. This article discusses the drawbacks of prioritising cost-per-link metrics and how it can negatively impact digital PR efforts.

We will also explore strategies for utilising digital PR more effectively, emphasising the importance of creating genuine value for your brand instead of just chasing link acquisitions. By shifting the focus, you can unlock the full potential of digital PR and achieve more meaningful results.

Cost per link is hurting the market

Digital PR has become a vital part of any effective SEO strategy. It enhances brand authority, increases organic traffic, and helps improve search rankings. A well-executed digital PR campaign can lead to quality backlinks, brand mentions, and increased trust and visibility for a business.

However, an emphasis on “cost per link” has negatively impacted the industry. Many agencies have started offering fixed link packages, appealing to clients with their promise of predictable and low-cost results.

While these fixed link packages may seem attractive, they carry significant drawbacks. This approach reduces digital PR to a mere numbers game, compromising creativity, scalability, and ultimately hindering the potential for higher search rankings.

Why hunting link ROI is awful for SEO

ROI is a problematic term. The issue isn’t with tracking the numbers, but rather that it holds different meanings for different people. To avoid misunderstandings, it’s essential to clarify its definition and context.

ROI is a metric of efficiency, not effectiveness. When SEOs concentrate on cost per link, they mistakenly believe they are enhancing the value they receive from digital PR. In reality, this approach diminishes the true value of digital PR, leading to a downward spiral in the industry.

As an SEO, the goal is to acquire more links and brand mentions, which is something we can all agree on. Digital PR is designed to achieve this, offering a service that generates brand visibility and backlinks through data, creativity, expert commentary, and compelling stories.

Initially, larger brands with bigger budgets were the first to embrace digital PR. As success stories emerged, other companies sought similar results, leading to growth in the industry. However, many SEOs found the cost of digital PR too high, coupled with long retainer contracts. Additionally, some still adhere to outdated notions of link value based on follow and no-follow distinctions.

It was inevitable that lower-cost digital PR options would appear, and today, fixed-price link packages are becoming standard. For example, one might buy 10 links for a set fee. The problem with this model is that it prioritises the efficiency of digital PR over its effectiveness, undermining the potential benefits of the service.

Obsession with do-follow links hurts creativity

Efficient digital PR often competes with effective digital PR. When the goal is to generate as many links and brand mentions as possible within a specific timeframe, a focus on cost per link can lead agencies to cut corners and minimise risks.

Consider this logically: prioritising a low cost per link means requesting more links for a lower price. This approach allows for a higher volume of links within the same budget, which digital PR agencies agree to before beginning any work. Consequently, digital PR risks becoming commoditised, entering a race to the bottom in terms of value.

But does this approach make sense? Not really. While backlinks are undeniably important, brand mentions can be even more crucial. Typically, when you secure a link through digital PR, you also gain a brand mention. However, it’s possible to achieve brand mentions without any links, yet the focus on cost per link overlooks this aspect.

This is a significant oversight among SEOs. It’s widely acknowledged that Google can interpret every sentence on the web, disregarding fluff to identify where brands are cited. Furthermore, most “guest posts” tend to use keyword-focused anchor text instead of brand mentions. It doesn’t take a Google engineer to recognise the value of a brand citation within a relevant, high-authority article, regardless of whether there’s a link involved.

This perspective challenges the idea of evaluating digital PR based solely on cost per link. To properly assess the effectiveness of digital PR, we need to consider its overall impact, rather than fixating on a single metric.

Digital PR effectiveness vs. efficiency

Digital PR should prioritise effectiveness before efficiency. The primary aim of digital PR is to enhance the number of high-quality links and brand mentions for a business. Therefore, contracts for digital PR should be evaluated based on their ability to achieve these objectives effectively.

When success is assessed primarily through efficiency, it creates significant challenges for both SEO and digital PR. An overemphasis on efficiency often leads to a reduction in the quantity of links and brand mentions that businesses desire. This focus sends a message to the digital PR market to minimise risks, diverting attention away from efforts that could expand reach and visibility.

Links and brand mentions are generated through creative thinking, which requires time, expertise, and an understanding of the target audience. When efficiency becomes the dominant concern, it can transform digital PR from a service that relies on strategy and innovation into a mere product that prioritises quantity over quality. Agencies find themselves under pressure to deliver a larger number of links, often leading to a superficial approach that sacrifices the potential for impactful storytelling and engagement.

As an SEO, your aim is to maximise value for your budget while minimising risks to your career. You naturally want to see a return on investment and ensure that your strategies are effective in enhancing your brand’s online presence. However, this can lead to a conflict between wanting more for less and allowing for the creative processes necessary to generate truly effective digital PR campaigns.

The key lies in redefining how we measure the success of digital PR. By shifting the focus from mere efficiency to effectiveness, we can enhance the overall impact of digital PR campaigns. This involves recognising the intrinsic value of creativity and strategy in driving both links and brand mentions. Emphasising effectiveness means appreciating the long-term benefits that come from well-executed digital PR efforts, rather than settling for short-term gains. Ultimately, a balanced approach that values both effectiveness and efficiency can lead to more fruitful outcomes for businesses engaged in digital PR.

How to negotiate a better digital PR contract as an SEO

The first change that needs to occur in the digital PR landscape is a shift away from prioritising cost per link before finalising contracts. This emphasis often arises from clients operating within limited budgets, who seek guarantees regarding the number of links they will receive or establish minimum key performance indicators (KPIs). The reliance on having a link KPI has become a common practice in digital PR, frequently employed as a negotiating tool during contract discussions.

However, this approach presents a significant challenge for the effectiveness of digital PR campaigns. By insisting on guaranteed links, agencies are often pressured to play it safe. This pressure leads to less creative strategies that focus primarily on obtaining links rather than pursuing innovative ideas that might not provide immediate results. The focus on cost per link tends to narrow the creative potential of campaigns, reducing the overall impact of digital PR efforts.

It’s crucial to remember that effectiveness should always take precedence over efficiency in digital PR. The true measure of a successful digital PR campaign lies in its ability to generate high-quality backlinks and meaningful brand mentions. Therefore, contracts should be evaluated based on their effectiveness in achieving these goals, rather than solely on the cost per link. This focus on effectiveness should be the starting point for any discussions regarding digital PR contracts.

Ultimately, by redefining the evaluation process and prioritising effectiveness, both clients and agencies can foster a more creative and results-driven approach to digital PR. This change can lead to more impactful campaigns that not only secure backlinks but also enhance brand visibility and authority in a meaningful way. By aligning on the effectiveness of strategies, the digital PR industry can move away from a commoditised view of link acquisition and towards a more holistic understanding of brand engagement and visibility.

How to judge the effectiveness of digital PR (as an SEO)

When evaluating the effectiveness of digital PR, it’s essential to compare it with two key benchmarks. The first is how you generate links through other methods, such as guest posts or outreach. The second benchmark is the performance of previous digital PR campaigns. These comparisons provide a clearer perspective on how digital PR stacks up against traditional link-building strategies.

The primary distinction between digital PR and conventional link outreach is in the approach taken. Digital PR professionals typically reach out to journalists who are seeking stories, while traditional outreach focuses on website owners or marketers, aiming to promote content that they might want to link to. This difference in target audience makes digital PR significantly more effective at generating links, as journalists and media professionals are often more open to coverage and collaboration.

When working with a digital PR agency, it’s common for them to provide an “anticipated link number” based on their strategy. This figure can serve as a useful point of comparison against your current methods. For example, if a six-month digital PR retainer previously yielded 40 high-authority links, it’s reasonable to ask the agency how they plan to exceed that number. If they struggle to do so, it may indicate challenges in your specific sector where links are hard to obtain. This is where the agency’s strengths should shine—through their creativity, established relationships, and sector expertise.

Effectiveness should be assessed after the retainer period concludes or over a longer timeframe, allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of results. However, efficiency also plays a critical role in the overall assessment. How do you measure the efficiency of digital PR efforts alongside their effectiveness? This is an important consideration for understanding the full impact of your digital PR campaigns.

The efficiency of digital PR (and how it works)

At the conclusion of your digital PR campaign, or even during the retainer period, you can begin to assess its efficiency. For example, let’s consider a $3,000 monthly investment over six months.

In the first month, you may not see any links generated. By the second month, you achieve three links and five brand mentions. In the third month, the results improve significantly with 15 links and 10 brand mentions. The fourth month yields 10 links and eight brand mentions, followed by 18 links and four brand mentions in the fifth month. Finally, in the sixth month, you secure 10 links and 15 brand mentions. Overall, this totals to 56 links and 42 brand mentions.

Your total expenditure for this campaign amounts to $18,000, resulting in a cost of $321 per link. Additionally, you achieved 42 brand mentions, which translates to a cost of $183 for each piece of coverage received.

You might be thinking, “That’s all well and good, but if I opt for a retainer-based contract instead of a product-based approach, I might not generate links.” However, it’s important to understand that this line of thinking can lead to a false economy.

Retainer digital PR vs. productized digital PR

One of the key advantages of retainer-based PR is that it encourages the team to think strategically about the future when a new client joins. In contrast, product-based PR tends to focus solely on immediate results.

At our agency, we offer both product-based and retainer models, but with a retainer, the emphasis shifts to long-term strategic planning throughout the contract’s duration. As an SEO working within a digital PR agency, I have the opportunity to observe the links we acquire and the strategies that drive those outcomes.

Short-term retainers necessitate short-term strategies, concentrating on how to generate links immediately rather than on the best methods for creating links and brand mentions over the contract period. I understand that this approach can be challenging for some SEOs, particularly those accustomed to acquiring links through guest posts, as that method often involves a transactional, cash-driven mindset. However, digital PR is about earning links and brand mentions, not simply purchasing them.

This brings me to the broader role of digital PR within marketing.

How a focus on links kills the wider benefits that digital PR delivers

While we’ve primarily focused on links and mentions, it’s important to recognise that digital PR encompasses much more. It serves as an advertising function for your brand, generating links and brand mentions that reach thousands, often millions, of people.

Some of these individuals are currently in the market for your products or services, while others may be interested in the future. The effectiveness of digital PR relies on the quality of the links you obtain and the relevance of the topics you address. This relevance is crucial in ensuring that your brand’s message resonates with the right audience.

Ultimately, digital PR functions as a marketing and sales activation strategy. While I’ve highlighted many of its benefits, one key takeaway is essential: if you negotiate based on cost per link before entering a digital PR contract, you will limit the agency’s ability to generate innovative ideas and creative solutions.

Using an efficiency metric like cost per link at the wrong stage can hinder your overall success. It’s vital to assess the effectiveness of your digital PR efforts at the end of the retainer. Focusing on misguided metrics can negatively impact your outcomes.

As long as SEOs continue to seek low-cost per-link guarantees before signing a contract, they will receive what they demand. However, this approach can significantly restrict the potential of digital PR and can be detrimental to their own objectives.

For me, as an SEO who leverages digital PR for growth, my priority is to secure as many relevant brand mentions and links as possible. Achieving this requires digital PR teams to brainstorm and devise strategies that lead to the best outcomes.

Since real people engage with news content, it’s essential that digital PR remains rooted in human creativity. This is the value we invest in when we opt for digital PR: the human talent that drives SEO success to new heights.