James Watkins' deck on 'How to REALLY tie your digital PR strategy to tangible SEO goals' - presented at Brighton SEO's Online PR Show on Wednesday 9 December 2020.

1. How to REALLY tie your
digital PR strategy to
tangible SEO goals

2. Takeaways
for this
session
What are tangible SEO goals?
How can you set them for your digital PR efforts
Identifying ROI opportunities for link building
Nine questions you should be asking your SEOs
Some tactics to target areas of untapped potential
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2
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5

3. James Watkins
→ Traditional PR turned digital PR and
SEO
→ Main reason for making the switch?
Wanting to make a real, measurable
difference to a client’s bottom line
linkedin.com/in/
jwatkins1990/
@JWatkinsPR

4. Why am I talking
about this?

5. Over the last 18 months
there has been a lot of this:
Revealed: The best (and worst) regions for
raising a family in England.
130
🥳
This may be one of our favourite pieces ever 🤩
69 70+
Take a look at our latest
campaign with insert here
looking at the best cities to
live in a single young
professional - over 130
follow links so far.

6. Hundreds of links are great!
🔗

7. GUILTY!

8. Yes, links are great and it’s often
what clients alone are paying for.
And yes in isolation there are wider benefits!
They increase brand awareness, showcase a
fantastic campaign idea, increase referral
traffic and “have some SEO benefit”...

9. But, how can we add even more value
to our work and when reporting?
What do clients really care about?

10. The impact on the bottom line!
“Big link numbers don’t always
equal big business impact”
Olivia Wiltshire, BuiltVisible

11. Digital PR will always be part of a
wider SEO picture but there are
ways we can tie our efforts as close
to commercial drivers as possible.

12. What are tangible
SEO goals?

13. Ultimately, think about
what a business owner really
cares about...

14. SALES!

15. But how do we get to this
point through digital PR
specifically...?

16. Owned Goals
→ Number of links
→ Quality of links
→ Relevance of links
→ Placement of links
Shared Goals
→ Keyword rankings
→ Traffic
→ Sales

17. Why measure using this approach?
➝ Reporting on just quantity / quality of links
is not a true reflection of how this affects
your client’s business
➝ Clients are becoming increasingly
data-driven
➝ Leave clients with fewer questions
➝ Showcase the connection between PR
and SEO
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CAMPAIGN LAUNCH

18. How can you set them
for your digital PR
efforts?

19. Referring back to shared goals
➝ Digital PR can’t completely influence SEO results,
but we certainly impact them
➝ Keep these aspects in mind throughout all
campaign activity!
➝ These goals are easy to understand by a
non-marketing audience or board and are often
used when justifying investment
Shared Goals
→ Keyword rankings
→ Traffic
→ Sales

20. Using them to your advantage
➝ But, if you’re just in charge of link building you’re not
controlling the full SEO picture…
➝ Invest in areas where you can make a difference
commercially and be able to showcase the impact of
your work!
➝ Remember shared goals and pick the battles you know
you can win through digital PR and link building
➝ Be commercially savvy - think about seasonality and
when peaks for certain search terms and products are
coming up
valentines balloons

21. Identifying ROI
opportunities for
link building

22. Pick the battles
you can win.

23. Pick the battles you can win
➝ If goals are unrealistic (or will always be
out of your control) then it’s always
going to end in disappointment
➝ Analysing the state of play in terms of
link requirements for a client’s
keywords is crucial
KEYWORD RANK
EST.
TRAFFIC
EST. TRAFFIC
POTENTIAL
SEARCH VOL.
Wedding Decorations 1 2,517 2,517 13,549
Baby Shower Decor 1 2,510 2,510 15,403
Balloon Arches 3 1,030 3,801 23,262
Decorations 5 475 3,057 21,602
Party Poppers 3 314 1,159 7,090
Confetti Cannons 3 279 773 15,002
Party Decoration 4 663 3,184 19,486
Wedding Bunting 1 274 274 1,675
Party Suppliers 8 208 2,176 13,318
Hen Party Decorations 3 147 543 3,322
8,417 19,994 133,709

24. Where do links make the biggest difference?
➝ High quality, relevant links will always
benefit a domain overall
➝ Channeling these links to the correct
areas is where you will see the greatest
impact e.g. page two terms
➝ Using knowledge to inform your
campaign targeting can increase your
chances of meeting those shared goals
Theme Keyword Search Volume Pos 10 Potential Position
UK 7 seater hire car 5728 68.74 16.00
UK car rental cambridge 2027 24.32 12.00
UK car hire cambridge 1665 19.98 11.00
UK hire a 7 seater 1463 17.56 13.00
UK car hire in cornwall 1329 15.95 15.00
UK car rental milton keynes 924 11.09 11.00
UK car hire bolton 921 11.05 11.00
UK car hire north london 698 8.38 18.00
Italy car rental sardinia 688 8.26 11.00
UK rent a van liverpool 609 7.31 18.00
UK car hire chesterfield 554 6.65 11.00
USA budget car hire usa 527 6.32 13.00
UK bedford rent a car 506 6.07 11.00
UK car hire blackburn 465 5.58 11.00
UK car rental huddersfield 425 5.10 11.00
UK car hire stafford 406 4.87 13.00
UK car hire enfield 384 4.61 12.00
UK leeds bradford airport car hire 381 4.57 11.00
UK car hire glasgow central 367 4.40 15.00

25. 1
CTR
35
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15
10
5
0
5 9 13 17 21
EXACT POSITION
Branded Unbranded

26. Use the tools at your disposal
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2018/09/12/keyword-difficulty/

27. Using analysis to open wider discussions
➝ Identifying these growth opportunities
and applying them to your strategy will
stand you in the best stead
➝ They will allow you to make a
commercial difference faster
➝ Provides a good platform to open
wider conversations relating to content,
technical SEO

28. Use your SEO
knowledge!

29. Aggregator Independent
Keyword
Search
volume
Rank
Traffic
(vs potential
traffic)
Top 10
SERP % Share
Top 5
SERP % Share
Top 10
SERP % Share
Top 5
SERP % Share
car insurance
(83,798)
80% 20%
cheap car insurance
(27,189)
80% 20%
car insurance quotes
(220,127)
60% 40%
Go a step further and consider user intent

30. Aggregator Independent
Keyword
Search
volume
Rank
Traffic
(vs potential
traffic)
Top 10
SERP % Share
Top 5
SERP % Share
Top 10
SERP % Share
Top 5
SERP % Share
young driver
insurance (2,082)
60%
insuring young drivers
(13,287)
60%
insurers for young
drivers (2,165)
40%
Identify the gaps and areas for movement
through link building

31. Look at the existing
search landscape
Are the pages ranking above your client
a feasible competitor to target?
If you’re client is a car insurance provider for example, it’s very unlikely
they are ever going to rank above the major price comparison sites for
“cheap car insurance”.
Are the pages you’re looking to drive
links towards optimized from a content
and technical point of view?
Is the topic in question something that’s
able to be ideated around in terms of
campaign ideas?
Is there an appetite for PR content
around this subject when you get to
ideation?!
Before setting your shared goals and agreeing keywords
to target, double check the following:

32. The questions you
should be asking your
SEOs

33. While you can use this advice to
identify gaps and opportunities,
your SEOs (whether that’s within your agency
or the client) should know exactly why they
need links and what amount / type is required

34. The worst brief is “just build links”.
Why do they need them? Do they really need
them for what you’re trying to achieve?

35. Here are nine questions
you can use to get the
information you need for a
thorough brief.

36. Top level questions to open
conversations
What is the overall
purpose of your digital PR
request? (Why do you
want / need links?)
Is there a recent backlink
audit that exists?
What specific competitors
are dominating SERPs in
the client's core target
market or have seen a
noticeable gain in organic
performance recently?
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37. Drill deeper into specifics
What algorithm updates
have positively or
negatively impacted the
client? Why do you think
this is?
When was a disavow of the
site last performed? Or if
not, would you
recommend one?
Do you have any clear
authors we can use for
specific topics and areas
of the site you feel are
worth targeting
specifically?
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38. Encourage honesty and transparency
What is your opinion of
their current backlink
profile? Is it severely
lacking in links or does it
just require better quality?
If you could have anything,
would it be a high quantity
of links going into the site
or would you prefer very
targeted links to specific
sub categories?
What results do you feel
we as an off-page team
would need to achieve to
realistically 'move the
needle'?
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39. Use their answers to
inform your goals and
strategy

40. Owned Goals
→ Number of links
→ Quality of links
→ Relevance of links
→ Placement of links
Shared Goals
→ Keyword rankings
→ Traffic
→ Sales

41. What tactics should
you use to target these
untapped areas?

42. Using insight to inform tactics
Identify the link
requirement
Quality, quantity
or both?
Agree the
specifics
Keyword targeting or
other KPIs?
Collaborate
on ideas
What do you want to
talk about?
Understand the
landscape
Analyse the link /
coverage potential

43. Identifying the link requirement
https://builtvisible.com/big-link-numbers-dont-always-equal-big-business-impact/
URL Link volume deficit Link quality deficit
Link building campaign
requirement
/page-needs-many-links/ -400 15 Larger scale campaign
/page-needs-some-links/ -15 4 Mid scale campaign
/page-needs-few-links/ -3 1
Smaller scale / Flexible link
building

44. Let the requirements inform your tactics
CITATIONS
UNLINKED
MENTIONS
BUSINESS
NEWS
COMMENT
AGGREGATION
THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
DATA
ANALYSIS SURVEYS INFOGRAPHICS QUIZZES
CREATIVE
CONTENT
CAMPAIGNS
BROKEN
LINKS
COMPETITOR
LINKS
JOURNALIST
RESPONSES
NEWS
HACKING
NEWS FROM
NOTHING
DATA
VISUALISATION
STORYTELLING
INTERACTIVE
QUIZZES
INDEPENDENT
RESEARCH

45. Intertwining these approaches
Time period
1
1 2
1 2 3
1 2 3 4 5 6
ProactiveReactive
Creative Content Campaign
Data-based campaigns
Thought leadership
Comments

46. Takeaways

47. Takeaways Keep commercial objectives in mind when pulling
together a campaign strategy
Encourage the use of shared goals when reporting
Pick the battles you can win - focus on the opportunities
where evidence suggests links are the difference
Use your SEO knowledge - dig deeper and ask the right
questions
Match your research and the findings to the tactics you
use
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48. twitter.com/JWatkinsPR
james.watkins@impression.co.uk
linkedin.com/in/jwatkins1990
Get in touch

49. hello@impression.co.uk Fothergill House, 16 King Street
Nottingham, NG1 2AS
01158 242 212
Thank you