This week’s ask an SEO question is:

“Should SEOs be focusing more on digital PR than traditional link building?”

Digital PR is synonymous with link building at this point as SEO’s needed a new way to package and resell the same service. Actual PR work will always be more valuable than link building because PR, whether digital or traditional, focuses on a core audience of customers and reaching specific demographics. This adds value to a business and drives revenue.

With that said, here’s how I’d define digital PR vs. link building if a client asked what the difference is.

  • Digital PR: Getting brand coverage and citations in media outlets, niche publications, trade journals, niche blogs, and websites that do not allow guest posting, paid links, or unvetted contributors with the goal of building brand awareness and driving traffic from the content.
  • Link Building: Getting links from websites as a way to try and increase SERP rankings. Traffic from the links, sales from the links, etc., are not being tracked, and the quality of the website can be questionable.

Digital PR is always going to be better than link building because you’re treating the technique as a business and not a scheme to try and game the rankings. Link building became a bad practice years ago as links became less relevant, they are still important, so I want to ensure that isn’t taken out of context, and we stopped doing link building completely. Quality content attracts links naturally, including media mentions. When this happens in a natural way, the website will begin rising as the site has a lot of value for users, and search engines can tell when the site is quality.

If you’re building links without evaluating the impact they have traffic and sales-wise, you’re likely setting your site up for failure. Getting a ton of links, just like creating content in mass with AI/LLMs or article spinners, can grow a site quickly. That URL/domain can then burn to the ground equally as fast.

That’s why when we purchase a link, an advertorial, or we’re doing a partnership, we always ask ourselves the following questions:

  • Is there an active audience on this website that is also coming back to the website via branded search for information?
  • Is the audience on this website part of our customer base?
  • Will the article we’re pitching or being featured in be helpful to the user, and is our product or service something that is part of the post naturally vs. being forced?
  • Are we ok with the link being nofollow or sponsored if we’re paying for the inclusion?

If the answer is yes to these four, then we’re good to go with the link. The active audience on the website and people returning by brand name means there is an audience that trusts them for information. If the readership, visitors, or customers are similar or the same demographics as our user base, then it makes sense we’d want to be in front of them where they go for information.

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Last Update: December 9, 2025