In some full-service agency and internal marketing teams, digital PR is either an afterthought to help SEO benefits, or entirely forgotten about.

This is because there’s still a misconception that the purpose of digital PR is to build links. Therefore, it’s viewed as an add-on to SEO.

And while building links is one of the key elements of digital PR, especially given how measurable it is and how easily links can be equated with positive effects further down the line, there is so much more to the practice than simply pestering journalists for links.

The key element of digital PR is reputation, and this applies even to link building. Think about it, if you email a journalist asking for a link or providing a quote for a story to earn a link, they’re going to check the brand behind the request, and they’re only going to add that link if they trust the brand and its reputation.

‘Building reputation’ is a broad goal, much broader than building links, but that’s the overarching goal for any digital PR work. If you appear on a podcast or have a product featured in a ‘best of’ list, you’re building reputation. If you publish an annual report that’s trusted within your industry, or you use your content to build links in relevant publications, you’re building reputation.

Why is this important for digital PR?

Reputation will only become more important with more people turning to AI or social media to find the answers to their questions. You want to make sure that people are talking about your brand, and that they’re building a positive reputation that others will see online.

People are doing more research than ever before making a purchase, so you want to make sure that you are discoverable, helpful, trustworthy, and that other people are saying good things about you.

Simply building enough links to push yourself up SERPs won’t be enough to win you customers on its own.

How do you build a reputation?

As far as digital PR is concerned, your reputation is about the sentiment towards you/your brand, and how much authority you have in your space.

Sentiment has always been essential for brands, but The Drum has highlighted that it’s more important than ever in 2024 as customer loyalty can give brands a strong platform in uncertain economic times. Their 2024 Consumer Trends Index Report shows that 63% of consumers will pay more to shop with brands that they’re loyal to. That’s the kind of fan you want to attract and keep with your reputation.

There’s a lot that goes into brand sentiment across all areas of any business, from creating a quality product to post-sale interactions with customers

Relevant expertise is crucial

Google’s Search Quality Evaluation Guidelines say that “It’s possible for a website to be a go-to source for one type of content (e.g., humorous videos), but an untrustworthy source for a different type of content (e.g., financial information).”

Relevance is a key part of building reputation, both in terms of your online presence and public perception of your brand. To build authority online you need to show what your expertise is, and continually demonstrate why your brand is a go-to in your space.

This expertise can come from the brand itself (an insurance company offering advice on insurance), or from a specific spokesperson at the company offering insight into a more focused area that the business is still relevant for (a car salesperson talking about how best to maintain a car).

You don’t want to try and produce content across a range of topics in the hope of receiving coverage and building a reputation as an expert on everything, as that simply isn’t possible. Instead, focus on what expertise you and your brand can offer to consumers, and consistently display that knowledge.

How can you measure digital PR’s effect on reputation?

Reputation is obviously very difficult to quantify. However, there are some metrics that you can look at to inform you of how your reputation is growing:

• Branded searches – are searches for your brand increasing? This means that more people know of your brand, and are searching for it specifically.
• Share of search/voice – how many people are searching for or talking about your brand relative to your competitors. Is your brand being discussed in an increasing number of conversations within your niche?
• Media coverage – are you seeing your brand covered more often in the media, with greater reach for your marketing efforts?
• Brand sentiment – are the things people are saying about your brand increasingly positive? More positive reviews and brand discussions show that you’re building a good reputation.
• Social conversations – are you seeing more people talking about your brand on social media, and are these conversations positive?

So while ‘reputation’ as a concept is difficult to nail down in a measurable sense, there are a lot of more solid metrics that will tell you how your reputation is growing.

Don’t ignore them, and use digital PR to continually improve them. It’s not just about building links, digital PR can help you to forge your brand’s entire reputation.

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