{"id":143146,"date":"2021-03-12T12:12:44","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=143146"},"modified":"2021-03-12T12:12:44","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:12:44","slug":"research-the-integration-of-seo-and-pr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/03\/12\/research-the-integration-of-seo-and-pr\/","title":{"rendered":"Research: The integration of SEO and PR"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Experts have told us for a few years that SEO and public relations (PR) need to merge<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Are SEO and PR really integrating &#8220;in the wild&#8221;?<\/li>\n<li>In case you too searched the web about how this and found nothing considerably valuable, here are some answers for you<\/li>\n<li>Founder and CEO of Organic Growth, Kevin Carney surveyed 184 SEO and PR professionals across brands, agencies, and consultants<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dive in to discover more on the state of SEO and PR integrations in the industry<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>We\u2019ve been hearing for a few years now that SEO and public relations (PR) need to merge. The primary reason given is that they have similar goals, as well as similar strategies and tactics. It is sometimes argued that some aspects of SEO are PR, in an age when publishing has become comparatively low-cost. So much so that anyone can become a publisher, and due to the advent of <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/07\/01\/how-to-build-your-brand-authority-through-content-marketing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">content marketing<\/a>, brands now have to.<\/p>\n<p>I searched the web for information about how this integration is going, or not. I found nothing I considered to be of value on this topic. So I decided to create this article after collecting information from SEO and PR professionals to get a clear picture of our industry.<\/p>\n<h2>Methodology<\/h2>\n<p>I created a survey, then used Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to reach out to SEO and PR professionals. This resulted in 78 survey responses. I waited a month, went back to HARO, and got 91 more. I then shared my survey in a few SEO and PR groups on Facebook, which resulted in 15 more. I got 184 survey responses in total.<\/p>\n<p>When I started I had arbitrarily decided I wanted 200 survey responses but decided to stop at 184 rather than do another round of <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2013\/04\/24\/using-haro-to-create-fresh-compelling-content\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HARO<\/a> or Facebook group outreach.<\/p>\n<h2>Of course, all surveys have some level of bias<\/h2>\n<p>In this instance, the bias occurs for the following reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I designed my survey with my preconceived notions of what questions mattered most<\/li>\n<li>I looked for people in nooks and crannies of the internet where I felt it would be easy to find willing participants<\/li>\n<li>People who took my survey self selected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Does this mean my data is flawed? No more than any other set of data collected via most surveys, but it is possible that had I surveyed only SEO folks, or only PR folks, that I would have gotten different data, and I just want that stated upfront. I believe my data is relevant, but by no means is it the final word on this topic.<\/p>\n<h2>So, is this integration of SEO and PR happening?<\/h2>\n<p>In a word, yes.<\/p>\n<p>So now let\u2019s look at the charts whose underlying data lead me to believe this is true.<\/p>\n<h2>Initial questions were very objective<\/h2>\n<p>This first set of charts show the answers that were pretty cut and dry, and not so much a matter of opinion.<\/p>\n<h3>The breakdown of survey participants<\/h3>\n<p>Survey participants categorized themselves as representing brands, representing agencies, or being consultants who represented various clients. Below is the breakdown.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, it\u2019s a pretty good split with agencies slightly outnumbering brands.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143155\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-integration-survey-participant-categories.png\" alt=\"SEO and PR integration survey participant categories\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-integration-survey-participant-categories.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-integration-survey-participant-categories-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Do agencies publish articles about SEO and PR or SEO vs PR?<\/h3>\n<p>I was personally curious what percentage of agencies feel the topic of <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/08\/07\/want-media-coverage-make-sure-your-content-is-emotional\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PR<\/a> and SEO or PR vs SEO is important enough to publish articles about. It was surprisingly few.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143148\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Content-publication-stats-on-SEO-and-PR-or-SEO-vs-PR.png\" alt=\"Content publication stats on SEO and PR or SEO vs PR\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Content-publication-stats-on-SEO-and-PR-or-SEO-vs-PR.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Content-publication-stats-on-SEO-and-PR-or-SEO-vs-PR-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>What percentage of participants have one integrated team?<\/h3>\n<p>A lot more than I expected: 71 percent to be precise.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143158\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-not-one-integrated-team.png\" alt=\"SEO and PR are not one integrated team\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-not-one-integrated-team.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-not-one-integrated-team-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Do firms without one integrated team have both SEO and PR?<\/h3>\n<p>To my surprise, the answer tends to be, &#8220;no&#8221;. Team sizes within this group tended to be smaller, which likely accounts for this.<\/p>\n<p>Within this group, 35 out of 52 companies had teams of three members or fewer, which means only 17 companies had teams of four members or larger. Only four companies had teams of more than 20 people.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-143156 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-integration-team-data.png\" alt=\"SEO PR integration team data\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-integration-team-data.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-integration-team-data-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>For firms with two teams, how closely do they work together?<\/h2>\n<p>While this includes only 16 firms, I do not see a strong pattern here. Perhaps this is due to the small data sample, or perhaps the question is too subjective for everyone to have a <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/09\/12\/seo-how-brands-and-agencies-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">common understanding of how close<\/a> \u201cclosely\u201d is.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-143157 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-team-integration.png\" alt=\"Stats on team integration\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-team-integration.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-team-integration-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>The following statements were completely subjective<\/h2>\n<p>I asked the survey participants to rate how much they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about PR and SEO. Every statement was rated on a ten-point scale where 10 means strong agreement and one means strong disagreement.<\/p>\n<h3>Can SEO be separated from PR?<\/h3>\n<p>As you can see, the bulk of participants feel they can not.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-143154 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-can-not-be-separated.png\" alt=\"They can not be separated\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-can-not-be-separated.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-can-not-be-separated-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>What is the primary focus?<\/h3>\n<p>I was thinking that some firms put PR ahead of SEO and consider that SEO supports their PR efforts, whereas other firms put SEO ahead of PR and consider that PR supports their SEO efforts.<\/p>\n<p>I was expecting these two charts to be mirror images of each other and I am surprised that they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-143146 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-full'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/03\/12\/research-the-integration-of-seo-and-pr\/is-seo-used-to-boost-pr\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Is-SEO-used-to-boost-PR.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Is SEO used to boost PR\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Is-SEO-used-to-boost-PR.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Is-SEO-used-to-boost-PR-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2021\/03\/12\/research-the-integration-of-seo-and-pr\/is-pr-used-to-boost-seo\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Is-PR-used-to-boost-SEO.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Is PR used to boost SEO\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Is-PR-used-to-boost-SEO.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Is-PR-used-to-boost-SEO-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>What surprised me the most is not either chart by itself, but that they do not mirror each other. I had thought the two questions were opposites of each other, which to me at least means the charts should be mirror images of each other.<\/p>\n<p>While there is a pretty strong consensus shown by the \u201cWe do SEO\u201d chart, this is not shown by the \u201cWe do PR\u201d chart.<\/p>\n<h3>Are SEO and PR equally important?<\/h3>\n<p>There is strong agreement with this idea.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143152\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-equally-important.png\" alt=\"SEO and PR are equally important\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-equally-important.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-equally-important-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Are PR and SEO separate functions?<\/h3>\n<p>There is a consensus leaning to &#8220;no&#8221;, they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-143153 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-separate-functions-across-the-industry.png\" alt=\"They are separate functions across the industry\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-separate-functions-across-the-industry.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/SEO-and-PR-are-separate-functions-across-the-industry-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Is link building the PR of SEO?<\/h3>\n<p>In the spirit of full disclosure, this is something I believe to be true. Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I believe there are good and bad forms of link building, but I suppose there are also good and bad forms of PR.<\/p>\n<p>That this statement was shared with the participants reflects a bias of mine. Having said that, I consider participant responses to be validating.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-143151\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Link-building-is-the-PR-of-SEO.png\" alt=\"Link building is the PR of SEO\" width=\"600\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Link-building-is-the-PR-of-SEO.png 600w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Link-building-is-the-PR-of-SEO-300x186.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>In closing<\/h2>\n<p>The SEO-PR integration is happening, and so far has happened more than I expected would be true.<\/p>\n<p>My next thought is \u201cWhat does this all mean?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Should we change the way we\u2019re doing what we\u2019re doing as a result?<\/p>\n<p>For this, I\u2019m interested in feedback from readers. What do you think?<\/p>\n<p><em>Kevin Carney is the Founder and CEO of the boutique link building agency <a href=\"https:\/\/organicgrowth.biz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Organic Growth<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founder and CEO of Organic Growth, Kevin Carney surveyed 184 SEO and PR professionals to discover a detailed, research-driven status update on the integration of SEO and PR in the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":143159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,5],"tags":[27398,980,26808,313,737,22,28083,28013],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-143146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","category-seo","tag-backlink-building","tag-data-analysis","tag-haro","tag-pr","tag-research","tag-seo","tag-seo-and-pr","tag-seo-in-2021"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Research-The-integration-of-SEO-and-PR.png","category":"Industry","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143146"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=143146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}