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Large AI Overviews on SERPs are affecting visibility and causing a dramatic decrease in traffic.
Unlock the power of full-funnel SEO and PR integration. Learn how to influence audience behavior and achieve top search engine rankings.
Integrating digital PR & SEO with a full-funnel strategy both influences audience behavior and top-three rankings in search engines.
In my recent webinar with Search Engine Journal about how to earn links with digital PR, I didn’t have time to dive into the importance of the audience journey and a full-funnel strategy. This article is to remedy that.
Have you found that ranking in search engines is more difficult lately? Or maybe your link building isn’t driving the top 3 ranking it used to.
Google representatives have been actively discussing the decrease in the importance of links in Google’s algorithm.
What does this mean?
This doesn’t seem to mean links don’t work, but that links and brand mentions in the context of the audience’s journey are factors that help to break into the top 3 positions of Google – and, I believe, eventually, how you’ll make it into SGE or other high-visibility areas of search.
A full-funnel PR and SEO strategy is a method for building links and brand mentions in the context of the audience’s journey online, creating an off-page user experience.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the key takeaways you’ll find throughout this article:
Google recommends being helpful to the audience and demonstrating Experience, Expertise, Authority, and trust (E-E-A-T) in a category to rank highly.
Your audiences are constantly looking for a solution that solves their problem or creates an opportunity, and for trusted sources to guide them through the decision-making process.
They may become aware of this problem or the solutions long before they even reach the search engines.
The chart below illustrates the sites that receive the most visits vs. those that send the most referral traffic.
This data indicates that search engines will drive the most traffic to sites, but any given audience spends a significant amount of time engaging on other platforms, digesting content about various topics.
Social and News sites get 20% and 12% of the shares of visits, respectively, while search engines drive over 70% of total traffic.
If the audience is using several touchpoints to learn about a given product or solution, wouldn’t Google use these to determine which company is a helpful source and what its E-E-A-T is for those topics?
I had my digital PR data team at PureLinq gather data for sites that ranked in Google for a seed set of cybersecurity keywords.
We then identified all of the keywords that those sites ranked in the top three positions. From that, we gathered data about the count of brand mentions and brand search volume for each domain.
The chart below shows the number of brand mentions (x-axis), U.S. search volume for brand keywords (y-axis), and the count of keywords in the top three (bubble size). Larger bubbles mean a higher count of keywords ranked in the top three.
This data set is only for cybersecurity brands.
As brand mentions increase, the bubbles grow in size, showing that a larger number of brand mentions correlates with a higher count in the top three rankings.
Brand mentions seem to influence ranking. I know there are a large number of confounding variables in this analysis. However, the idea that Google can use these measures to identify E-E-A-T is believable.
How does this play out in the real world? To understand more, I looked at Lectric eBike.
This case study demonstrates the power of integrating digital PR with SEO to create a cohesive and effective full-funnel marketing strategy.
The key to success was the strategic alignment of content across all stages of the customer journey, ensuring that each piece contributed to building awareness, trust, and, finally, decision-making confidence.
By securing authoritative links and mentions, Lectric eBikes not only improved its SEO performance but also established itself as a trusted brand in the eyes of consumers and search engines alike.
The rise in organic visibility and brand searches directly contributed to the overall increase in website traffic and, ultimately, sales.
This case underscores the importance of a holistic approach to digital marketing, where PR and SEO work hand in hand to guide the customer journey from awareness to conversion.
At the time of this analysis, Lectric was ranked in position 1 for “ebike” and 3 for “ebikes.”
As a result of the non-brand and brand visibility, the website went from <40,000 estimated clicks per month to over 200,000 in just about 2 years – and it still seems to be growing.
Lectric integrated digital PR and SEO together with a full-funnel PR & SEO strategy.
Late in 2022, Lectric began to secure more media links & brand mentions.
At first glance, you might think that the growth in backlinks was the major factor in the organic traffic growth.
The famous Ahrefs chart shows a strong correlation between the number of referring domains and organic traffic growth.
However, this chart causes much confusion since it doesn’t tell the full story.
Note: Semrush and Ahrefs have very different traffic estimates lately. However, any traffic estimate will be inherently inaccurate. They estimate these based on position, average monthly search volume, and estimated clickthrough rate (CTR) using Google’s keyword planner data. They all calculate CTR differently.
A little more digging with Ahref’s content explorer and BuzzSumo shows that the site saw growth in brand mentions starting in mid-2022, around the same time the organic traffic began to grow.
Lectric gained much of the organic traffic improvement by focusing on creating content for each stage of the audience journey.
The brand generated links and brand mentions based on the audience’s needs and wants, driving brand search volume.
Lectric eBikes secured media coverage on environmental and technology news platforms and podcasts. This effort placed the brand in front of a broad audience, emphasizing its commitment to eco-friendliness and innovation.
Placements gained during this stage aimed to educate the audience on the environmental benefits of e-bikes, leveraging unique data and expert commentary to secure media coverage.
These placements generated topically relevant and authoritative links and brand mentions related to the company and individual expertise.
Expert commentary and unique data appeal to journalists. Lectric could have used PR outreach to pitch Lectric’s sales data and CEO commentary to obtain media coverage.
I almost exclusively use unique data and expert commentary to secure media coverage in digital PR. This is a very effective technique.
The company obtained mentions in articles that discussed market success, customer satisfaction, and endorsements from reputable sources. This helped build trust and positioned Lectric eBikes as a reliable choice.
Coverage included comparative discussions on pricing and quality, showing how Lectric stands out from competitors. This was crucial for audiences evaluating their options.
Digital PR Insight
The Axios article is a great example of a technique I use in data campaigns. Find data about specific states or cities that relate to your niche. Then, use that data to pitch media about a given topic.
The website’s content was tailored to answer final questions and overcome objections. This included detailed product comparisons, reviews, and clear, transparent pricing information.
By this stage, Lectric eBikes focused on ranking for both non-brand and brand-specific keywords, facilitating easy access for users ready to make a purchase decision.
The audience is actively searching Lectric by name as a result of the digital PR.
Lectic’s site has comparison, reviews, and showroom information easily accessible in the main navigation.
It also has clear pricing and product options.
Pro tip: Brand search for a company or product seems to have an impact on a site’s ability to rank in the top three for non-brand keywords.
If you’re unfamiliar with the audience journey, here’s an overview.
A full-funnel strategy means that you create content for each stage in the audience’s journey and at the touchpoints where they are going for that type of information.
The audience journey has several stages:
A full-funnel strategy creates content for each stage of the audience journey.
Using e-bikes as an example:
The audience journey has touchpoints they use to learn or gather insights at different stages.
For example:
Targeting each stage of the audience’s journey can create topically relevant links at key touchpoints.
Designing a strategy means laying out a structured roadmap for businesses to effectively guide their target audience from awareness to decision-making.
I’m a big fan of templates that simplify processes. I created this React Workbook as part of my Digital PR for SEO Mini MBA course. You can use it to create an audience journey map, identify assets, and create an integrated PR and SEO strategy. Screenshots are below.
Start by mapping your audience’s journey, identifying key stages, touchpoints, and content needs. This will serve as the foundation for your strategy.
Understand and visualize the path your audience takes from first becoming aware of a need or problem to making a purchase decision.
The screenshot below is of an audience journey map template I created to make the process of mapping the audience journey more actionable.
Develop a variety of unique assets and resources tailored to each stage of the audience journey, designed to engage, inform, and convert your target audience. These assets should be useful for both digital PR and SEO.
Instead of creating endless blog articles, create assets that are linkable and shareable.
In my webinar with SEJ, I gave the example of how my digital PR team earned links by analyzing publicly available data in manufacturing around the outsourcing of manufacturing overseas due to increasing labor costs in the US.
This idea was a result of recent media trends discussing the idea that US manufacturing may be in a recession. We did this for a CFO consultancy that worked with manufacturing companies.
Thus, these assets can show your overall expertise in a given category.
With assets in hand, start an integrated digital PR and SEO program.
Launch a coordinated digital PR and SEO campaign that leverages external media coverage (links and brand mentions) and optimized online content to improve organic search visibility and drive targeted traffic to your website.
I use this integrated topic tour canvas to simplify the planning process.
Pro Tips
Implementing this full-funnel strategy requires ongoing collaboration between your PR, SEO, and content teams to ensure all efforts are aligned and focused on guiding the audience toward conversion.
By systematically mapping the audience journey, creating engaging content for each stage, and leveraging both digital PR and SEO, businesses can build a powerful online presence by ranking in the top three and driving brand search.
More resources:
Featured Image: eamesBot/Shutterstock
Kevin is the Founder & Head of Digital PR Strategy at PureLinq, a provider of digital PR for SEO services. After …
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