Digital PR is a modernised approach to traditional PR, used to increase brand awareness through a multitude of online methods. As a B2B SEO Agency, Digital PR is a vital component to many SEO strategies and allows businesses of all scales to build their brand persona, improve backlink profiles and rankings, reach new audiences and so much more.
Before starting a Digital PR and Outreach campaign, it is vital to consider the metrics that you will need to use to measure your campaign performance. In this guide, we will be exploring the most relevant metrics to consider for your next Digital PR and Outreach campaign and what they mean for you.
What is Digital PR?
Digital PR is recognised as the progression of both traditional PR practices and link building. Typically tying back to SEO KPIs and improving a website’s organic performance, digital PR is a critical process to implement within any B2B or B2C SEO strategy.
Digital PR an essential process to consider when seeking methods to become an authority online by building brand mentions and links, specifically from websites that are highly relevant and authoritative.
There are a number of tactics that SEO agencies can use to achieve placements and links, including creating unique and original campaigns, to guest posting on expert websites.
Metrics to Consider
There are an endless number of metrics to consider when planning and executing a Digital PR and Outreach Campaign. However, it is critical to ensure that your focus is one those of which that will allow you to scope out an accurate picture of how successful your campaign is.
Without further ado, here are 6 key metrics to consider for your next Digital PR and Outreach campaign.
Backlinks
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are known as links from one website to a page on another website and are also known as “inbound links” or “one-way links”. Google along with other major search engines consider backlinks for a specific page, and those of which that have a high number of backlinks typically tend to have high organic search engine rankings.
Why are backlinks important?
Backlinks are critical for both search engines and users alike. For search engines, it helps crawlers determine how relevant and authoritative your website is in relation to the topic you want to rank. In addition, they are recognised as a signal to search engines that other websites are promoting your content.
For users, backlinks are used to connect users with information that is relevant to what they are reading.
The larger the number of backlinks you have, the higher your website will rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). This is dependent on the respective website’s domain authority, trust flow, citation flow and other key metrics.
DoFollow Links
Dofollow links are recognised as HTML attributes that are used by search bots to follow the links. If a website is linking to your website with a Dofollow link, both search engine bots and users can follow through to you. This is a key link to obtain during your digital PR and outreach campaign since it passes on the link quality and is extremely beneficial for your efforts in getting a high page rank.
Search engines take notes on the number of Dofollow links as well as the number of users following onto your page and uses findings to determine how relevant your page is. The higher the number of Dofollow links, the better the rank.
To obtain a Dofollow link, it is advised to use a keyword as the anchor text for the respective link.
NoFollow Links
On the other hand, Nofollow links are recognised as links that do not allow search engine bots to follow your links and do not provide value. Only users are able to use these links, meaning the SEO benefit of digital PR and outreach is absent.
Whilst Nofollow links are unable to pass any SEO value on, they can still assist in driving traffic to your website.
Domain Authority
What is Domain Authority?
The Domain Authority (otherwise referred to as DA) is recognised as a search engine ranking score that was developed by Moz and is used to predict how a website is likely to rank on the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs). This scoring can range anywhere from one to one hundred, with websites that have a higher score corresponding to a higher ability to rank.
The Domain Authority is calculated by reviewing several factors of a website, including the linking root domains and total number of links, into a single score.
How does Domain Authority work?
The Domain Authority is calculated by reviewing several factors of a website, including the linking root domains and total number of links, into a single score. This can then be used to understand how a potential website’s “ranking strength” performs over time.
Why is Domain Authority important?
Whilst this metric is not one that is used by Google to determine search rankings nor effect on the SERPs, the DA is still crucial to consider when creating a hitlist of prospects to target in a digital PR and outreach campaign.
What you will need to pay attention to when reviewing the performance of your campaign is the relationship between both the DA and links. External links that are of high-quality and lead users and crawlers to pages on your website that are relevant (i.e. products and goods) are valuable to have, whilst on the other hand, websites that do not have a corresponding number of good quality inbound links to balance things tend to score lower.
It goes without saying that when conducting an outreach campaign, placing external links on websites that hold a good DA (anywhere between 50 – 60) will help carry the weight of the score onto your website.
Trust Flow and Citation Flow
What is Trust Flow and Citation Flow?
Both the trust flow and citation flow are metrics that are used to evaluate the backlink profile of your website in comparison to competitors.
Trust flow is a metric that is used to measure and analyse how trustworthy a website is, using quality as a key metric and is a trademark of Majestic. A website’s trust flow is measured by the number of links a specific page on a website receives from a set of trusted websites.
On the other hand, the citation flow is a score between 0-100 and helps to measure the link equity or “power” a website or link carries.
How do these metrics work?
The trust flow is calculated using a set of highly authoritative seed websites as a baseline. The further away your domain is from this baseline, the lower your domain’s trust flow will be.
This set of seed websites link out to other websites that have a good trust flow, and those websites then link out to other websites that have a good trust flow, etc.
The closer your website sits to these seed websites via inbound links and backlinks, the higher your website’s trust flow will be.
Why is Trust Flow and Citation Flow important?
When measured together, the metrics provide insight into the overall authority of a website based on the website’s backlink profile. The ratio between the two of these metrics is critical to review: the closer the ratio between both the trust flow and citation flow, the better since this indicates that the quantity of backlinks are of quality.
Topical Trust Flow
What is Topical Trust Flow?
Similarly, topical trust flow is offered by Majestic and provides a more detailed breakdown of a website’s trust flow, within its respective category.
How does Topical Trust Flow metric work?
The topical trust flow is measured using on-page and off-page signals and determines context behind a website’s trust within their industry, and is independent of each other.
When considering prospects for an outreach campaign, it is advised to select prospects based on their relevancy to your industry.
Why is Topical Trust Flow important?
This metric is one to consider when looking to build a list of prospects to target in a digital PR and outreach campaign since it offers a more detailed insight into whether a website is relevant to your industry or campaign.
Summary
If you are considering delving into the world of Digital PR, then be sure to consider the metrics you will need to measure the success of your campaign.
Polaris is an award-winning B2B SEO agency in London specialising B2B, PPC, e-commerce and the healthcare industry.
