TRAFFIC
SEO Authority Through Digital PR
Producing the Right Content
It is a common opinion in the gaming world that the only way to acquire SEO authority is to buy links or
adopt black hat techniques. In this new article series, we will see why this is not necessarily true and how
Digital PR activities can (and should) be used as an alternative to traditional link building methods.
Link building and Digital PR
2013 was definitely a harsh year for link
building. Apart from a few updates of
its Penguin algorithm1, the year also
saw Google penalising two well-known
networks2 as well as some prominent
sites3, all for acquiring links in ‘black hat’
ways. Apart from this, 2013 was also the
year in which for the first time Google
clearly stated that conservative link
building techniques such as widgets,
infographics, guest posts and press
releases were also to be considered black
hat techniques, hence potentially putting
your site’s rankings at risk4.
Considering how Google is extending
its war on links to include traditionally
white hat methods, several SEOs and
webmasters may wonder if link building
– if not SEO – is dead. The answer is, of
course, no, but just like animal species
need to evolve following changes in their
ecosystem, link building techniques also
need to evolve in order to survive.
The natural evolution of (formerly)
white hat link building techniques is
Digital PR. Similar to the SEO concept
of ‘link bait’, Digital PR means getting
external sites to spontaneously mention
(and link) your site, giving you the SEO
authority you can no longer get with
outdated link building methods.
The Digital PR process
In order for a Digital PR campaign
to succeed, it is important to follow a
well structured process, based on a
carefully researched strategy. A typical
PR campaign is composed of the
following steps:
1. Site audit
2. Content planning and research
3. Content creation
4. Targets scouting
5. Launch and outreach
Here, we will focus on the first three steps.
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Site audit
Before even thinking of how to promote
your site or a specific section of it, you
should make sure you clearly know what
the values and targets of your site (and
brand) are. Considering some examples
from the gaming world, you can see how
brands like Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars
focused more on the idea of online poker
as a sport, associating their brands with
this value; PKR looked at online poker as
a computer game and PartyPoker as a fun
form of entertainment, not so different
from casino games.
Apart from different values, different
sites also have different targets: while
sportsbetting and poker sites have a
predominantly male audience, casino sites’
visitors are more mixed, and bingo sites
are mostly composed of females. Ethnicity,
gender, lifestyle and yearly income are
other factors that characterise your target.
Before planning any PR initiative, you
1
See http://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
See http://searchengineland.com/did-google-just-penalize-another-link-network-sape-links-150843 and http://
searchengineland.com/google-may-have-penalized-another-major-link-network-ghost-rank-2-0-172567
3
See http://www.seroundtable.com/rap-genius-google-penalty-17877.html