In 2025, successful link building for PR blogs focuses on earning high-quality, relevant backlinks through valuable content and genuine media relationships rather than manipulative tactics.

The key is to position your blog as an authoritative and trustworthy source of information that journalists, bloggers, and other publishers naturally want to cite.

To understand how this works, let’s first define PR link building.

PR link building is a strategy that combines public relations (PR) with search engine optimization (SEO) to earn high-quality backlinks from reputable sources.

It involves creating compelling, newsworthy content like reports, data, or stories and pitching them to journalists and media outlets. When these publications feature the content and link to the brand’s website, it builds the brand’s authority, credibility, and search engine rankings.

PR backlinks VS SEO backlinks

Digital PR merges traditional PR, content marketing, and link building to drive online coverage. It emphasises brand building and media coverage, with links as a valuable byproduct.

Traditional SEO link building is a more technical and direct process with the explicit purpose of improving a website’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEO focuses on strategically acquiring links primarily to boost search engine rankings.

Effective Link Building Strategies

“Skyscraper” Technique: Find popular content that has many backlinks, create a superior, more up-to-date, or more comprehensive version of that content, and then reach out to the sites that linked to the original, suggesting they link to your improved version instead.

Visual Assets: Infographics, charts, and unique images are highly shareable and often linked to as sources of data or information. Use reverse image search to find websites using your visuals without attribution and request a link.

Broken Link Building: Identify broken links on reputable websites in your niche. Create content that serves as a suitable replacement for the dead link, then notify the website owner and suggest your content as a fix.

Guest Posting: Write high-quality, original articles for other relevant, authoritative websites in your industry. This builds your brand authority and provides an opportunity to include a natural link back to your site within the content or author bio.

Digital PR and HARO: Pitch compelling stories or offer your expertise and insights to journalists and reporters using services like Connectively (formerly HARO). If your expert commentary is used, you’ll often receive a high-quality backlink from major news outlets.

Internal Linking: Don’t overlook opportunities within your own website. Strategically link from high-authority pages to new or important pages to distribute “link juice” and improve the overall authority of your site.

Ensure Relevance and Quality: Always prioritise obtaining links from relevant, high-quality, and trustworthy sites. Links from unrelated or low-quality sites can harm your SEO performance.

How to track Backlinks

Tracking backlinks is essential for monitoring your SEO performance, identifying growth opportunities, and protecting your site from harmful links. The most effective method involves using a combination of dedicated SEO tools and free resources like Google Search Console.

Top tools for tracking Backlinks

Google Search Console (Free): This is a must-have as it provides raw, accurate data directly from Google’s own index. It shows which sites link to yours, your most linked-to pages, and anchor text distribution. The data is limited to sites you own and verify.

Ahrefs (Paid, Limited Free Version): Renowned for its vast and frequently updated backlink database, Ahrefs offers detailed analysis, including referring domains, link quality metrics (like Domain Rating), and the ability to track new and lost links.

Semrush (Paid, Limited Free Version): An all-in-one marketing suite with powerful backlink analysis and auditing tools. It provides a proprietary Authority Score to evaluate link quality and a backlink audit tool to detect potentially toxic links.

Moz Link Explorer (Free & Paid): Offers insights into a site’s backlink profile using metrics such as Domain Authority (DA) and Spam Score, which are useful for prioritising link opportunities and identifying risks.

Benefits of Digital PR Link Building

Acquisition of High-Quality Backlinks: The main benefit for SEO is earning natural, editorial backlinks from high-authority, reputable news sites, industry publications, and influential blogs. These quality links are seen by search engines as powerful “votes of confidence,” which are more impactful than low-quality or paid links.

Improved Search Engine Rankings: By consistently acquiring quality backlinks and brand mentions, your website’s overall authority and credibility (E-E-A-T – Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) increase, leading to higher rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) for target keywords.

Crisis Management and Reputation Building: Proactive digital PR can help control your brand’s narrative online, allowing you to highlight positive stories and effectively manage or mitigate negative press, building overall brand resilience.

Measurable ROI: Unlike traditional PR, the results of digital PR campaigns can be accurately tracked and measured using analytics tools. You can monitor metrics like the number of backlinks, domain authority growth, referral traffic, and keyword ranking improvements to demonstrate a clear return on investment (ROI).

Enhanced Brand Awareness and Visibility: Digital PR campaigns get your brand in front of a wide, relevant audience across various online channels, including news sites, social media, and podcasts. This broad exposure increases brand recognition and makes consumers more likely to choose your brand over competitors.

Furthermore

Effective link building demands a holistic approach that integrates high-value content creation, proactive digital PR and outreach, and diligent backlink tracking. Strategies must align with search engine guidelines, prioritising the acquisition of high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative sources over attempts at link schemes or low-quality volume.