---
title: "Digital PR"
description: "A link building and brand awareness strategy that earns high-quality editorial backlinks from news outlets, industry publications, and authoritative websites by creating and distributing genuinely newsworthy content — such as original research, data studies, or compelling stories."
url: "https://skribra.com/glossary/digital-pr"
type: "glossary-term"
category: "Link Building"
updated: "2026-06-09"
---

# Digital PR

**Definition.** A link building and brand awareness strategy that earns high-quality editorial backlinks from news outlets, industry publications, and authoritative websites by creating and distributing genuinely newsworthy content — such as original research, data studies, or compelling stories.

**In short.** Digital PR earns backlinks from journalists and publishers by creating content worth writing about — original data, research, or stories. It produces the highest-authority links (major news sites, industry publications) and is the modern alternative to traditional press releases.

## Key points

- Digital PR earns editorial links — links given because the content was genuinely newsworthy, not paid for or exchanged — which Google values most highly
- The most effective digital PR content types: original research with surprising findings, data studies, interactive tools, surveys, and contrarian expert commentary
- A single digital PR campaign can earn 50–500+ backlinks from a diverse range of high-authority domains
- Digital PR differs from traditional PR in that coverage is measured by the links and domain authority earned, not just media impressions

## Digital PR Content That Works

Not all content earns editorial coverage — journalists need a story, not a product pitch[1]. The most reliable digital PR content formats: (1) Original data studies — survey your customer base, analyze public datasets, or compile industry statistics. Headlines like 'New Study: 73% of Marketers Say AI Has Replaced Junior Writers' are inherently shareable. (2) 'Newsjacking' — tying your expertise to a trending news story with a unique angle or data point. (3) Reactive expert commentary — responding to industry news with expert quotes that journalists can incorporate into their coverage. (4) Interactive calculators and tools — a mortgage calculator or salary comparison tool on a financial site earns links from personal finance writers who embed or reference it. The common thread: the content provides value to journalists and their readers independently of who created it.

## The Digital PR Outreach Process

Digital PR success depends on outreach quality as much as content quality[1][2]. Build a targeted media list of journalists who write about your topic — not just publications, but specific writers whose beat matches your story. Personalize pitches to reference their recent articles and explain specifically why their readers would find your data or story relevant. The pitch email should lead with the most surprising or counterintuitive finding — not with who you are. Send pitches the day you publish (or use an embargo so journalists can write ahead of publication date). Follow up once, 3-4 days later, with new information or a different angle. Track coverage with Google Alerts and Ahrefs Alerts — when a journalist covers your story, thank them and ask if they'd like to be notified of your next research release.

## Measuring Digital PR Success

Digital PR campaigns are measured primarily by [backlink](https://skribra.com/glossary/backlink) quality and quantity[2]. Key metrics: number of referring domains earned (unique sites linking to the campaign), average [Domain Authority](https://skribra.com/glossary/domain-authority) or Ahrefs Domain Rating of linking sites, whether major target publications covered the story, estimated referral traffic from coverage, and secondary social shares. Track link velocity in Ahrefs — a successful campaign shows a sharp uptick in new referring domains. Beyond links, track: branded search volume (did coverage increase people searching your brand?), [organic traffic](https://skribra.com/glossary/organic-traffic) lift in the weeks following coverage, and conversion rate from referral traffic. The compound effect of digital PR is significant: each campaign builds [domain authority](https://skribra.com/glossary/domain-authority) that makes future content easier to rank, while also generating direct traffic and brand awareness.

## Related terms

- [Backlink](https://skribra.com/glossary/backlink): A hyperlink from one website pointing to a page on another website, used by search engines as a signal of authority and trust.
- [Link Equity](https://skribra.com/glossary/link-equity): The SEO value and ranking power passed from one page to another through hyperlinks — sometimes called 'link juice' — determining how much of a linking page's authority is transferred to the pages it links to.
- [Domain Authority](https://skribra.com/glossary/domain-authority): A third-party score (0–100) developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine results pages based on its backlink profile.
- [Guest Posting](https://skribra.com/glossary/guest-posting): The practice of writing and publishing content on another website or blog, typically in exchange for a backlink to your own site — one of the most common white-hat link building tactics.

## Sources

1. [Ahrefs — Digital PR for SEO: How to Earn Quality Links at Scale](https://ahrefs.com/blog/digital-pr/)
2. [Semrush — What Is Digital PR? A Comprehensive Guide](https://www.semrush.com/blog/digital-pr/)

## Machine-readable index

- HTML version of this page: https://skribra.com/glossary/digital-pr
- Site index for agents: https://skribra.com/llms.txt
- Sitemap: https://skribra.com/sitemap.xml
- Public REST API: https://skribra.com/api/v1
- OpenAPI specification: https://skribra.com/openapi.json