As AI-powered search features like Google's AI Overviews (AIOs) and large language models (LLMs) reshape how users discover information, the traditional boundaries between SEO and PR are dissolving. For PR agencies and their clients, this evolution presents both unprecedented challenges and remarkable opportunities.
Source: © 123rf
123rf Chantelle Bowyer, founder and CEO at Metis Performance Marketing, looks at why Digital PR is the missing gear in modern SEO
Google says its AI experiences already drive a 10% uplift in searches that trigger AIOs and higher user satisfaction, all while keeping ad revenue intact.
Yet click-through rates to organic listings are slipping, something we’ve seen since March 2025.
For brands, this shift rewrites the SEO rulebook. Keywords and on-page tweaks still matter, but authority signals, technical housing, backlinks, unlinked brand mentions, and topical trust now decide whether an LLM quotes you or your competitor.
That’s precisely where digital PR shines.
Digital PR: The fastest route to earned authority
Digital PR isn’t old-school press releases; it is editorial storytelling engineered to earn:
- High-authority backlinks from reputable news and industry sites.
- Brand mentions that are rich in context contribute to LLM training, even if no link is included.
- Social validation and topical buzz enhance E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authority, and trust).
Why digital PR has become SEO's secret weapon
Digital PR naturally creates the signals that modern search algorithms crave:
- Authority building through earned media
When reputable publications mention or quote a client or brand, search engines interpret this as a strong authority signal. These mentions often translate into high-quality backlinks, but more importantly, they establish your client or brand as a credible source in their industry.
- Brand entity recognition
AI systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated at understanding brand entities and their relationships. Digital PR campaigns that secure consistent mentions across authoritative sources help search engines better understand and contextualise your client's brand, improving their chances of being featured in AI-generated responses.
- Topical authority development
PR campaigns that position clients as thought leaders on specific topics create the kind of comprehensive, authoritative content that AI systems prefer to reference. This topical authority becomes crucial for appearing in AI overviews and voice search results.
- Fresh content signalsNews coverage, interviews, and PR-driven content provide the fresh, timely signals that search engines use to determine relevance and currency, factors that are particularly important in rapidly evolving industries.
The strategic advantage of SEO-PR collaboration
While PR agencies excel at storytelling and building relationships, partnering with specialised SEO expertise creates exponential value for clients.
- Data-driven storytelling
SEO analytics reveal what topics and angles are actually driving search interest, allowing PR professionals to craft campaigns that align with genuine user intent and search demand. This data-driven approach ensures PR efforts reach the right audiences at the right moments.
- Technical amplification
Even the most compelling PR campaign loses impact if the client's website can't properly support the increased attention. When PR generates traffic, SEO partners optimise the technical infrastructure to transform that attention into business results.
- Long-term visibility strategy
While PR campaigns create powerful short-term spikes in attention, SEO expertise helps transform that momentum into sustained organic visibility. This includes optimising the keywords and topics that emerge from successful PR campaigns and ensuring the client's content infrastructure can support ongoing thought leadership.
- Measurement and attributionThe combination of PR metrics (reach, sentiment, share of voice) with SEO data (organic traffic, keyword rankings, conversion rates) provides a complete picture of campaign effectiveness and ROI that neither discipline can achieve alone.
Positioning for the AI-first future
As search continues evolving toward AI-powered experiences, the most successful strategies will blend PR's storytelling expertise with SEO's technical precision through these three approaches, namely:
- Content that feeds AI systems
Creating comprehensive, well-structured content that AI can easily understand and refer to requires both PR's editorial skills and SEO's technical knowledge of schema markup, content structure, and semantic optimisation.
- Multi-platform presence
Modern visibility requires presence across traditional search, social platforms, industry publications, and emerging AI interfaces. This omnichannel approach demands coordinated PR and SEO expertise.
- Proactive reputation management
This becomes essential as AI systems increasingly shape brand perception and discussion. This requires both PR's crisis communication skills and SEO's understanding of how information flows through digital ecosystems.
The way forward
The convergence of AI, search, and media relations is not a distant future scenario; it's happening now, and forward-looking PR agencies are recognising the shift and partnering with SEO experts will provide their clients with a significant competitive advantage.
Brands that will thrive in this new landscape are those that understand that visibility requires both compelling narratives and technical excellence, both media relationships and search optimisation, and both creative storytelling and data-driven strategy.
For PR agencies ready to lead their clients into this new era, the question isn't whether to incorporate SEO expertise into their offerings; it's finding the right SEO partner who understands and enhances their unique value.
The future of digital marketing belongs to integrated strategies that blur the lines between disciplines. Those who embrace this integration earliest will define the new standard for client success in an AI-powered world.
