30-second summary:
- Experts have told us for a few years that SEO and public relations (PR) need to merge
- Are SEO and PR really integrating “in the wild”?
- In case you too searched the web about how this and found nothing considerably valuable, here are some answers for you
- Founder and CEO of Organic Growth, Kevin Carney surveyed 184 SEO and PR professionals across brands, agencies, and consultants
- Dive in to discover more on the state of SEO and PR integrations in the industry
We’ve been hearing for a few years now that SEO and public relations (PR) need to merge. The primary reason given is that they have similar goals, as well as similar strategies and tactics. It is sometimes argued that some aspects of SEO are PR, in an age when publishing has become comparatively low-cost. So much so that anyone can become a publisher, and due to the advent of content marketing[1], brands now have to.
I searched the web for information about how this integration is going, or not. I found nothing I considered to be of value on this topic. So I decided to create this article after collecting information from SEO and PR professionals to get a clear picture of our industry.
Methodology
I created a survey, then used Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to reach out to SEO and PR professionals. This resulted in 78 survey responses. I waited a month, went back to HARO, and got 91 more. I then shared my survey in a few SEO and PR groups on Facebook, which resulted in 15 more. I got 184 survey responses in total.
When I started I had arbitrarily decided I wanted 200 survey responses but decided to stop at 184 rather than