It’s no secret that search is changing. AI-powered tools like Google’s AI Overviews and LLMs (large language models) like ChatGPT are transforming how people search for information. This shift in how search is done means that digital marketers everywhere are having to adapt their strategies to ensure their brands are discoverable by AI models and visible in responses. AI tools take their information from content that’s already online, which means that some traditional SEO tactics, while still necessary, won’t help you pack a punch in AI responses.
One of the most important techniques for increasing visibility in AI-driven searches is digital PR. An effective digital PR strategy gets your brand name out there and also helps build a narrative around your brand that gets you noticed by AI search and AI Overviews.
To find out how you can use digital PR to your advantage, our guide has everything you need to know.
The Shift in SEO and PR
There is something of a search evolution going on. Just a few years ago, the secret to ranking highly in traditional search engine results pages (SERPs) involved optimising your content with keywords and executing a link building strategy to enhance your credibility and chances of ranking highly.
However, to appeal to LLM search engines and AI Overviews, a different SEO strategy is needed. AI-driven search engines and features take a different approach; they scan vast amounts of content on the web to produce a response that is essentially a contextualised summary. To be discoverable in these types of results, you need to focus on building your brand authority online, and digital PR SEO is one of the most effective ways of doing this.
What is Digital PR?
In the context of digital marketing, digital PR by definition is all about getting people talking about your brand online. If this involves a link to your website, even better. However, it’s a bit different from traditional PR, which might involve creating a newsworthy campaign that gets your brand mentioned in big-name publications in print, online, or on TV, which then boosts your credibility and has a positive impact on traditional search engine rankings.
With the rise of AI-powered search engines, digital PR is changing. AI generates its answers by pulling information from a range of sources like blogs, news articles, roundups, listicles, reviews, and Reddit threads. If your brand name isn’t featured in the types of content that AI uses for responses, you won’t be discoverable. Modern digital PR overlaps with content marketing and link building tactics to help grow your brand awareness online. Tactics like unlinked and linked brand mentions, listicles, expert quotes, and digital media placements are all important online PR techniques for reputation building. When done right, it can enhance your inclusion in AI responses.
The Role of Digital PR in Classic SEO
Just because digital PR has evolved because of AI and LLM models, it doesn’t mean that there are no digital PR SEO benefits to be had from implementing these techniques. The truth is that, as well as working to grow your online reputation for inclusion in AI responses, digital PR can help your traditional SEO efforts too, by:
- Building high-authority digital PR backlinks: Link building can help increase your brand credibility in the eyes of traditional search engines like Google. The types of links gained through digital PR techniques are often highly authoritative, relevant, and contextual, which helps give your backlink profile a significant boost.
- Generating natural brand mentions and citations: Brand mentions, even ones that don’t come with a backlink, can help build your credibility with traditional search engines. Google takes unlinked brand mentions as implied links, meaning they still have a positive impact on your SEO. Digital PR can lead to your business being mentioned in authoritative online directories, and these types of citations are great for traditional SEO.
- Strengthening E-E-A-T signals: To be successful in the SERPs, fulfilling Google’s E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) is a huge factor. The type of content and exposure that digital PR campaigns bring for your business really help to boost authority signals and E-E-A-T, which allows you to achieve even better rankings.
Why Digital PR Matters for AI Overviews and LLM Search
As already touched on, LLMs like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode generate answers to user queries by pulling information from anywhere on the web. News articles, reviews, blogs, listicles, social media posts, and Reddit threads are just a few of the sources where this technology gathers its information.
To be visible in LLM and AI-powered responses and features, your brand needs to be present in the type of content that AI tools scan to give their responses. Not only that, but semantic SEO is a factor here, and your business needs to be spoken about in a positive light and in a context that makes sense. It’s about creating a digital conversation around your brand that can boost your AI search visibility. That’s where digital PR comes in.
Ultimately, an effective digital PR AI Overviews or digital PR LLM strategy gets your brand mentioned in trusted sources online that AI models rely on to generate their responses. When your brand is mentioned in a relevant context, this can help boost your AI visibility even more, as it helps boost entity recognition, which is how AI models understand real-world things, like your business.
Digital PR vs Traditional Backlinks: What’s Changing?
When it comes to digital PR vs backlinks, it’s essential to understand exactly what the shift away from traditional methods is. Link building has always been a trusted off-page SEO technique to improve rankings for specific keywords and pages. Traditional link building remains a crucial method for establishing authority and enhancing rankings. However, digital PR tactics like brand mentions SEO are becoming increasingly more important for increasing AI search discoverability and inclusion. What’s even more critical is that linkless mentions and broader media coverage can have a bigger impact on your AI search visibility than backlinks.
It’s no longer all about how many top backlinks you have, but how many authoritative third-party and relevant sites mention your brand. AI models don’t look at backlinks alone; they are much more swayed by mentions, whether they are attached to a link or not. The more AI models notice your brand being mentioned online, the more likely it is that they will include you in relevant results. Similar to link building, brand mentions can take some time to translate into better visibility. However, be aware that each brand mention you secure will contribute to authority building and increased inclusion in AI responses.
How to Build an Effective Digital PR Strategy
Effective digital PR strategies involve a combination of content marketing and media outreach to help you appear in the types of content that AI-driven search engines turn to when generating responses. So, if you’re wondering how to do digital PR successfully and appeal to AI and LLMs, the steps below will help you do just that.
- Create Newsworthy Content
If you want to earn valuable brand mentions and backlinks, you need to create engaging, newsworthy content that people want to talk about, share, and link back to. You might simply be sharing some important news related to your company or industry, or you may have new data insights that you’ve discovered through research or surveys. This type of content showcases your expertise within your industry and is likely to attract attention from others, leading to fresh brand mentions, which is a good thing.
- Become a Thought Leader
Effective brand campaigns position you as a thought leader within your industry. By consistently sharing your insight on topics that are relevant to your industry, you can earn mentions and links in relevant publications that will help grow your authority. Also, the more often you share your insights, the more likely journalists will turn to you for a quote. Our specialist expert quotes service can help get your insights featured in relevant online publications.
- Journalist and Influencer Collaboration
Building genuine relationships with relevant journalists and influencers in your industry can help shape the digital conversation around your brand. Offer journalists genuine and valuable stories or expert opinions for natural brand mentions. As for influencers, ensure you’re collaborating with influencers who align with your brand and the industry you are in. Let them talk about your brand in a way that works for their audience and tone of voice, and this will result in valuable real-world brand mentions that get shared by their followers, which will be picked up by search and AI models.
- Use Social Media to Amplify Coverage
Use social media to boost your online coverage. Share quality mentions of your brand and engage with your audience wherever possible. This will help to grow your engagement and create a buzz around your business. When you have likes, shares, and comments, your perceived authority is higher, which means AI systems will be more likely to notice you.
- Focus on AI-Surfaced Publications
Your digital PR strategy needs to be built with AI discovery firmly in mind. Concentrate on getting your business mentioned in reputable publications that AI turns to for its responses. When creating your own content, keep it clear and concise and structure it in a way that appeals to AI and LLMs.
Measuring the Impact of Digital PR
With traditional SEO, you can see the impact of your campaigns clearly when they translate into better rankings, increased traffic, and more quality backlinks to your site. AI models prioritise credible and trustworthy mentions. The most impactful digital PR campaigns take into account both traditional and digital PR metrics that signify success. To measure digital PR campaign success, these metrics are the most important:
- Brand Mentions: When online brand monitoring, tracking how often and where your brand is mentioned is critical. Mentions from reputable online publications are more effective in building your authority and leading your brand to be surfaced by AI models.
- Backlinks Earned: Links from trusted, high authority sites are good for your SEO and for building credibility to get picked up by AI models.
- Media Reach: How much exposure has the coverage had? Look at the publication’s traffic and social media following, including how many people have shared the content. Coverage that has a large reach makes you even more discoverable by AI search algorithms.
- Referral Traffic: Take a look at your referral traffic to determine which digital PR placements have given you the most traffic and engagement. This can be a good indicator of digital PR ROI.
- Sentiment Analysis: Keep track of whether the sentiment around your brand is positive, neutral, or negative. A positive context around your brand boosts trust signals and your authority for AI recognition.
- Visibility in AI Overviews: Use tools to monitor when your brand is mentioned in AI Overviews. The more AI Overviews and summaries you appear in, it’s safe to say that AI models see you as having authority and being trustworthy.
The Future of Digital PR in SEO and AI Search
The search evolution continues. Both traditional SEO and AI SEO are changing. To remain relevant in the SERPs and AI-driven search, building digital authority is increasingly important. Digital PR SEO in 2025 involves a hybrid approach that is built on traditional SEO basics that have been developed to be effective in the AI era. In fact, the foundations of traditional SEO remain important; your site needs to be technically sound, have quality backlinks (or brand mentions in this new era), and feature valuable content that is helpful to users.
Semantic search focus and entity SEO are vital for enabling AI models to understand your brand and make it more likely that you’ll be featured in LLM and AI responses in the future. Digital PR is going nowhere and is an essential aspect of AI-driven SEO. If you don’t want your business to miss out in the new AI age for search, then you need to be implementing digital PR campaigns.
Digital PR as the Bridge Between SEO and AI Search
The importance of digital PR cannot be overstated. The right digital PR SEO strategy will help grow your brand visibility, online reputation, and strengthen your authority signals for both traditional search and AI search. This translates into better rankings in the SERPs and being recognised in AI Overviews and LLM search engine responses. It’s a win-win. A strong digital PR strategy is a non-negotiable if you’re serious about staying relevant in AI and traditional search results. If you need help with any aspect of digital PR, then our professional team can help your business achieve AI search readiness. Get in touch today!
