Meagan Andres

Boost Your SEO with PR: How Earned Media Builds Trust and Rankings

The SEO Secret Hiding in Plain Sight

If you run a small or midsize business, you probably spend a lot of time trying to get noticed online. You tweak keywords, boost posts, and watch analytics like a hawk. But here’s the thing: while you’re busy chasing clicks and conversions, you might be overlooking one of the most powerful (and most affordable) ways to build your digital footprint—public relations.

PR isn’t just for big brands with fancy agencies and press junkets. It’s a strategic lever that can help businesses of any size earn credibility, boost SEO, and grow trust in a way that paid ads can’t match.

Let’s unpack why that matters, and how earned media—the good kind of publicity—can take your SEO from “fine” to “fantastic.”

The Digital Team’s Blind Spot

Digital marketing teams love a quick win. Click-through rates, cost per click, ad spend—these are the numbers that make dashboards light up and bosses smile. But when it comes to public relations (PR), the metrics are a little fuzzier, and that’s often where the conversation stops.

The problem? By focusing only on what’s easy to measure, companies miss out on the long-term SEO power that PR can bring. Earned media—those news articles, expert quotes, podcast mentions, and influencer shoutouts you don’t pay for—can quietly build a brand’s credibility with Google and humans alike.

When done right, PR isn’t just good for reputation. It’s a secret weapon for search visibility, authority, and trust.

Why Digital Marketers Lean on Paid Media

Marketers are used to tracking everything. They want hard data and fast results, so they pour resources into paid ads, sponsored posts, and retargeting campaigns. Those are valuable, sure—but they’re also temporary. Once the budget dries up, the exposure disappears.

PR, on the other hand, works differently. Modern PR isn’t about old-school press releases or one-off events. It’s about building relationships, sharing stories worth talking about, and earning credible mentions that live online for months—or years.

The truth is, many businesses skip PR simply because they don’t know how to measure it. But ignoring it means missing the compounding benefits of stronger SEO, higher trust scores, and organic traffic that doesn’t rely on ad spend.

Paid, Shared, Owned, and Earned: What’s the Difference?

Think of your media mix as four puzzle pieces:

• Paid media: Anything you pay for—ads, boosted posts, sponsored content. You get guaranteed placement but not necessarily attention.
• Owned media: The stuff you control completely—your website, blog, email list, or podcast. Great for storytelling and SEO groundwork.
• Shared media: Content that thrives on social engagement—posts, reviews, and user-generated content.
• Earned media: The golden ticket. Mentions, reviews, and features you earn because someone else found your story worth sharing.

Paid, owned, and shared media are important, but earned media adds a layer of authenticity that money can’t buy. It’s your digital word-of-mouth—and it feeds your SEO in ways ads never could.

How Earned Media Powers SEO

Google loves credibility. In fact, it rewards it. That’s why earned media can move the SEO needle so effectively. When reputable outlets mention or link to your brand, Google sees that as a vote of confidence—and those “votes” help boost your ranking in search results.

Here’s how it works in practice:

1. High-quality backlinks: When a trusted outlet links to your site, it’s like getting a referral from a respected peer. Each link helps strengthen your domain authority, pushing your site higher in search results.
2. Brand mentions: Even without direct links, media mentions improve your online reputation and feed into Google’s E-E-A-T signals (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
3. Wider content reach: Earned media often sparks a ripple effect—people share articles, quote them, or republish snippets. That multiplies backlinks and expands your audience naturally.

So while you can’t buy earned media, you can earn it strategically—and it keeps working for you long after the campaign ends.

Why Every Growing Business Should Care

If you’re a small or midsize business trying to stand out online, PR gives you something paid media can’t: credibility that scales. It’s the digital version of being introduced to someone by a mutual friend instead of cold calling them.

By weaving earned media into your SEO and content strategy, you’re not just chasing clicks—you’re building authority, expanding your reach, and strengthening your reputation across the web.

And here’s the kicker: every time your name appears in a respected publication, you’re not only reaching their audience—you’re teaching Google that your brand deserves to be found.

The Bottom Line

SEO isn’t just about keywords or technical tweaks. It’s about credibility, relevance, and relationships. PR connects all three.

For growing businesses, the smartest digital strategies balance the immediate wins of paid and owned media with the long-term credibility of earned media. Because when you invest in PR, you’re investing in something that lasts—a reputation that ranks.