SEO stands for search engine optimization and it means just that: how every webpage online is optimized to earn a higher place in search results. The higher your web page ranks in a search engine results page (SERP), the more users will see it and the more traffic will visit your website.

SEO matters, and should form a part of your PR strategy, because no matter how good your content is, if you don't have anything driving traffic to your newsroom, no-one is going to see it.

Although SEO and PR are separate entities, they can (and should) go hand in hand. Together, they will increase your visibility, authority and even trust. All while boosting traffic to your website.

PR strategists are relationship focused, but they still need tools to determine direction, which is where SEO steps in. Keywords, backlink research and trends data all provide critical data for PR to develop an effective strategy (more on that later).

And on the flip side, PR can help with 'link building' and high quality content creation.

Ideally, any PR output or earned media (guest blogging on other sites, press mentions, etc) should drive traffic back to your website/newsroom where leads are most likely to convert. Meanwhile, your owned media (website, social media, the newsroom — anything your brand is producing themselves) should be both optimized for SEO and crafted to meaningfully cover the topics, issues, and stories your customers care about.

The exact criteria for search ranking is Google's best kept secret, but we do know that they want to provide users with reliable information that is as relevant to their search as possible. Increasingly, that also means ensuring your content is accessible to AI-powered search experiences and large language models (LLMs), which rely on clear structure and authoritative content to understand and surface information.
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There are various techniques to improve your SEO, but the golden rule is always to have the user in mind. After all, users and search engines can tell when your content is genuinely helpful or if it's simply clickbait. If you create content for algorithms rather than your audience, you might see an initial spike in traffic, but you'll quickly be penalised. The same applies to AI search: writing in natural, conversational language that answers the questions your audience is actually asking makes your content more useful for both people and AI systems.

Choosing your newsroom domain can be a confusing task. If you're not sure, check out our help article covering your newsroom hosting options.

That said, if SEO is one of your priorities, a subdirectory is probably your best bet. Unlike a subdomain, a subdirectory keeps all your content (website and newsroom) together under one domain umbrella. This means your website and newsroom share domain authority, so there's no need to build SEO strength separately. Your newsroom can boost your website's authority, and vice versa.

There is no substitute or shortcut here—high-quality, relevant content remains the single most important ranking factor.

Create content specifically for your intended audience, focusing on answering their questions clearly and demonstrating your expertise. Not only will this increase site traffic, but it also improves your authority and relevance in the eyes of both search engines and AI systems.

While your written content is key, don't forget the rest of your newsroom. Make sure you've completed pages with optimised images, descriptive captions, contact details and supporting resources. The more value your newsroom provides to visitors, the better your visibility will be.

If you're looking for inspiration, check out our press release checklist for tips on writing an effective release.

Good content deserves a good structure. For each press release, decide on a primary keyword or phrase by thinking about the problem your reader is trying to solve and the terms they might search for. Focus on a single topic rather than trying to rank for everything.

Include your keyword naturally in:

A clear heading hierarchy helps both search engines and AI systems understand your content.

To improve readability and AI visibility:

As always, write for your audience first. Search engines and AI are becoming increasingly good at recognising genuinely helpful content.

Small technical details can make a big difference.

Whenever possible:

Incorporating backlinks (links to and from other websites) adds credibility to your articles, enriches the visitor experience and contributes to domain authority.

Likewise, linking between relevant pages within your own newsroom helps visitors discover more content and allows search engines to better understand the relationships between your articles.

Use descriptive anchor text rather than generic phrases like "click here."

Google—and increasingly AI-powered search experiences—favour fresh, up-to-date content.

Publishing regularly is important, but don't forget your existing content. Revisit older press releases to:

Rather than creating duplicate articles, consider updating the existing page where appropriate so you retain the SEO authority already built around that URL.

Setting a quarterly reminder to review your newsroom is a simple way to keep content current.

If your audience is international, publishing your newsroom in multiple languages can help search engines and AI systems serve the most relevant version of your content to readers in different regions.

PR.co newsrooms are already optimised for multilingual SEO. We automatically implement hreflang tags across language versions, allowing search engines to correctly identify the language and regional targeting of each page. This helps ensure users are directed to the appropriate version of your content while avoiding duplicate content issues.

Our carefully designed Leads feature comes as part of the newsroom package and allows visitors to subscribe to your newsroom updates.

Not only does this help convert visitors into engaged contacts, but it also enables you to build a high-quality press list of journalists and stakeholders who have actively expressed an interest in your brand.

Events are a great way to generate buzz and build quality relationships, that you can use later for back linking, content creation and top notch press release material. Add on our events feature to your subscription and you can choose from various options to display your events, or even host your own events direct from the newsroom with virtual events.

Questions? Send us an 📩 at hello@pr.co

Suggested Reading 📚

SEO in PR: How to make your news findable