In the hugely competitive world of eCommerce, visibility to potential customers is everything. Most brands operate in hugely competitive markets and as such, brands need to have a strong SEO presence to ensure their brand isn’t completely propped up by paid ads. 

Typically eCommerce brands focus on two pillars of SEO - technical SEO and on-site content, whilst this approach is the right one in terms of ensuring the foundations of their site is sound, often Digital PR and backlinks are a second thought, which is where some brands miss out on key performance increases. When tech, content and Digital PR work in tandem, this is when eCommerce brands get the best results possible.

Digital PR is not just about generating press coverage, it’s about building high quality and highly relevant backlinks that have a positive impact on the overall visibility of an eCommerce site and ultimately play their part in driving the organic performance for a brand. 

Backlinks Are Still Highly Regarded by Google 

As has always been the case, backlinks remain one of Google’s top-ranking factors. A highly relevant link from a high authority domain is a positive signal to Google that your website is itself high quality, trustworthy and relevant to the topic in discussion. 

Though as Google has made clear, not all backlinks are measured the same and no longer is it purely a numbers game. This is why a solid Digital PR strategy which is centered around building a strong number of topically relevant backlinks from reputable domains can have a hugely positive impact on the organic performance of a website - though it is important to state that gone are the days of blindly building as many backlinks as possible, Google simply doesn’t reward a site if they have the most backlinks, there’s a much higher focus on relevancy and quality. 

Building Trust with Google 

Google has signalled over many of their updates that they want to prioritise and reward sites that demonstrate expertise, authority and trustworthiness, with this falling under their E-E-A-T (Experience-Expertises-Authority-Trustworthiness) model, Digital PR can play a huge role in delivering this for brands. 

Topical relevancy plays a huge part in doing this for brands and it’s key that when engaging in Digital PR, brands understand where their expertises lies and they must showcase them with their content. For example, a jewellery brand that specialised in engagement rings could look at producing a campaign that examined the upcoming engagement ring trends for 2025, this would not only earn backlinks on highly relevant and high quality domains, but it also positions the brand as an expert within that industry, which would show Google that they should be ranking for key terms around engagement rings. 

The Importance of a Technically Sound Website

Whilst it is clear that Digital PR can give brands a huge boost in terms of their organic performance, it would be wrong to suggest that Digital PR can alone do this. It is key for any brand that the technical foundations of their site are strong, because without strong foundations the chances of the work from Digital PR reaping the right sort of rewards would be slimmer than if a site was technically on point. 

This is why it’s so important that all pillars of SEO work in tandem because there could be wasted effort if not. 

In Summary

Digital PR is far more than a driver of coverage online, when executed alongside a well thought out holistic SEO strategy, Digital PR can be the final piece of the puzzle for an eCommerce brand's organic performance. With more brands wanting to reduce their reliance and reduce their spend on paid ads, it’s critical that Digital PR is taken seriously as a drive of performance. 

For eCommerce brands that have key target categories that they want to grow, Digital PR can be the pillar of SEO that can unlock that performance and drive ranking improvements, and ultimately revenue. 

For any eCommerce brand that wants to reduce their reliance on paid whilst hitting ambitious growth targets in 2025, we’d love to talk more to you about how Digital PR can help unlock your performance next year! 

Navigating Link Relevancy: Solutions to Common Red Flags + Free Tool

Until then, why not sign up to our webinar ‘Navigating Link Relevancy: Solutions to Common Red Flags + Free Tool’ happening on Thursday 23rd January to hear more about the significance of link relevancy in 2025 and how you can leverage our new Relevancy Tool to effectively measure your digital PR coverage and SEO performance. We hope to see you there!