One of the biggest debates in digital PR is still about relevance.
Too often, we wrongly think about relevance as being binary; either a story is relevant or it's not.
But there are different degrees of relevance. And that's what I'm going to be talking about today.
What I won't be getting into is the debate of whether relevance is or isn't important; it is.
And that's based on not just my own experience but also:
Last year's Google algorithm leak confirmed anchorMismatchDemotion ... I've said right from our first analysis of this documentation that this is, without a doubt, a relevance mismatch. When links aren't deemed relevant (we know Google can determine a site's core topic through siteFocusScore and how far each page deviates from this with siteRadius), they're either ignored or their effect dampened.
Google's recent DOJ trial confirmed that links are one of the factors Google uses to determine the topicality of a page.
I'm all in on relevant links and coverage.
And I hold a strong view of asking "Would we still do this if Google didn't exist?" about any PR activity; this itself helps to focus on relevant PR that isn't just happening 'to earn links.'
But what are these different degrees of relevance?
I think about there being four degrees of relevance in digital PR...
I think about relevance like this, in terms of the relevance of the stories we’re telling...
Commercially relevant = PR activity directly tied to your products or services.
Category relevant = PR activity built around the broader category you operate in.
Audience relevant = PR activity tied to the interests, needs or challenges of your audience.
Socially relevant = PR activity that hooks your category to wider social trends.
Wanna see an example of this in practice?
I've mapped out some example rough ideas that fit into each of these groups, based on the theme of a mattress / bedding retailer.
But here's the thing ... relevance will always be a trade-off with the volume of links and coverage earned.
The more relevant you get, the fewer links and pieces of coverage you’ll earn.
But that’s cool.
There's fewer journalists out there writing a roundup of the best mattresses for back pain than could or would write about which cities in the UK get the best nights sleep and have the lowest stress levels; there's just so many more angles to go after (regional, for example).
We've all become so used to chasing volume, when really we need to take a step back sometimes and ask what we're trying to achieve.
We don't always need to chase volume to see an impact and commercial success...
But similarly, we can't just say "all our PR activity needs to sit at commercially relevant,' that would be limiting the opportunities.
No two brands are the same, and some sectors have way fewer commercially relevant stories than others, for example. And that's before we even consider what a brand actually needs.
Ask why you're doing this and what your goals are...
Are you looking to directly impact the visibility of products and categories? You'll want to focus efforts on being commercially and category-relevant more than the others. This is especially important for being visible in AI search platforms; where {brand} + {context} is everything.
Are you a new brand with pretty much no authority (or link profile)? You'll probably want to weight your efforts more towards audience and even socially-relevant at first, to build that authority to allow you to even compete with more established brands.
The reality is that most brands need to balance different types of PR activity, of which they'll earn coverage at different degrees of relevance.
Product PR, for example, is going to be the go-to for earning commercially-relevant coverage.
Proactive and reactive expert insights PR usually lands as category-relevant coverage.
And campaigns, most often, produce audience-relevant or socially-relevant coverage. There's always exceptions, of course.
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More than anything, this is a reminder that "being relevant" means different things to different brands.
PR often needs a trade-off between relevance and the volume of coverage earned, but figuring out what that should be for your brand is where strategy comes in...
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If you learned something from this issue or it’s made you think about SEO a little differently, please consider forwarding it to someone else on your team.
I’m on a mission to make sure more SEO investment actually has an impact on real business metrics.
Appreciate you making it to the end; same time Friday?
- James Brockbank
P.S. If you ever need expert support with SEO or digital PR and want to drive results that actually matter, I’d love to chat. Let’s talk.
You're invited to The eCommerce SEO Summit 2025...
On 20th November, Digitaloft is hosting a free half-day virtual event for marketers working for, and with, eCommerce retailers.
Join us on the afternoon of 20th November to discover the strategies and tactics that you need to be paying attention to as an eCommerce retailer if you want to drive growth in 2026.
We’re bringing together a mix of sessions and panel discussions led by the SEOs working with, and for, some of the fastest growing eCommerce brands out there right now, including Crystal Carter (Wix), Ryan Jones (SEOTesting), Anthony Barone (StudioHawk UK), Amy Gibson (Digitaloft) and myself. We're also hosting an exciting panel discussion on 'The Future of the eCommerce SERPs' including our panelists; Freddie Chatt, Juliette van Rooyen, Matt Coughlan (Head of SEO, MyProtein) and Liv Day.
I've spent the last 10 years building an agency that's perfectly positioned to help ambitious brands to drive real business growth from SEO and digital PR.
You might have seen me speaking at events like BrightonSEO, SMX and the International Search Summit.