Two services, one name, entirely different products. The confusion costs businesses real money, usually because they bought a spotlight when they needed a scalpel.
What traditional PR is for
Traditional PR manages reputation and relationships. Media relations, crisis handling, spokesperson training, event press, trade and consumer publications, and the slow work of becoming someone journalists call for a quote.
It is measured in coverage volume, message penetration, sentiment and share of voice. Its natural clients are organisations for whom public perception is a business risk: consumer brands, regulated industries, anything with a large workforce or a public-facing controversy.
It works. It is also slow, relationship-dependent, and structurally difficult to attribute to revenue — which is why it tends to be bought by organisations large enough not to need that attribution.
What digital PR is for
Digital PR earns online coverage specifically for its search and brand effects. Same underlying craft — find the story, make it publishable, get it placed — with a completely different scoreboard.
Success is: live URLs, referring domains gained, branded search volume before and after, referral traffic, and movement on the keywords that matter. All of it countable, most of it in tools you already pay for.
The mechanism is worth spelling out, because it is genuinely two effects compounding. Coverage carries editorial links, which pass ranking signals. Coverage also lifts branded search — more people searching your name — which correlates strongly with local and organic visibility. The second effect is slower and larger than most people expect.
Where link building sits
Link building is narrower than either. It targets a named page with a planned anchor to move a named keyword. No brand objective, no story, no coverage. Just equity, pointed precisely.
That precision is its advantage. If your commercial roofing page is stuck at position eleven and you know exactly what it needs, digital PR is an inefficient way to fix it. Four well-placed links pointed directly at that page is the efficient way. That is what a link campaign is for.
Link building is a scalpel. Digital PR is a spotlight. Businesses get in trouble when they buy one and expect the other's results.
Side by side
| Traditional PR | Digital PR | Link building | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Reputation & perception | Brand visibility & search | Rankings for named pages |
| Deliverable | Coverage & relationships | Published articles & links | Links |
| Measured by | Sentiment, share of voice | Referring domains, brand search | Position change |
| Timeline | 6–12 months | 1–3 months to first effect | 4–8 weeks to first movement |
| Typical UK cost | £1,500–£4,000/mo | £300–£1,000/mo | £65–£95 per placement |
| Best for | Large or regulated organisations | Growing businesses building recognition | Specific pages that nearly rank |
How to tell which you need
Three questions, honestly answered.
Do people search your brand name? If branded search is negligible, you have a recognition problem, and no amount of link building fixes recognition. That is a digital PR brief.
Do you have pages sitting in positions six to twenty-five? If yes, you have proven relevance that needs equity. That is a link building brief, and it is usually the cheapest win available.
Is there anything about your business a journalist would consider a story? If genuinely not — no launch, no data, no expertise, no milestone — digital PR will struggle regardless of budget. Fix that first, or accept that link building is the realistic option.
Most growing businesses answer yes to more than one, which is why the sensible split is usually both: coverage-led work to build the brand, targeted links to push the pages that convert.
The reporting question that settles it
Whatever you buy, ask one thing before signing: what is the deliverable if nothing publishes this month?
In traditional PR the honest answer is "the retained work still happened" — which is legitimate, but means you carry the risk. In our model the answer is "then you have not been invoiced", because the deliverable is the published article, not the effort.
Neither answer is wrong. But knowing which one you are buying is the difference between a channel you can evaluate and a line item you renew out of habit.
More on how we structure campaigns on the digital PR page, or the local version for Nottingham and Mansfield.
Frequently asked
Is digital PR just link building with a better name?
No, though plenty of agencies sell it that way. Link building targets a specific page with a specific anchor to move a specific keyword. Digital PR targets the brand, and the links arrive as a by-product of coverage. The measurement, the creative process and the success criteria are all different.
Which is better for a small business?
Usually digital PR, because a small business rarely has the brand recognition that makes other channels cheap. Coverage lifts branded search and makes paid advertising, sales conversations and organic conversion all work better at once.
Can you do both at the same time?
Yes, and most sensible programmes do. A common split is roughly two thirds of budget on coverage-led work and one third on targeted links aimed at the specific pages that generate revenue.
Want this done rather than explained? We own 38 UK publications and place editorial articles and links on them from £65. Send the target page and we'll come back within one working day with a plan.