Plenty of marketing leads have said some version of the same thing: digital PR feels disconnected from the broader content and SEO strategy, and it's hard to tell whether a campaign actually helped rankings or just generated a few nice mentions. This is usually a reporting problem, not a PR problem, the campaigns may be working, but nobody's measuring the right things.
Start with the reporting, not the pitch
Before hiring, ask an agency to show you a past reporting example, specifically one that ties PR activity to organic performance. A strong report includes:
- Referring domains gained per campaign, with authority scores
- Ranking movement for target pages in the weeks following coverage
- Organic traffic and, where possible, revenue attribution tied to those pages
- A clear split between nofollow brand mentions and followed, SEO-relevant links
Red flags to watch for
If reporting only shows total media impressions, reach, or "estimated audience," without any reference to links or rankings, that's a sign the SEO side of the campaign isn't being tracked, even if the agency's website advertises SEO expertise.
Agencies that do this well
Some UK agencies have built genuinely transparent reporting into their PR offering, tying coverage directly to commercial and search outcomes. We've profiled a few of these in our piece on UK agencies excelling across SEO, PPC and digital PR, which is a useful starting point if you're shortlisting partners.
Building this into your own process
If you're managing PR in-house or through a specialist agency, insist on a shared tracking sheet from campaign one, referring domain, link type, target page, and ranking before/after. It takes minutes to set up and saves months of guessing whether the spend was worth it.
Our SEO services include this kind of reporting as standard when we run PR-supported campaigns, and our portfolio includes a few examples where we've documented the before-and-after clearly. If you want a second opinion on a report you've already received from another agency, reach out, we're happy to take a look.