Ensure your potential customers can find your business through brand discovery, public relations strategies, and SEO positioning.
In an increasingly digital environment, knowing how to improve brand visibility and ranking in search engines has become essential to make sure your brand is discovered at the right time and by the right audience.
Consumers rely on the web to stay informed, find answers, explore ideas, and purchase products. They use different platforms and devices to search for what they need anytime, anywhere. For this reason, applying SEO positioning strategies is essential to maximize brand discovery and strengthen brand visibility across various digital touchpoints.
Did you know?
- 6% of global internet users say they discover new products and services through search. (Data Reportal)
- 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (BrightEdge)
- 60% of marketers say inbound marketing (SEO, blog content, etc.) is their highest-quality lead source. (HubSpot)
If your brand isn’t found by potential or current customers at the right moment, other brands will be ready to seize the opportunity and connect with them. That’s why a strong digital strategy is essential to boost visibility and reach audiences when it matters most.
What is brand discovery or discovery marketing?
Brand discovery, also known as discovery marketing, refers to the practice of making it easier for potential customers to find relevant, authoritative content. In short, it’s a brand’s ability to be found when people search for solutions to their needs via digital channels like search engines, online media, and recommendation-based platforms—including tools like Google, Gemini, and ChatGPT.
If you’re wondering what brand discovery is in marketing, it’s the first phase in the customer journey—the moment someone encounters your brand. If what they find is valuable, they’ll want to explore more. That’s where SEO strategies play a key role by optimizing content to appear in search results and make a positive impression on your audience.
How can PR and SEO improve brand discovery?
Traditionally, public relations (PR) focused on building awareness through media coverage. However, PR has evolved to contribute directly to business performance.
Today’s optimized PR efforts are integrated with SEO positioning strategies, ensuring brand content is discovered on the right platforms at the right time. To achieve this, you must develop a public relations and SEO strategy that extends your content’s value and maximizes its reach in search engines. This approach is essential if you’re looking to understand how can PR and SEO improve brand discovery.
Nowadays, many searches don’t begin with traditional search engines. They start on conversational platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or voice-based search tools, where authority, clarity, and content structure are critical for being featured in responses. In this context, media coverage earned through optimized PR not only improves your brand’s visibility on Google—it also trains AI models to extract information from credible public sources, such as reputable media outlets, to answer user queries. That’s why combining PR and SEO strategies to attract new leads is increasingly relevant.
5 SEO and PR strategies that drive brand discovery and trust
1. Keyword research with search intent and semantic optimization
This process helps you understand what your customers are searching for and how they phrase their queries online. Effective keyword research aligns your content with users’ intent, ensuring your brand appears at key stages of the buying journey.
To implement this strategy effectively:
- Identify relevant industry terms and phrases.
- Use analytics tools to uncover traffic opportunities.
- Include those keywords in all optimized PR materials.
- Integrate semantic SEO that responds to broader intent beyond exact match keywords (e.g., concepts, brand context, FAQs).
2. Use a topic cluster model
SEO strategies should be structured using topic clusters that group content into interrelated categories. This structure improves user experience by allowing visitors to easily navigate the information they need.
Additionally, to maximize brand visibility, media coverage should use optimized keywords and semantic structures within a topic cluster model, making it easier for search engines to index and rank your content.
3. SEO Optimization for On-Page and Off-Page content
With clear structure and well-defined keywords, you can enhance your content’s multimedia elements to improve performance in search engines.
Key elements include:
- Compelling titles: include keywords strategically.
- Optimized meta descriptions: concise, persuasive, and aligned with user search intent.
- ALT tags for images: improve accessibility and image SEO.
- Internal linking strategy: improve site navigation and distribute domain authority.
- Keyword and semantic optimization: this ensures your content is not only discoverable on search engines but also usable by voice and AI-powered platforms to answer user queries.
By applying these practices in your digital PR strategy, you’ll improve brand positioning and increase high-quality traffic to your website.
4. High-quality backlink building
Backlinks, or inbound links, are a key factor in SEO positioning strategies. Search engines see them as trust signals that boost your site’s authority.
To earn high-quality backlinks:
- Publish content on digital media platforms with high domain authority.
- Establish strategic partnerships with influencers and thought leaders.
- Create valuable content that others naturally want to link to.
When PR and SEO strategies are aligned, you can earn links from relevant sources, strengthening both credibility and brand visibility.
5. Measure and adjust your strategy
Performance analysis is essential for optimizing any digital marketing campaign. Measuring the impact of your SEO strategy helps you identify improvement opportunities and adapt based on your content’s performance.
Recommendations:
- Monitor keyword rankings in search engines.
- Track web traffic from digital media and backlinks.
- Analyze engagement on social platforms and content channels.
When executed correctly, SEO positioning strategies amplify the value of your content, extend its lifespan, and enhance your brand’s digital presence.
Conclusion: Brand discovery and SEO as growth accelerators
Brand discovery is the starting point for attracting and engaging potential customers. To make that happen, it’s essential to understand their needs and pain points, ensuring they find the right information at the right time.
SEO positioning strategies are essential in this process, as they help to:
- Improve your ranking in search results.
- Increase brand visibility through owned and earned content.
- Drive high-quality traffic to your site.
- Build authority and trust in your sector.
- Generate new opportunities for conversion and business growth.
By integrating public relations and SEO tactics, your brand will be more discoverable to the right audience, strategically positioned across high-impact content channels, and emotionally connected to your buyers, laying a strong foundation for their journey.
If you want to take your communication strategies to the next level, we recommend reading: 8 key benefits public relations and digital marketing bring to organizations.