Reports Archives | connective3

Abstract

The rise of digital PR over the last decade has transformed how brands interact with their audiences online.

As Germany moves towards a digital-first approach, it has become a key market for brands looking to expand internationally. Germany’s unique media landscape presents marketers with a playground of opportunities, but it also comes with its own set of challenges that demand to be understood. The continued strong presence of traditional media lead to a slower adoption of digital PR in this market. However, the increasing consumption of online news and use of digital platforms emphasises the need for strategic digital PR to enhance brand visibility and engagement.

Drawing from our own expertise working in the German market, we’ve created this guide to help brands navigate the country’s unique landscape and develop effective digital PR strategies in Germany. This guide compares media and consumer landscapes between Germany and the UK and explains how digital PR can effectively build trust, boost brand awareness, and reach target audiences.

Additionally, we share helpful outreach tips to help you navigate Germany’s cultural nuances and take the international success of your brand to the next level.

Understanding the German media and consumer landscape

The German media landscape

Germany’s media landscape reflects its federal structure. Divided into 16 states, including the city-states of Berlin, Hamburg, and Bremen, Germany boasts strong regional media alongside national outlets. Economic powerhouses like Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, and North Rhine-Westphalia have well-established regional news sources. Similarly to the US and other European countries, there is a bigger focus on regional and localised news with fewer national giants dominating the market. While tabloids exist, they have a smaller presence compared to traditional newspapers and tend to focus on specific regions rather than national circulation.

The consumer landscape

The Reuters report shows that for 63% of Germans, online news sites are the preferred source of information over TV and print. Throughout the Covid pandemic, social media saw a spike as a news source, however, this has since declined back to 29%. The most trusted news sources include ARD, Germany’s largest broadcasting network, as well as ZDF and a plethora of regional newspapers. Similarly to other European countries like France and Greece, 11% of Germans pay for access to online news, as some news sites may use paywalls to restrict access to certain articles. In fact, more than 2 million issues of online news are being sold every day1, that’s almost triple the sales compared to 2010.

How can your brand benefit from a Digital PR strategy in Germany

Incorporating digital PR into your marketing strategy allows brands to gain a competitive edge in the evolving German media landscape. While traditional media remains influential in Germany, consumer habits are shifting towards online platforms. Digital PR campaigns can help build brand awareness and trust through targeted online channels.

What can you expect in terms of results?

When it comes to link numbers, the rule of thumb in Germany is quality over quantity. The value of links you can achieve is generally high. It is not unusual to have around a third of your links or more coming from domains with a DA of 70+. Therefore, aiming high and targeting some of the biggest nationals and relevant high-quality sites can pay off and provide you with the quality results you are looking for.

Unlike in the UK where an increasing number of outlets are switching to no-follow linking policies, German publications are generally happy to provide follow links. A ratio of approximately two thirds to one third follow-to-no-follow links is realistic.

Content strategy: Landing success with the campaigns that work

What content works?

The type of content that works varies hugely across different niches.

Simple concepts based on social media data (like “most Instagrammed” campaigns, TikTok hacks etc.) work well across the lifestyle sector but are not always suitable to more serious niches like business/finance or sports. Lead times also vary depending on niche, from a few hours in lifestyle to a few months in finance. Regional angles and hyperlocal data are always a bonus. A detailed blog to link back to helps to encourage journalists to include a link more than just a link to the homepage.

What content doesn’t work?

Just like with successful content, understanding what doesn’t work in Germany varies by niche, but ultimately comes down to the media landscape, which generally favours traditional, information-rich content over sensationalism. Generally speaking, it is safe to avoid fluffy pieces, sensationalised headlines we often see in British tabloids, and clickbait, as these are seen as unprofessional and can damage relationships. Germans value well-researched and accurate information, reflecting their cultural preference for reliability over flashy content.

Our successful campaigns

Let’s review some of our most successful campaigns. In collaboration with loveholidays, a well-known UK travel provider that recently launched in Germany, we revealed the most Instagrammed Christmas markets. The campaign achieved extensive coverage across Germany and Europe, with links in Merkur and Elle Germany. Timed with the opening of Christmas markets and focusing on regional outlets, we created numerous hyper-localised outreach angles.

For the same client, we launched a campaign on rising ice cream prices across Europe, a relatable topic for holidaymakers. By comparing past prices and forecasting future costs, the campaign secured coverage in travel publications like Reisereporter and Expat News, and finance and business outlets such as Business Punk and Focus.

For the finance sector we’ve seen success with survey-based campaigns, as long as the topic was trending in the news at the time, a reputable survey provider was used, and a sizable number of respondents took part in the survey. This approach secured links in sites like Handelsblatt and Starting-Up, as seen in our SumUp Germany campaign on shopper expectations. However, surveys are slower and can be costly, requiring careful budget planning.

Outreach tips

The right tone of voice is crucial to building cultural rapport in different countries. Business TOV in Germany is more formal than in the UK and it is common practice to address people by last name and sign off with kind regards.

German journalists tend to be inquisitive and favour fact-led content, so It’s important to include a detailed methodology that journalists can easily access, either in your press release or in your on-site content. A lack thereof may result in questions and delays that may affect the quick turn-around which is vital to ensure coverage.

If you have the scope within your team to translate your content to German, doing so will elevate your chances of it getting picked up. Automatic translation tools like DeepL or different AI software have become excellent tools to use, however, whenever possible, it is always best to run the final translation past a native speaker to ensure that cultural nuances are being conveyed appropriately.

It can be helpful to include a short note in your email to request a link to the original research, as in the on-site content to be added, however, if a news site covers your story you may email to request for a link to be included in the article. Doing this doesn’t always guarantee one to be added, but it does increase your chances and you will find out which news outlets do link and which do not, so you can manage expectations with your client.

In terms of lead times, it is important to manage expectations if you or your client are branching out to the German market, especially if they are used to UK or US lead times. Depending on your campaign topic and niche, some evergreen content can take weeks to be picked up, so don’t be disheartened if you don’t see as many results in your first week of outreach!

Conclusion

Overall, the German Digital PR market is not as saturated as in the UK, which opens up a huge scope of untapped opportunities for brands and marketers looking to branch out into this growing market. Clever yet simple campaign concepts can lead to great results on relevant, high-DA news sites and campaigns with lots of regional angles will help you pivot to success. With Digital PR still emerging in Germany, now is the best time to get ahead of the curve and establish your brand as a trusted voice in this market.

If you want to take your PR activity and your brand’s visibility within the German market to the next level, please get in touch with our team or find out more about our work here.

Sources

1 https://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/de/medien-und-kommunikation/zeitungen-und-zeitschriften

Meet the author

Vera has an academic background in journalism and a master’s degree in Public Relations & Digital Communication. Vera’s been working full-time in digital PR for five years, working on UK-based and international accounts, with focus on the DACH market due to her German background. Having worked with clients from all sorts of fields, including travel, lifestyle, retail, health, sports, finance and education, Vera loves diving into new niches and gaining expertise through creative campaigns. Vera’s hoping to use her insights to inspire creative and impactful campaigns that can drive great results.

Vera Staiger

Dach PR Lead

Connect with Vera

When retail giant Amazon stepped out of the Google Shopping auction in late July 2025, it was a huge moment that had the whole industry talking. The immediate question on every marketer’s lips was: “What happens to my Cost Per Click (CPC) now?”

The easy answer is to look at a ‘before and after’ snapshot. But easy answers are often wrong. To get to the truth, we used a Causal Impact analysis to scientifically measure the real-world effect of Amazon’s exit on CPCs across key retail verticals. The results were not what you might expect.

This report will take you through our study, explaining why we chose Causal Impact analysis, the results for each vertical, why it’s important to understand consumer intent, the actual CPC shifts we saw and ultimately why Amazon could afford to walk away from Google Shopping.

Note that as of 25^th August Amazon are back in Google shopping auctions showing this was indeed a true holdout test to measure incremental value Google Shopping is providing to the revenue uplifts for Amazon.

Why Casual Impact beats simple Period-on-Period comparisons

A Period-on-Period (PoP) comparison only looks at how metrics move between two timeframes (e.g., before vs. after Amazon’s exit). While useful, it assumes that any change is directly caused by the event, ignoring seasonality, broader market shifts, or randomness.

Causal Impact, on the other hand, uses a Bayesian structural time-series model to estimate what would have happened if the event (Amazon’s exit) hadn’t occurred. This gives:

A True Baseline: It doesn’t just compare ‘before’ to ‘after’. It compares the ‘after’ to what should have been, creating a synthetic control group.
Statistical Proof: It tells us the probability that the change was a direct result of the event, separating genuine impact from statistical noise.

A Clear Narrative: It quantifies the average and cumulative effect over time, showing whether the impact was a short-term blip or a long-term shift.

For example, a simple PoP comparison showed CPCs in the Gifts category fell by 3.3%. A tempting conclusion would be that Amazon’s exit reduced competition. However, our Causal Impact analysis revealed the confidence interval overlapped with zero, proving the effect was not statistically significant. We avoided a misleading conclusion that a lesser analysis would have produced.

Pink is Causal Impact and Grey is PoP.

The surprising results: Deconstructing the CPC shifts

So, what actually happened when Amazon left the auction? The big surprise is that the impact was highly concentrated. We didn’t see a widespread surge in CPCs. Instead, we saw one clear winner, one category with a significant drop, and a whole lot of stability elsewhere.

The chart below shows the statistically significant impact, or lack thereof across key industries.

Casual Impact on CPC across industries (1)

📈 The major outlier: Laptops (+21.9%)

The only category to see a statistically significant and substantial CPC increase was Laptops. The story here is a perfect storm of timing and technology. Amazon’s exit coincided with the back-to-school season, a peak demand window for everything from headphones and tablets to monitors and speakers.

As students and parents began their shopping, conversion intent surged. Google’s Smart Bidding algorithms, which are designed to maximise outcomes, recognised this high probability of conversion and bid aggressively to capture those valuable clicks, pushing CPCs up. This proves a critical point: modern auctions are driven by conversion probability, not just competitor volume.

📉 The big decline: Protein Supplements (-10.5%)

At the other end of the spectrum, Protein Supplements saw the only statistically significant decrease in CPCs. This reflects a different, but equally important function of Smart Bidding: efficiency. This period often coincides with a post-payday lull in spending for this category. The algorithm likely identified lower conversion intent and reallocated budget away from less valuable clicks, causing the average CPC to drop as it optimised for efficiency.

Everything in between: Statistical stability

For every other category we analysed – including Consumer Electronics, Mattresses, Garden & DIY, and Gifts, the impact was not statistically significant. As you can see on the chart, the error bars for these verticals all cross the 0% line. Any minor CPC fluctuations observed were simply statistical noise, not a direct result of Amazon’s departure. This is a crucial distinction that only a Causal Impact analysis can provide.

Beyond the bid: Why consumer intent trumped competition

The impact of Amazon’s absence is less about auction mechanics and more about the consumer’s path to purchase. For many products, shoppers simply don’t default to Amazon, which fundamentally changes how the market reacts.

High-consideration purchases: When buying a mattress or medical equipment, trust, specialist advice, and brand reputation are paramount. Consumers gravitate toward dedicated retailers, meaning Amazon’s presence or absence in a SERP is a minor factor.
Emotion-driven buys: Products like personalised gifts or unique home décor are discovery-led. Shoppers are actively browsing independent stores and specialist sites. Amazon leaving the auction doesn’t create a vacuum; it just redistributes attention among existing players.
Commoditised products: Laptops are a different beast. Consumers are highly price-sensitive and often use Amazon as a default for convenience and comparison. When the default option disappears from the most visible ad space, it dramatically reshapes demand dynamics and forces algorithms to react.

The new rulebook: CPC is a symptom, not a sickness

If you’re still managing your paid search accounts with CPC as your primary KPI, you’re looking in the rearview mirror. With the dominance of Smart Bidding strategies like Target ROAS and Max Conversions, CPC has become a byproduct, not a goal.

Here’s why:

Bidding is outcome-driven: The algorithms aren’t trying to find the cheapest click; they’re trying to find the most profitable conversion.
Auction-time signals are king: Google adjusts bids in real-time based on hundreds of signals like device, location, and audience data. It cares more about the predicted value of a user than the number of advertisers in the auction.
Value beats volume: If the algorithm predicts a user is highly likely to convert, it will gladly pay a higher CPC to win that click, even if overall competition has decreased.

This explains our findings perfectly. CPCs for Laptops rose because Smart Bidding chased high-value, back-to-school conversions. CPCs for Protein Supplements fell because algorithms likely reallocated budget away from lower-intent clicks that are more common as consumers move away from a payday spending spike.

In today’s landscape, CPC is no longer the metric to optimise for. The true measure of success is efficiency, tracked through metrics like ROAS and cost per acquisition.

Amazon’s endgame: Why they could afford to walk away

Finally, let’s consider Amazon’s perspective. For them, leaving Google Shopping isn’t the risk it would be for a smaller retailer. Why? Because consumer behaviour is already hardwired in their favour.

Studies consistently show that the majority of product searches begin on Amazon, not Google. This means Amazon isn’t just a player in the market; for many, it is the market. By pulling out of Google Shopping, they weren’t risking invisibility. They were running a massive-scale experiment to answer a simple question: “Does paying for Google Shopping ads provide incremental value, or would these customers have found their way to us anyway?”

As mentioned, as of 25^th August they are back in Google shopping auctions, showing this was indeed a true holdout test to measure incremental value Google Shopping is providing to the revenue uplifts for Amazon.

Their brand gravity and established customer habits mean they can capture demand with or without being in every auction. For them, it is a calculated test of channel value, and for the rest of us, it was a masterclass in the new dynamics of paid search.

Methodology for Casual Impact Analysis

Data Sources and Selection

This analysis utilised a combination of proprietary in-platform data from Google Ads and publicly available data from Google Trends to construct and validate the Causal Impact model.

Treatment Data (Google Ads): The primary data source for the dependent variable was Google Ads. The specific metric analysed (e.g., conversions, clicks, branded search volume) was extracted using account-level data for the period spanning three months prior to the intervention (pre-period) and one month after the intervention (post-period). This dataset represents the “treatment” or affected data, which is the subject of the analysis.
Control Data (Google Trends): The control data, representing the unaffected “counterfactual,” was sourced from Google Trends. The selection process for the control group was critical to the integrity of the analysis and followed these steps:
1. Identification of Unaffected Keywords: Potential control keywords were identified as those with search interest that was highly correlated with the treatment metric before the intervention. These keywords were deliberately chosen to be outside the scope of the campaign being measured. For example, if the campaign was for “Luxebrew Coffee Maker” an unaffected control group might be the search volume for a similar but distinct query like “Premium Coffee Blenders”
2. Correlation Validation: A correlation analysis was performed on the pre-period data to confirm a strong, statistically significant correlation between the treatment and control metrics. This step ensured the control data was a reliable predictor of the treatment metric’s behaviour in the absence of amazon in auction.

Meet the author

Subhash is a paid media specialist with over two years’ experience working across a diverse range of clients and industries in both e-commerce and lead generation. With a strong focus on data, measurement, and optimisation, he has delivered campaigns across PPC and paid social, always aiming to drive incremental improvement and measurable growth. In addition to his broad client exposure, Subhash has developed a practical, problem-solving approach that helps brands address media challenges with clarity and purpose.

Subhash Herur

Advertising Manager – Connective3

Connect with Subhash

Intro and overview of landscape

The way we search is constantly changing. 12 months ago, you’d search for something within Google, and you’d see a featured snippet followed by 10 blue links. Now, you search for that same query, and you’re presented with AI overviews, forums, organic shopping listings, videos, and more.

Or, you might not even choose to search in Google – preferring instead to head to the likes of TikTok or Instagram; or ask ChatGPT or another LLM for their recommendations. This, combined with Google’s AI mode recently being launched for testing in the UK means that the organic landscape is in a state of flux, and marketers must adapt if they want to remain visible to potential new customers.

In this report, we’re going to look at the various features across the organic search landscape, what they mean, how to optimise your content for them, and how to report back on them.

We’ll be covering the following:

Google’s AI mode and LLMs
AI overviews
Video and social search
Ecommerce SEO and Google’s organic shopping experience
Forums and discussions
Sources across the web and PAA
Image SEO

Google’s AI mode

Google’ AI mode was initially introduced back in May 2025, and began testing in the USA and India, before being launched in the UK at the end of July 2025.

What is AI mode?

Currently, AI mode is a long-form AI overview, and can be accessed within Google itself, either by clicking on ‘AI mode’, which is its own feature next to ‘images’, ‘maps, ‘videos’, etc; or by clicking ‘dive deeper in AI mode’, at the end of an AI overview.

Currently, citations are pulled from top ranking sites, to pull together a long-form answer, but it’s not just blogs that are featured – in some instances, it’s product listings, videos, and forums.

While this is still in a test phase, the long-term aim for this is that as Google better understands a searcher’s browsing and shopping habits, it will only showcase brands that the user already interacts with; which will make it harder for newer and smaller brands to be discovered.

In terms of the type of information Google will use to present these hyper-personalised results back in AI mode, these are:

Search history: This includes what a user’s previously searched for, and the type of results they’ve clicked on
Google calendar and maps: Bookings and events, daily routine, and location history
Gmail: Personal conversations, flights and other appointments that have been booked
YouTube: Viewing habits such as subscriptions, likes and comments
Shopping: Product searches, purchase intent, transaction history, and loyalty cards
Fitbit statistics: Step count, heart rate, stress levels and sleep quality

What this also means, is that by understanding if a user has been emailing a friend about wanting to book a holiday to Cape Town, in the future, then recommendations will be shown; or if a user doesn’t like onions and they’re searching for some recipe inspiration, any recipes with onions won’t be included in recommendations.

How does AI mode differ from LLMs?

Users are also turning to LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity, to search for questions, and the results they bring back look similar to AI mode’s current layout.

However, the main difference (currently), between the two, is that AI mode is better at using live web data, whereas ChatGPT gives a more conversational and reasoned response. So, if your query is more time-sensitive, like “What should I do in Cape Town this weekend?”, AI mode may be your best bet; whereas for something that’s not so time sensitive like “What are the best running trainers under £150?”, ChatGPT or other LLMs may be better.

What should you be doing right now, to get featured in AI mode and across LLMs?

Brand is going to become increasingly important, so when you think of organic visibility, you need to think of brand awareness. That means, if you aren’t already, you need to do the following:

Consider ‘search everywhere’ in your organic strategy

Users don’t just search on Google. They’re asking for recommendations on LLMs, they’re using forums, and turning to social media. Having a presence on these is only going to build your brand awareness, which will help you to rank higher across Google, and get more features in AI mode and on AI overviews.

Ensure you implement best-practice SEO tactics

Having a technically sound site, creating content that’s engaging and answers questions users are searching for, and building brand mentions through PR activity will help to increase your authority, which will enable you to be featured within AI mode, and on LLMs.

Report back on AI traffic

Ultimately, these new initiatives mean that organic traffic will naturally drop over time, as Google aims to answer top-of-funnel questions within the SERPs, and more people turn to social to watch video content. This isn’t a bad thing – it just means that the traffic that does come to your site organically will have a higher intent to convert.

At the time of writing, AI mode data is being tracked within Search Console under the performance report, but you can’t filter this out to see traffic from it specifically (although it’s highly likely you’ll be able to in the near future).

You can, however, track LLM traffic within GA4 – you’ll just need to set up a custom report. While numbers are small at the minute, they’re growing – on average, our clients see around 3-5% of total clicks come from LLMs, with the exception of one of our brands, who’s a market-leader, and sees around 12%, which highlights the importance of a strong brand.

AI overviews

What are AIOs?

An AI overview (AIO) is a summative answer found at the top of Google’s SERP, that’s been pulled together from top-ranking sites by generative AI, designed to answer a user’s question.

Longer in form than their predecessors, featured snippets; AI overviews for the most part, are designed to increase zero-click searches – the reason being, that 88% of searches that bring back AIOs are informational and top of funnel, with a July 2025 report from Wordstream showing that 10% of AIOs are for commercial keywords (although this changes somewhat for the travel industry, where there is more of a blurred line between the two).

That being said, there are links dotted throughout them that cites the sources, so there’s still an opportunity to drive traffic to site – and they add a huge brand benefit, too.

That same study from Wordstream found that 81% of AIOs also brought back a People Also Ask (PAA) in the SERP, and that around 43% of AIOs cite Google as the source of information – not just sites that rank highly.

AIOs show up slightly less for local searches, and the top 50 domains on Google get around 30% total share of AIOs. And it’s not just on-site content that gets shown – forums like Reddit, alongside videos across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram are all brought back for certain searches – highlighting the need to be everywhere to build your brand.

It’s affecting every industry, too. Research from Conductor found that as of July 2025, the IT services sector has the largest percentage of keywords that generate AIOs, at 38%, followed by the healthcare and life sciences industries, at a 36% tie.

When it comes to industries that have seen the largest increases QoQ, it’s the healthcare industry, at a net change of 24, followed by a tie with IT, cruise vacations, and banking, at 14. The only industry to see a dip was healthcare, but that was only -1.

How to get your content seen in AIOs

Generally speaking, a position on page one should theoretically give you a good chance of being featured in AIOs – but the Wordstream study found that actually, 40% of sources rank on page two (although we haven’t noticed this for any of our clients).

That being said, best SEO practices still apply, and if your brand is an authority in its industry, you’re more likely to get featured in them. This means:

Having a technically sound site
Applying the principals of E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust) on-site – think author bios on blogs, and reviews on product and landing pages
Having quality, engaging content that answers the questions people are searching for
Building high quality backlinks and brand mentions through digital PR activity
As a secondary aspect, consider the creation of social content (ensuring it’s cohesive with your brand messaging), as videos can be pulled through too

How to understand the scope of opportunity

Ahrefs gives you a good understanding of how many AIOs you appear in, and what the scope of opportunity is.

To find out which AIOs you appear in, input your site URL, and click on ‘organic keywords’. From there, select ‘SERP features’ ‘include target in’, and ‘AI overviews’ – any URL that has the diamond symbol next to it, indicates you have an AIO.

To see the full scope of opportunity, simply amend ‘include target in’ to ‘include’ – any keyword without a diamond icon highlights an AIO is triggered for that keyword, but your site isn’t included in it.

We typically look at keywords that you rank for on pages one and two, to highlight the number of potential AIOs you can be captured in, and the total monthly search volumes.

By using Ahrefs’ brand radar, you can also track brand mentions within AIOs themselves – which is interesting, as numbers will be lower than keywords, but it enables you to see where your name is actually cited within the text, as opposed to just a link. However, to use this feature, you’ll need to pay extra.

Reporting back on performance

Alongside the above, where you can track the total number of AIOs you appear in, and the opportunity, you’ll want to report back on traffic. AIOs encourage zero-click searches, but that’s not to say you can’t drive traffic to site, through the links at the top.

The earlier report we cited from Wordstream found that AIOs reduce clicks by almost 35%, but for some sites, this has been as much as 40%. However, 63% of businesses have said that AIOs have helped to positively increase their visibility, traffic, or rankings, since they were first tested way back in May 2024.

When you click through to a site from an AIO, you’ll see a snippet of text in the URL that says “#:~:text=” (it’s worth noting that this same text link shows up in People Also Ask (PAA) and featured snippets, but it’s still a good indicator).

By setting up Javascript variables in Google Tag Manager (GTM), you can read and capture this text to track clicks. The data can then be sent to GA4 either by adding event parameters to an existing ‘page_view’ event in GTM, or by creating a new GA4 event in GTM. When using event parameters in your GA4 tags, you can add new custom dimensions in the GA4 interface to see and analyse the snippets of text captured.

Video and social search

Google is now bringing back videos within the SERPs, in the form of video packs, a carousel of shorts, and individual video listings. Previously, this content came directly from YouTube and TikTok, but in July 2025, it was announced that content from Instagram would start to be indexed and showcased on Google’s SERPs as well.

Alongside that, for certain informational keywords, video content is being pulled through into AIOs, and cited in ChatGPT and other LLMs, so video really does need to be a part of your strategy.

In addition to this, people are moving away from using Google as the sole focus of searches. Research has shown that 42% of people use social media to search for a question, and that 66% of product discovery happens off Google – primarily across social channels, and forums.

While these figures are higher amongst younger audiences (41% of Gen Z say social is their preferred channel for discovering new products), older demographics are using this channel too – with 40% of Gen X reported to have discovered a new product on social media, alongside 20% of baby boomers.

Ultimately, to get featured across LLMs, AIOs and in Google’s AI mode, you need to build your brand awareness, and social is a great way to do that, through building a community, and consistently publishing engaging content.

For a deeper dive into this, have a read of our guide to incorporating video into your content strategy.

How to conduct keyword research for Google and across social channels

To understand the scope of video opportunities within Google itself, use Ahrefs. Type in your focus keyword under ‘keyword explorer’, then under ‘SERP features’, select ‘video preview’ and ‘video’. This will give you all of the keywords that bring back videos.

Pair this with keyword research on social channels, and you’ll find the sweet spot for your ideas. We use keywordtool.io – it gives you access to keyword research across a variety of social channels, including Instagram, YouTube and TikTok – you just pick the country/language you’re targeting, and you can see monthly search volumes and trends.

TikTok keyword research in keyword.io tool

Before you start filming your videos, ensure you do some SERP intent analysis like you would a blog, to understand things like length and format.

How to optimise your videos on social

There are some specifics on each social channel, but the following apply:

YouTube

Optimise title tags for your main keywords (up to 60 characters)
Optimise your descriptions: Add in keywords, explain what the video’s about, and add in CTAs through to landing pages/blogs, and social channel subscriptions (up to 5,000 characters)
Include relevant hashtags
Add in closed captions, as Google can understand what it means. You should also add a link to the transcript from your description
Add in timestamps for videos that are 4+ minutes in length– think of them as jump links in a blog
Choose a high-quality thumbnail image

TikTok

Say your keywords in the video
Add keywords as on-screen text
Include keywords in the description
Include relevant, trending hashtags

Instagram

Weave keywords into your caption (a couple at most)
Include keywords into your alt text
Include a few relevant hashtags if needed (but don’t go heavy on them)

Of course, this alone isn’t going to cause videos to rank. All of this is underpinned by an active social channel, with content that’s engaging and user-focused.

Embedding videos into your blogs

Longer-form YouTube videos can be great to embed into on-site content if it’s relevant to the topic you’re talking about; as it can increase engagement metrics such as time on page, and reduced bounce rate.

In terms of hosting, there’s no set rule. You can either:

Host it on your site, although the downside is it could slow your site down
Host it on Vimeo, where there won’t be any ads
Host it on YouTube, and you can then measure traffic to videos from site.

Reporting back on performance

You’ll be able to understand engagement metrics within each social channel’s analytics section. Rankings within social channels are a lot harder to understand, as social channels don’t share those metrics. That being said, at Connective3, we’ve created a tool where you can scrape a social site’s SERPs to see where you rank for keywords you’ve targeted, and who your competition is.

Ahrefs reports back on keyword rankings for videos within Google – enter the URL of your video (this could be YouTube, Instagram or TikTok, for example), and then click on ‘organic keywords’, and you’ll be able to see where you rank for within Google’s SERPs.

You can track traffic to site from videos – under ‘traffic acquisition’, click on ‘add filter’, and ‘Session default channel group’, ‘exactly matches’, ‘organic video’. However, it’s also worth comparing bounce rates and engagement rates on pages that have had videos embedded compared to those that haven’t, and measuring them over a period time to see if that has increased with the addition of a video.

Ecommerce SEO & Google’s organic shopping experience

When it comes to ecommerce SEO, Google has a whole range of shopping experiences that help users search, view and compare products, bringing the online shopping experience to life for virtual shoppers. For marketers, this means there is a big opportunity to capitalise on it by using optimisation techniques to help products feature more prominently in organic search. What’s more is that Google is continually evolving to make the virtual shopping experience more immersive for users, with features like ‘try it on’ in AI mode, making staying ahead of the game imperative.

With the ever-evolving organic shopping landscape and the breadth of features included, it can be hard to keep track of everything, so let’s break it down!

Product snippets
The organic shopping grid
People also buy from
Images
Google lens
AI mode
Try it on
Beyond Google – LLMs

Below, we’ll take a deep-dive into each feature, explaining what it is and how to optimise for it.

1. Product snippets

The product snippets appear as a regular result in Google’s SERP with helpful shopping enhancements such as images, store ratings, delivery and returns information and in stock items. All of these enhancements provide users with helpful information about the products they’re searching for, allowing them to make quick and informative decisions and compare their options. Getting this feature right can mean a ton more clicks from users.

If you’re in ecomm SEO, optimising for this feature is a must!

How to enhance your organic product snippets

It’s all about schema.

To get rich results for your product snippets you have to implement the Merchant listing (Product, Offer Review) structured data. In fact, using the Product mark-up also helps your products to appear in all other shopping experiences including the shopping grid, images, lens and the shopping knowledge panel.

Using Product mark-up you can add schema to images, review ratings, shipping, returns, pricing and more. You can find all schema requirements to enhance your product snippets in the SERPs, here.

Want to make sure it’s working correctly? You can use this structured data validation tool; alongside Google’s rich results testing tool.

Top tip: If your products have variants, like colours or sizes, you can use product variant schema which helps Google to better understand the relationship between variants and the parent products.

2. The organic shopping grid

This feature is a product grid which normally displays 10 products spanning across different retailers like the below:

In case this visual representation isn’t convincing enough about why you should care, then here are some interesting stats about the shopping grids:

98% of ecommerce keywords now trigger multiple Google shopping grids
80% of SERP real estate for ecommerce keywords is now dominated by shopping features
30% decline in clicks is already impacting top-ranking organic pages

*seoClarity research grid data – October 2024

When the organic shopping grid was first introduced, it generally appeared at the bottom of page one, not as prominently as it does now. As search has evolved, the shopping grid now features at the top of page one – often above the regular listings. This means regular results get pushed further down the page resulting in lower CTRs. Sometimes, double grids appear, with one at the top and bottom of the page, making getting featured in the organic shopping grids a necessity, not a ‘nice-to-have’.

Ok, so now you know you have to get featured in the shopping grids so you’re probably wondering how?

There are three main areas to consider for organic shopping grid optimisation:

1. Optimise your product detail pages (PDP’s)

On-page optimisation is critical to succeeding in this space to ensure that Google has access to product descriptions, attributes like colour and size, and additional information like shipping and returns. Don’t scrimp on details – the more the better.

Title tags should be accurately optimised with details like product name, colours and sizes, and product and merchant listing schema should also be used.

Top tip: Ensure any JS loaded content has fallback HTML that Google can crawl.

2. Merchant centre and feed optimisation

Make sure your free listings status in Google Merchant Centre is turned on:

In addition to this, the product feed should be properly optimised. Ensure well optimised titles, descriptions and attributes. Add more custom attributes if it’ll help your products to stand out, and don’t forget to include shipping and returns information, and include variations when appropriate.

3. Parity

Google wants to see parity between the feed and on-page information – differences here could cause confusion and mean that your products don’t rank as high as they should in the organic shopping grid. Ensure everything matches across the two, including titles, attributes and returns and shipping information.

Top tip: Close collaboration with paid teams is imperative when it comes to feed optimisation and maintaining parity across the feed and PDPs.

3. People also buy from

This is one of Google’s newer features – following the aforementioned steps will also help your products to appear here. It appears like the below screenshot in the SERPs – currently this is a feature that tends to show near the bottom of the page.

4. Google images

If you want know why image SEO is important, then look no further than page one for commercial queries.

The image pack is now a regular feature on page one, as well has having its own separate tab, making image optimisation an important factor in ecommerce SEO.

Here’s a run-down of the most important steps to take to help your images appear top in image search:

Optimise image file names
Add descriptive alt text

Structured data or schema markup helps Google better understand your images and can improve your chances of appearing in rich results or image carousels.

Use the ImageObject schema to provide information like:
- Title
- Description
- Content URL
- Thumbnail URL
Use image compression, modern formats like WebP and responsive images to ensure they are fast loading.

Use image xml sitemaps

5. Google Lens

According to Rose La Prairie, Group Product Manager at Google Search, there have been over 100 billion visual searches using Google Lens already in 2025, with a 65% YoY growth.”

So, if you don’t think image search is important, think again! But what actually is Google Lens?

Google Lens is a visual search tool developed by Google that uses AI and image recognition to understand what you’re looking at through your camera or photos, and then provides relevant information, actions, or search results.

Google Lens can be installed on your chrome toolbar or by downloading the app. There’s lots of cool stuff Google Lens can do like translating image text into your chosen language, or identifying objects and landmarks. But, specifically for shopping it’s this:

“Use a photo instead of a keyword to search Google. For example, snap a photo of a dress and find where to buy it online.”

Brands have over 100 billion reasons to make image optimisation for Google Lens a priority. Next time a celebrity gets pictured in that cool outfit – make sure it shows up in image search – it’s likely to have a high conversion.

How to optimise for Google Lens

Use high-quality and relevant images. As Google Lens uses image recognition, the higher quality and clearer the image, the better
Use descriptive alt text and file names
Ensure the correct <img> tag is being used in the sites code
Ensure text on-page reinforces what the image is about
Create an image XML sitemap
Use structured data – this helps Lens understand what the image is about and connect it to Lens features

6. Al mode

While commercial queries don’t feature often in AI overviews, AI mode offers a shopping experience, pulling in informational content along with product listings on the right hand side.

Click on one of those images at the top of the screen and a panel opens up showing more products from different retailers:

More detailed product listing in AI mode

All of the same principles apply for image optimisation in AI mode as they do in the regular results, so as long as you follow the previously listed instructions, your products should appear in AI mode’s shopping results.

Top tip: Want to feature higher? Double down on positive reviews and have the best price!

7. Try it on

This is one of Google’s newest shopping features currently only available in AI mode. It allows users to virtually try on products directly in the SERPs by uploading an image of themselves which Google then uses AI to dress the image of the person in the chosen clothing items.

To ensure your product images are served as frequently as possible for try it on, use the following optimisation techniques in addition to the points previously listed for image optimisation:

High-res images
Visually strong
Model worn
Consistent lighting and layout
White or neutral background

8. Beyond Google – LLMs

With ChatGPT now bringing back product recommendations, there is a whole new online shopping experience and channel for search marketers to consider.

Following all of the steps already mentioned in this guide will help your products to appear in Chat GPT’s shopping results.

Top tip: ChatGPT relies heavily on structured data when pulling products from the web or from partnered shopping databases, so double down on this tactic.

Reporting on organic shopping results

There are three key sources of information to pull data from to report back on performance for organic shopping:

Google Analytics

To get PDP data in Google Analytics, you can filter to only include “Session default channel group = Organic Shopping”, and only include landing pages that are PDPs.

Tracking organic shopping listings in GA4

Google Search Console

Here, you can filter on the following options to see shopping performance:

Tracking organic shopping listings in GSC

As a reminder, product snippets are the rich results that appear in the regular 10 blue links search results. Merchant listings include any of the enhanced shopping features including the shopping grid and images.

Google Merchant Center

See how your free listings are performing in Google Merchant Center by going to the performance section and toggling on ‘Organic’:

Here, you get a drill down of all of your products and how they’re performing organically in free listings in Google (the organic shopping grids).

What does this all mean for the future of ecommerce SEO?

The search landscape is changing fast and the developments in AI will turbo-charge this even more over the next 12 months. With that in mind, it’s hard to predict exactly what the landscape will look like over the next 12 to 18 months, but one thing is for sure – more change is coming!

We expect to see Google releasing AI mode features into the regular SERPs, and to bring more shopping enhancements into play for starters. The best way for search marketers to adapt is to stay up to date with developments as they happen and be agile.

Discussions and forums

Next up, we explore the ‘Discussions and forums’ SERP feature, which aims to bring real conversations to the search landscape.

What is the ‘Discussions and forums’ SERP feature?

Google’s ‘Discussions’ SERP feature is particularly interesting, because it differs so greatly from the rest of the search results page. While the majority of the SERP is owned by brands displaying the content they want to share with consumers, this feature surfaces real user conversations from brand forums, as well as websites like Reddit and Quora.

It responds to your query with the authentic, user-generated conversations it thinks you’ll be interested in engaging with; whether you’re looking for product reviews and recommendations, travel tips from seasoned holidayers, or troubleshooting hacks for common tech issues.

For example, a ‘Discussions and forums’ result appearing for the search term ‘best credit cards’:

How do people interact with the feature?

Where returned, ‘Discussions’ appears on the SERP like any other Google search feature: on the first results page.

To find and interact with other forum users, an individual simply needs to make a Google search as usual, and look out for the tab labelled ‘Discussions and forums’ – this may be a drop-down filter to open out the forum options, or it could be a carousel housing relevant discussion hubs.

Once users have identified the ‘Discussions’ section, they’ll be presented with a quick snippet summarising the conversation, to give an initial steer as to whether it’s of interest. If it is, they can click through to explore deeper, engage with the forum, and even participate in the discussion.

Is the feature worth your attention?

Did you know, according to Ahrefs, there are an estimated 2.6 million non-brand keywords in the UK that return the ‘Discussions and forums’ SERP feature? This rises to 18.5 million in the US.

For wider context of where this positions ‘Discussions’ among alternative SERP features, using the same dataset, there are about 595,000 non-brand featured snippets and 10.6 million ‘People also ask’ boxes. So, it’s somewhere in the middle!

What’s interesting is these appearances are across a range of markets and industries, too, from sport, lifestyle, and home improvement to finance, legal, and ecommerce. Ultimately, if there’s a talking point to be had, the chances are there’s a forum for likeminded users ready to discuss issues, experiences, and advice.

And, while these 2.6 million keywords might only represent a small portion of the full search landscape, where ‘Forums’ are returned, they’re an often-prominent feature – and one that’s certainly worth acknowledging if you’re targeting impacted terms.

What sort of SERPs return discussions and forums?

Across the recorded 2.6 million non-brand SERPs that return a ‘Discussions’ feature, an overwhelming 98% can be clustered into the ‘informational’ category. Which makes sense, right? After all, when searching to learn more about something, it’s helpful to have a forum on hand with real-world advice, insights, and experience.

Meanwhile, 38% can be categorised as ‘commercial’ intent – which, again, checks out; genuine, authentic user reviews and conversations are incredibly useful at the consideration stage of any buying journey. Interestingly, though, just over 17% also fall into the ‘transactional’ bracket, indicating a continued-appetite for user-generated discussion as far down the funnel as the conversion stage.

The full breakdown can be seen below:

Keyword category	No. of SERPs returning ‘Discussions and forums’	% of SERPs returning ‘Discussions and forums’
Informational	2,563,286	98.01%
Navigational	1,762	0.07%
Commercial	999,273	38.21%
Transactional	458,945	17.55%

The astute among you might notice the number of SERPs returning a ‘Discussions’ box exceeds the total of 2.6 million. Ultimately, the simple answer is that many SERPs are too diverse to fit into one box, so about 53% of keywords return a mixed landscape.

How does ‘forum SEO’ differ to classic SEO?

Okay, so forums are popular… but how can we ensure visibility across the feature?

What is forum SEO?

Forum SEO takes many principles from its much more famous cousin, classic SEO, with the overall goal of optimising discussion threads and user-generated forums to appear more prominently in search engine results – especially Google’s ‘Discussions and forums’ feature.

It focuses on making forum content discoverable, relevant, and useful for users looking for real-life experience and expertise.

Forum SEO vs classic SEO

The main difference between everyday SEO and ‘forum SEO’ is that website content can be heavily controlled, optimised, and maintained. Meanwhile, forums are user generated – so there’s very little scope to change the content posted by members.

With this in mind, rather than being a platform to publish polished content, forums are instead an opportunity to raise brand awareness and engage with audiences who make up your market.

How can you optimise forums for search?

We’ve given a summary of what forum SEO is (spoiler, it’s mostly just traditional SEO techniques applied to forums), but how can you optimise an owned forum to prompt an appearance on Google?

Unfortunately, unlike website content, you don’t have direct control of the UGC that’s posted on the platform; but there are a few things within your control:

Ensuring your threads have an informative, relevant, and useful title.

Including a relevant descriptor in the thread URL.

Encouraging user participation and facilitating a conversational community, to demonstrate an engaging environment.

Deliver a strong user experience, whether it be making it easy for users to access related forums or engaging with users in an authentic, non-salesy way.

If a forum focuses on the above bullets, there’s a strong chance of it being pulled into the ‘Discussions’ SERP feature, which can improve brand visibility.

Can online forums inform on-page content strategies?

Yes, online forums can inform on-page content strategies for a brand’s website. For instance, you’re able to develop an understanding of:

User pain points: Many users turn to forums and forum-style sites such as Reddit to ask questions and seek advice. So, it can be helpful to hop into these forums yourself, to find out what your market and/or audience is struggling with. Even if a particular query doesn’t have search volume, there’s clearly interest and appetite, so it’s worth considering creating a piece of content.

Natural language: Forum users will often use the same language on-platform as they will when Googling, so these platforms are a great way to understand longtail variations to target with your website content. Simply find relevant conversations and explore the language, terms, and phrases used.

Brand perception: Forums (especially independent arenas like Reddit) are a great way to see how your brand is really perceived – especially compared to competitors. This gives insight as to whether you need to conduct a bit of positive brand building.

Sources across the web

In this next section, we tackle ‘Sources across the web’; a SERP featured that intends to provide useful responses and resources that quickly address your query.

What is ‘Sources across the web’?

Featuring on both desktop and mobile SERPs, ‘Sources across the web’ is a common SERP feature that addresses a query with quickfire responses aggregated from various (unsurprisingly) sources from across the web. For instance, if you’re to search ‘SEO software’, Google provides you with a useful round-up of the best and/or most popular SEO tools to consider.

Each answer is accompanied by a dropdown which includes the cited sources, and wider context; as well as the option to search for the keyword directly.

How to get featured in ‘Sources across the web’

‘Sources across the web’ is quite a prominent SERP feature, occupying a significant chunk of the results page, so placing here can give a brand strong exposure and visibility among key audiences. Actions to improve your chances of appearing include:

Creating high-quality and authoritative content that engages and educates audiences.

Implement structured data across your website, to help search engines fully-understand your content.
Repurpose and promote content across other channels, to improve broader brand visibility.

In the end, it often comes down to whether or not your website is referenced in relevant external articles, blog posts, videos, or resources – making digital PR and brand building an essential arm of your digital marketing efforts.

Final thoughts, and conclusion

There’s no denying the SERPs are very different to what they were not even 12 months ago, but just six and three months ago – and they’re only going to continue evolving.

You may have worked within SEO for the last 10 years, but with the rate things have changed, if you want to stay ahead in the game, you need to do your research, be agile, and stay up-to-date with trends.

What that means is, to stay ahead of your competitors and be discoverable organically, you should:

Understanding where and how your customers are searching
Understanding the content formats they’re looking for
How to be featured across these formats and channels, and how to report back on them

This all ties back to brand visibility, so when you’re creating your organic strategy and roadmap, you need to be considering how this is going to drive brand awareness, and ensuring that your brand remains consistent across channels, so users understand exactly who you are, and trust the content you’re going out with.

Meet the authors

With over a decade of experience in content and SEO, spanning industries such as fashion, travel, property, and finance, Elle oversees C3’s entire organic strategy; and is passionate about driving organic visibility and helping brands dominate the SERPs.

Elle Pollicott

Organic Search Director – Connective3

Connect with Elle

With a background in SEO content and 6+ years of digital marketing experience, Alex has worked with a wide array of clients in industries ranging from ecommerce to lifestyle, interiors, and sport. He enjoys crafting creative copy, delivering effective onsite strategies, and finding ways to make your content work harder.

Alex Nayler

Content Strategy Manager – Connective3

Connect with Alex

Lizzie is a skilled SEO professional with over 10 years’ experience operating at a senior level and has a background in driving organic performance for a global client base. She has a penchant for data-led, commercial strategy and in addition to her vast experience in international SEO, she has also worked with many well-known national and local brands, across multiple industries.

Lizzie Lewington

Head of SEO Performance – Connective3

Connect with Lizzie

Abstract

The search landscape is changing. 12 months ago, if you were to search for an informational query, such as “how to clean a rug”, you’d likely be presented with a featured snippet at the top, followed by links to nine in-depth blogs.

Now if you search for the same query, you’re likely to be presented with an AI overview (AIO), which is a combination of the top-ranking blogs/videos Google’s AI has pulled together to encourage zero clicks, a featured snippet, people also ask (PAA) section, a couple of blogs, and a selection of videos – whether in the form of a video preview/pack, or an individual listing on YouTube or TikTok.

With that in mind, marketers need to ensure they’re pivoting their strategies to reach people in the ways – and formats – they consume content. In this report, we’re going to focus specifically on video content, looking at the ways you can identify the topics people are searching for, tips on how to get your videos ranking, both within Google’s SERPs, and specific social channels, and how to tie your videos back to your overall on-site content strategy.

The current state of organic SERPs

Research from Statista shows that globally, 78% of internet users use social media platforms to research brands and their products; and 48% of global Gen Z users use social media to search for informational queries, rather than using Google.

If we look at this from a UK perspective, 40% of consumers use TikTok as a search engine, with this rising to 49% of millennials and 64% of Gen Z. Cooking recipes, DIY hacks, and product reviews are amongst the most popular types of searches, which highlights the informative nature of queries, and the opportunities to grow your video content, and build brand awareness.

And, if you think that you’re exempt from social media as your audience is older, then think again; as one in 10 of that 40% figure is said to be people aged between 40-49.

Plus, according to The Social Shephard, 92% of TikTok viewers complete an action immediately after watching a video – whether it’s sharing, liking, commenting, or following – and 61% discover both new products and brands on the platform.

So, if you haven’t yet incorporated video into your overall content strategy, now’s the time to start.

How to discover the topics people are searching for

When it comes to searching for initial ideas, treat it as you would a blog roadmap, starting with the keyword research phase. At Connective3, we use two different tools for this.

Ahrefs

Focusing purely on Google’s SERPs, Ahrefs enables you to see the search terms that bring back videos. Simply navigate to ‘Keywords Explorer’ and type in your search query. You can be as general or specific as you want – personally, we prefer starting off more general (i.e. starting off by searching for ‘rug’ and ‘rugs’).

Then, you can navigate to ‘matching terms’ and start narrowing your search query down – here, we’ve filtered it down to keywords that also have the word ‘clean’ or ‘cleaning’ in them.

Finally, under ‘SERP features’, select both ‘videos’ and ‘video previews’ to see the keywords that bring back videos within Google, and you can start to plan out the type of topics that you’ll want to focus on.

Keywordtool.io

For searches within social channels, we use keywordtool.io – here, you can look at searches across a variety of platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, X, and Pinterest; and you can choose between specific countries and languages.

If you know the types of content you want to create, you can be more specific with your searches (i.e. “cleaning a rug”) to discover all of the topics that are associated with cleaning/caring for rugs. However, if you’re still at the inspiration stage, then we’d recommend being more general again.

For example, if we search for “rugs” on YouTube in the UK and quickly scan the keyword list, we can see the following results:

Rug on carpet gripper – 17,000 searches a month.
Rug ideas for living room – 2,300 searches a month.
Tufting rug tutorial for beginners – 50 searches a month.
Rug making ASMR – 10 searches a month.

So, we can already start to see some of the videos we might want to create if we’re wanting to build out our content for rugs. And once we have some potential ideas, we can replicate this across the other social channels we might want to post across, too. For example, on TikTok:

Rug ideas for living room – 1,500 searches a month.
Rug tufting – 2,300 searches a month.
Rug ASMR – 60 searches.

Keywordtool.io also shows you trends for keywords on a monthly basis, so you can see potential trends you can jump on the back of or keywords that are dying out.

Not every idea will have search volume behind it across different channels (in this case, there isn’t any relevant search volume around using carpet grippers on rugs on TikTok). However, this is a great way to start building out your social content plan, and you can easily tie it back to your on-site content by conducting keyword research on Google SERPs and creating blogs that sit on-site.

Determining your formats

Once you’ve gotten your ideas together, but before you start filming, it’s important you know what you want the format of your video to be – and just like when it comes to writing blogs, we look at SERP intent to see what’s already ranking.

For example, if we take the “how to clean a rug” idea, and search for it within Google, we can see that the three top-ranking videos within the video pack are all person to camera, who are talking through what they’re doing as they’re cleaning their rug, with key points highlighted as text within the videos. So, if we want to give ourselves the best chance of ranking, we know that we’ll want to have a person-to-camera video, too.

Looking at the length of each video is equally as important – those three top-ranking videos are all five minutes or longer, so we have a good indication of what the length of ours should be.

However, it’s really important to note that just because you’ll be creating the same topic of video across multiple platforms, it doesn’t mean you can publish that one video across all channels. TikTok videos need to be much shorter – search for “cleaning a rug” there, and you’ll see that videos are, at max, 30 seconds long, and they tend to be from the view of the person who’s doing the cleaning.

However, for other ideas, you might find that animated videos with voiceovers work best, or even a series of image stills.

All of this is information you’ll want to include within your preproduction strategy, as it’s going to give you the best chance of ranking.

Preproduction, filming, and editing

Depending on the makeup of your team, the pre- and post-production strategies and actual filming of the videos may sit with you; or like with Connective3, you might have a dedicated content creation team you share ideas with who can then take your vision and turn it into a reality.

During your pre-production stage, you’ll want to think of the logistics, and how to film as much content as possible in the most time (and cost!) effective way possible. You’ll want to set up your backdrop – whether you’re doing it in a showroom or home, or renting out a studio. You’ll also need to consider all of your props – i.e. getting the rugs, sourcing the products used to clean them, and making sure that, most importantly, there’s someone in the team who’s happy to be the face in front of the camera!

If you’re having a voiceover, you’ll also want to make sure that you write a script, including those key keywords you identified at the beginning of your ideation.

How to optimise your videos for SEO

Once your videos have gone live across your social channels, there are a few other tactics you can try to give them the best chance of ranking organically; and these can vary from channel to channel. In this report, we’ll show you specifically how to rank on both YouTube and TikTok.

YouTube (in-channel, and on Google SERPs)

Some of the things you can do here include:

Optimising your title tags: Include one or two main keywords, making full use of the 60 characters available to you.
Writing engaging descriptions: Weave those keywords in as you explain what the video is about. Add in CTAs through to key landing pages/blogs and encourage subscriptions to your social channels. You have 5,000 characters to work with here, so you might as well make the most of it!
Including relevant hashtags: Look for 8-10 that are the most relevant and have the most searches behind them.
Adding closed captions: Google can’t understand what’s being said within the video, but it can read the captions – and if your video is relevant to what it’s talking about, then keywords will naturally be included. It’s also good for accessibility purposes – for instance, if someone’s hard of hearing or someone wants to watch the video without the sound on.
Uploading a transcript: Likewise with the above. Upload this as a file within the description rather than pasting it in directly.
Choosing a high-quality thumbnail image.
For longer videos (four minutes or more: add in timestamps so viewers can click through to the exact part of the video they want to watch.

Here’s an example of a YouTube description we wrote for one of our clients on ‘Saxony vs twist carpets’, where the keywords we were targeting were the following:

TikTok

While there are many similarities to optimising your TikTok videos, there are some differences too:

Saying your keywords in the video: TikTok can understand what’s being said, so make sure you physically say your main keyword.
Adding keywords to your on-screen text.
Including keywords in the video description: But be aware that these are going to be much smaller than YouTube’s – a couple of sentences at most.
Including relevant, trending hashtags.

It’s important to note that this isn’t the only way to get your content ranking, as all of this is underpinned by engagement – think likes, comments, and shares. So, you’ll need to work closely with your social team, who can create engaging content alongside these SEO videos, and provide insights into what followers do and don’t like to give your content the best possible chance of ranking.

How to tie it back to overall on-site content

A cohesive content strategy needs to be coordinated across all channels, so it’s important you’re tying back your videos to what’s on-site too. This largely starts at the beginning of the process – for instance, when you’re doing your keyword research, you’re including on-site content as well, so each week, you’re going out with an idea that’s going to be published on your blog, as well as social channels, e.g.:

Week one: How to clean a rug
Week two: Rug trends and design inspiration for your living room
Week three: A beginner’s guide to rug tufting
Week four: How are rugs made?

It might also be that you have existing guides on your website that you want to optimise, and alongside weaving in keywords and internal links and adding in additional sections; you’ve identified search volumes for videos, and know that embedding a video into the blog will help to drive engagement metrics. So again, that’s a way to create a cohesive content strategy.

Relevant videos can increase engagement metrics on-site, with research showing that people spend up to two minutes longer on a site that has a video; and landing pages with videos embedded on them seeing an increase in conversions anywhere from 80-300%!

So, once videos have been published, it’s important to do a sense-check of what’s on-site and see if videos can be embedded. However, only do this if the topic is exactly the same; otherwise, it can seem irrelevant, and users can bounce off.

If you’re embedding a video onto a page, and aren’t going to host it on your site, then we’d recommend embedding it via Vimeo rather than YouTube. This is because Vimeo doesn’t have ads, so there’s less chance of users clicking off the page.

How to report back on video success

Finally, you’ll want to see how your videos are actually performing in the first place, and there are a few metrics you can measure.

YouTube

If you want to see how well your YouTube SEO videos are ranking within Google, then you’ll want to use Ahrefs. Simply copy and paste your video’s URL at the top, click on ‘keywords’, and you’ll be able to see all keywords the video is ranking for.

For example, for our ‘Twist vs saxony carpet’ video, we can see that we have multiple inclusions not just in Google’s video preview, but as individual listings too.

YouTube also has its own Analytics section, where you can see lots of different metrics, including where traffic has come from. Navigate to ‘channel analytics’ and ‘content’, and you’ll be able to see where users have found your videos. This includes:

External: Anywhere off YouTube, but typically via your website or a Google search – so this is where we can see traffic from appearance in video packs.
YouTube search: This is within YouTube itself, and is influenced by your keyword rankings – so the higher you rank organically within YouTube for relevant keywords, the more likely you’re going to drive traffic this way.
Direct: This is where someone clicks straight through to your video – for example, they might have bookmarked it.
Channel pages: This is where someone has navigated through to your video from your channel page.

If you want to look at traffic performance for individual videos, then when you’re on analytics, click ‘overview’ and ‘see more’, and it’ll open up into a separate tab. Then, once you’ve navigated to ‘content’, you can enter the time period you want to track, and you’ll see a list of videos below. Simply click through to one, select ‘traffic source’, and you’ll be able to see where the traffic is coming from.

While traffic is the most useful in terms of identifying whether your keyword rankings are successfully driving people to your videos, engagement is really important too, as you want people watching your video and taking an action. Other metrics you can track within YouTube analytics include:

Geography: The countries viewers live in.
Cities: The cities viewers live in.
Viewer age.
Viewer gender.
Subscription status (i.e. have they subscribed to your channel or not).
Content viewed (i.e. videos or shorts).
Playlists they’ve watched.
Device type.

Finding out your keyword rankings within YouTube is a little trickier, but it can be done. We use our traffic share model to scrape YouTube, which means we can see videos that rank in positions 1-3 for identified keywords. Chat to us if you’d like to find out more about how we can help you to measure your YouTube success.

TikTok

On TikTok analytics, you can look at several metrics, including:

Video views
Profile views
Likes, comments and shares

And you can filter this to the specific time period you want to look at. You can also find out more about your followers, including gender, age, and city demographics; and you can get more specific information for videos you’ve published over the last seven days.

Unfortunately, as it stands, you can’t see where you rank for keywords in TikTok, but if you’re seeing an increase in engagement in specific videos, you can get a good indication of what’s working. Similarly, you can’t see how many people have discovered your TikTok video directly through a Google search – however, it may be something that happens in the future, as more businesses and influencers spend more time dedicated to TikTok.

Video engagement on-site

You can also measure the engagement of videos that sit on your site to see how useful users find them. GA4 has its own ‘enhanced measurements’, where you can track the following for embedded YouTube videos:

Video_start: How many visitors start watching a video on your site.
Video_progress: How many visitors reach a specific threshold of your video (e.g. 10%, 25%).
Video_complete: How many users watch the entire video.

To look at these metrics on specific pages, simply go to ‘acquisition’ and ‘traffic acquisition’, then set your session default channel group to organic, opt for ‘landing page + query string’, and use your chosen date range.

However, if you want to embed Vimeo videos to the site, you’ll want to go through Tag Manager to set tracking up. Analytics Mania have a really comprehensive guide on how to track Vimeo performance through Google Tag Manager and GA4 that’s worth checking out.

Click through to site

Finally, you can measure how many people click through from your video to your site through GA4 – although it should be noted that this is very much a secondary aspect of videos. Whilst you might include CTAs within your descriptions (particularly for YouTube), video content is more about engaging with your content within social channels.

To do this, within your traffic acquisition report, set your session default channel group to ‘exactly matches’ and ‘organic video’ to show clicks to your site via non-ad links from video sites, including TikTok and YouTube.

Final thoughts

Ultimately, if you want to build brand awareness and keyword rankings, and bring more organic sessions and conversions to site, then you need to start incorporating video into your content strategies.

We know the SERPs will only continue to evolve, and users will likely still change the way they search, so it’s important we keep on top of the latest developments, to ensure your content strategies are up-to-date, and reflect the search landscape.

Hopefully after reading this, you have more of an understanding of why you need to incorporate video into your strategy, how to find initial ideas and get them ranking, and how to tie them back to your on-site content offering. If you’d like to chat more and see how our video SEO team can help you, get in touch with us today!

For a deeper dive into how video can be optimised for search, watch our five key steps for an effective video SEO strategy.

Are you interested in a job in SEO or content, or perhaps you’d just like to find out more about what the team does?

Well, you’re in luck as this guide delves into everything you need to know!

Here at c3, we’ve combined our SEO and content experts to create the overall Organic Search team. This is because, for most clients, we employ a connected strategy allowing the two teams to work closely together in order to deliver the best results for our clients.

What is SEO? Why is it important?

At the moment, there are many agencies hiring for digital PRs…

It’s a tricky task to try and sum up SEO, but we’ll give it our best shot. In a nutshell, SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimisation) is all about optimising a website for visibility on search engines such as Google.

There is an even more technical side to SEO, which focuses on enhancing the technical parts of a site to improve its rankings. This can include:

Making sure the website speed is up to scratch
Checking the indexability of pages
Identifying possible duplicate content

Ultimately, SEO is all about ensuring that a website is ranking as highly as possible, in turn bringing increased traffic, whether that’s customers, clients, or another type of audience.

Wondering how we put this into practice? Discover our approach and what this involves by reading about our SEO services.

What is content? Why is it important?

Content falls within SEO, as it shares the same goal of boosting rankings and driving traffic but refers to all the written work involved. This includes blogs and other website page copy.

Having content as part of your overall marketing strategy is crucial. Apart from the obvious, a solid approach to content will prompt Google to take notice, keep your readers onsite, and result in conversions.

For more information on exactly how we do this at connective3, you can read all about our content strategy and content writing services.

Different content formats

On top of the strategy side of things, a lot of the work the content team undertakes involves different types of writing. Below are a few examples of the different content formats our team writes:

Informational articles

These tend to be the most common type of content writing for our team. Most of the time, these are SEO-focused blogs and guides written with the intent of boosting organic search rankings. However, other times they may be long-form articles on topics important to a client’s audience. Whatever the subject matter, these types of informational pieces are useful for helping a client become an authority.

PR blogs and press releases

Most of the time, when our PR team launches a campaign, they need a relevant page to link back to, which is where the content team comes in. As well as writing the onsite campaign content, they also support the PR team in creating press releases that can be used during outreach.

White papers

White papers are report-like in style, compared to typical informational blog posts and other long-form articles. The goal is to delve deep into a certain topic and provide an expert analysis.

Landing page copy (PLPs – product landing pages)

Shorter in length, landing page copy is another type of writing our team does frequently. Essentially, landing page copy focuses on what the page has been built for, such as “maxi dresses” or “midi skirts”, whilst targeting relevant commercial keywords and improving internal linking, with a CTA (aka call to action) promoting the services.

Optimisations

To make sure content is performing as well as it should be, the content team go in and review what’s already there to see what can be improved. This might include implementing more relevant keywords, and even potentially adding entirely new sections.

Interactive tools

If a client is developing a new interactive tool for their website, then the team can write up the necessary copy for the page, or even just review and offer feedback and recommendations on what should be included.

Helpful tools that we use in content and SEO

Like any industry, there are lots of helpful tools available which definitely make our lives (well, jobs) easier. If you’re curious about which ones we use the most at connective3, here are a few of our top picks:

GA4

A holy grail tool for the entire Organic team is GA4, aka Google Analytics. This tends to be the main tool used when reporting and highlighting results to our clients, including users and sessions.

It’s a free web analytics service that’s part of the Google Marketing platform and provides all sorts of stats and analytical features which can be used to look at how customers engage with a client’s website.

Ahrefs

Another tool our team uses on pretty much a daily basis is the SEO software tool suite, Ahrefs. A popular choice for many people in the industry, some of its key applications for the team include keyword research, competitor analysis, and monitoring rankings to name a few.

There are also other tools for our keyword research purposes, including Semrush and SERPAPI.

Google Keyword Planner

The official source of keyword information, Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool from Google itself. Find new keywords or check volumes against those from other tools like Ahrefs; it’s extremely straightforward to use.

ScreamingFrog

ScreamingFrog is a website crawling tool which allows our team to crawl websites and analyse various key SEO elements, such as broken links, duplicate content, and overall site architecture. Both our content and SEO experts use this often when auditing or conducting health checks.

Grammarly

One which our team don’t rely on but still think is worth mentioning is Grammarly. It’s a great tool to have if you just need a little nudge on your grammar every now and then. It can also be set to American English, which is particularly nifty if you’re not certain on all the different spelling changes.

Google Search Console

An essential tool for anyone working in SEO, Search Console is great if you’re looking to keep your site well-optimised and in good health. The tool offers an all-in-one place for handling several key aspects:

Sitemap upload and management
Core web vital analysis
Validating page indexing (and page indexing requests)
Error checking
Top page and query analysis – current and historic
Site/page visibility and clicks – current and historic

Google Search Console also offers a view of performance, allowing you to see how many ‘clicks’ and ‘impressions’ each page and keyword is driving.

Industry terms explained

As with any industry, there are certain terms that will be thrown about that you might not be familiar with. While it’s natural to pick up on these things over time, we thought we’d make it easier by compiling some of the most common industry terms everyone should know.

Keywords

In SEO, keywords are the words or phrases that are used when searching for something online in search engines. Sometimes they may also be referred to as ‘search queries’.

Keywords can be things as simple as ‘vegan sandwich’ or ‘wedding dresses’. There are also long-tail keywords which are more specific and made up of multiple words. This is because the person searching has a better idea of what they actually want to find.

For example, a typical keyword might be something like ‘wooden desks’, whereas a long-tail keyword version would be ‘small wooden desks for home office’.

A main part of both SEO and content strategy is identifying relevant keywords and targeting them in our work, to ensure a client is appearing when people search online. We have tools which allow us to see how many people are looking at each keyword per month, which gives us a good idea on whether to target them or not.

Search intent

Another element that has to be considered when it comes to keywords is the ‘search intent’. Basically, what is the person wanting to discover when searching for something online?

Google wants to ensure that users are being given appropriate results for what they’re searching, so it’s important that your approach satisfies user intent.

There are four main intent categories that most search terms fall into:

Informational – This is when the user wants to find out some sort of information or learn something. Often, this will involve searching questions or specific queries such as ‘one direction first album name’.

Navigational – This is the type of search when you just want to find a certain website. Search terms would be something like ‘amazon uk’ or ‘LinkedIn’.
Transactional – Extremely relevant for commerce clients, transactional refers to when a user is ready to make a purchase, and they normally know exactly what it is that they want. Searches may be along the lines of ‘nintendo switch OLED’ or ‘iphone 14 deals.
Commercial – Somewhat similar to transactional is commercial where the user is on the market for a product but open to seeing what’s available. Commercial searches are things such as ‘wedding guest dresses’.

SERPs

Probably most of the commonly used terms across content and SEO is SERP, which stands for Search Engine Results Page. As it states, this is the page that comes up when you look for something in a search engine like Google.

The reason why this is such a common term in SEO and content is that one of the overall goals is to see a client appear (or ‘rank’) as close to the top of page one of the SERPs as possible, if not first.

Think about it: when you search for something online, how likely are you to scroll down or go to the next page? Not many people do. What appears in the SERPS and where a page ranks changes depending on a search engine’s algorithm which tend to be updated and reviewed regularly.

Featured snippet

On the SERPs, we have featured snippets or ‘position 0’. These are the boxes that appear right at the top when searching for something and provide context for that search with a short paragraph, list, etc.

When writing content, one of the goals is often to try to earn featured snippets, as this is the highest possible ranking position on search engines other than advertisements. The reason these are so desirable is that people tend to stick to the top few results after searching for something.

A featured snippet is more attention-grabbing than a standard result due to being bigger and, in turn, is more likely to be clicked on by users.

People Also Ask (PAA) boxes are also like mini featured snippets where Google pulls out what they believe to be the best answer to commonly searched questions.

Meta titles and Meta descriptions

Meta titles and meta descriptions are two important HTML elements and important to bear in mind for SEO purposes.

The meta title, sometimes called a title tag, is there to let search engines and readers know what the page is about – it’s also the text that appears as a blue link in the SERPs.

Meanwhile, a meta description is a short summary of the page’s content and the page’s primary keyword. There are various estimations of the ideal character count for a description, but typically the recommended number varies between 100-160. It’s worth mentioning that Google may not always display the meta description written, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile.

Meta titles and Meta descriptions

Meta titles and meta descriptions are two important HTML elements and important to bear in mind for SEO purposes.

The meta title, sometimes called a title tag, is there to let search engines and readers know what the page is about – it’s also the text that appears as a blue link in the SERPs.

Meanwhile, a meta description is a short summary of the page’s content and the page’s primary keyword. There are various estimations of the ideal character count for a description, but typically the recommended number varies between 100-160. It’s worth mentioning that Google may not always display the meta description written, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile.

External and internal linking

When it comes to linking, this falls into two categories – external and internal. Links, whether external or internal, are an important ranking factor for Google as it gives them an idea of whether the content is of high-value or not. You can find out more about the different types of links and their value in our digital pr starter pack.

External linking is when you add a link to a website that isn’t your own; for instance, if you’re referencing them as a source. Internal linking is when you add links pointing to other pages on the same domain. In SEO, internal linking is the one focused on most, as it is in your control and can have real impact on how your website ranks.

Ultimately, internal links can help Google start to understand your site structure, as well as the relationship and relevancy between different pages. Having an internal link structure in place also enables users to better navigate your site.

Anchor text

Anchor text are the words, or sometimes just one word alone, used when adding a link to another page, aka the clickable text. Often, this is highlighted in a different colour on a website to make sure it stands out from the rest of text.

Authority

Sometimes viewed as one of the pillars of SEO, in short, authority is how ‘strong’ your website is. A ‘stronger’ website should, in theory, help a website rank in the SERPs, although Google claims this isn’t actually a deciding factor.

Building authority takes time and is therefore part of a longer-term strategy, and can involve actions such as auditing the full website, optimising content and website structure, and link building to name a few.

Crawling and indexing

Crawling is a process done by search engines to discover new or updated content through the use of robots (aka crawlers or spiders). They do so by analysing code/content for each URL they can find on a site. From there, they decide if it is new content and/or if it is of any value.

Crawling is basically step one of having search engines see your pages, which is then followed by indexing.

Indexing is all about which parts of your website can or can’t be found by a search engine and, in turn, added to its index. It’s important for pages to be indexable if you want them to start ranking and driving organic traffic.

However, there are instance where you might want pages to be non-indexable, including those with low-quality or gated content that you only want to be accessible in a particular situation. If you don’t want a page to be indexable, then you can either add a robots.txt file or a “noindex” tag.

For more information on crawling and indexing, you can read our beginner’s guide to how search engines work.

Building authority takes time and is therefore part of a longer-term strategy, and can involve actions such as auditing the full website, optimising content and website structure, and link building to name a few.

How organic search works with other teams

At C3, we believe a connected approach is the best way to achieve real results. That’s why our SEO and content team, aka the Organic Search team, naturally ends up collaborating and working closely with other channels. Curious how we do that? Let’s find out.

Organic Search and PR

Typically, you’ll receive a brief prior to the brainstorm which will include key information such as an overview, previous campaigns, industry news, competitor insights, inspiration, and some initial ideas so other people can see where to start.

Organic Search and Social

Perhaps the most obvious way of linking up organic search and social is by using social media platforms to promote onsite content such as blogs and other articles.

Another way is by reviewing keyword seasonality and trends, and planning this into both your social and organic calendars. Identifying when certain keywords are popular is great for ensuring the most visibility on your content, which will likely translate onto social media searches too. Alternatively, looking at what’s trending on social media platforms specifically could also help to inform your content ideas and roadmap.

Collaboration between Organic Search and PPC

Not everybody thinks the same way, so the same approach won’t work for everyone, and that’s fine. There are all sorts of ideation styles including brainwriting, figure storming, round the room, and change of scenery.

Starting your career in SEO or content

From writing a strong CV to impressing during the interview process, there are multiple important parts to consider when applying for a job in organic search.

To help give you a bit of a head-start if you’re wanting a career in SEO or content, we spoke with Ben Barker, our Group Head of SEO, and Head of Content Strategy, Elle Pollicott, for their insights when hiring.

SEO and content interview questions

During an interview, in addition to the initial impression you give and your skills on paper, it’s important to nail the interview questions. Lucky for you, we want to give you an idea of what you might be asked when interviewing for a role in SEO or content.

Below are some examples of interview questions you might be asked in SEO, with some being for an entry-level role and others for a strategist position:

What tools do you regularly use to carry out strategy work or technical SEO auditing?
What things do you look out for when doing a technical audit on a site?
What tests have you run to challenge SEO theory, and what were the results?
What do you do to expand your knowledge of SEO outside of day-to-day client work?
How would you approach putting together an organic strategy for a new client?

Alternatively, if you’re planning on going for a role in content, these are some interview questions you might want to prep for:

How do you go about researching and writing about a dry topic, and make it engaging to read?
What’s your favourite industry to write about, and what’s the least? You’ve just been briefed in by a client on a blog that you know absolutely nothing about.
How do you go about getting that information?
How would you optimise a piece of content for SEO?
As you’ll be working on a range of clients across various industries, you’ll need to be able to switch up your tone of voice. Do you have any examples of where you’ve done this before?

Qualities and skills you’ll want to highlight

Of course, it’s not just about having the right answers to the questions but also about showcasing your previous experience and the qualities or skills you can bring to a job. Here are some qualities and skills that will serve you well in a content or SEO role:

Self-starter – Being able to control your own workload and initiatives, and have good time management is key in this industry. This is a particularly important skill for any type of strategist role.
Strategic thinker – It almost goes without saying, but these jobs require people to be analysing data and thinking about how they can utilise it for strategies.
Challenging thinker – Don’t take everything at face value; always question and challenge.
Good delegator – Essentially, this means you’re someone who is comfortable working with others and will recognise when you need to hand work out.

The impact of AI on SEO and content

With the emergence of AI and how fast it’s evolving, it naturally begs the question of how, or perhaps even if, content and SEO can take advantage of it?

This is something we’ve already been looking into at connective3, having written a couple of blogs like what generative AI search means for digital marketers and how the rise of AI will affect content.

Now you’re all clued up on SEO and content, what’s next?

Hopefully, you’re feeling all clued up now that we’ve covered all the basics of SEO and content. If you’re ready for a career in SEO or content, the team at Connective3 is always growing, so be sure to see what openings we’ve got on our careers page.

To find out even more about exactly how we deliver results for our clients, you can read more about our services.

Are you interested in a job in digital PR but have no idea how to get your foot in the door?

Then this guide is for you

In a nutshell, digital PR is all about increasing brand awareness and engagement through online channels such as websites, blogs, social media, and online news. This is done by creating relevant and newsworthy content that is then sent out to the media.

For digital PRs, the main goal is to achieve high-quality backlinks from these campaigns which helps signal to Google that your website is reputable, and ideally improves their rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

How to prep for an interview

At the moment, there are many agencies hiring for digital PRs…

Like any other job, you should do basic preparation including researching the organisation, reviewing the job description, going over your CV and tailoring it to the company and role, and prepping your questions and answers. If your interview is in-person, then it’s also wise to plan your route there and back in advance as well as deciding what to wear.

Potential interview questions

It can be tricky to prep for interview questions as you really don’t know what you’re going to be asked. However, it’s always worth having some answers at the ready in case a question does come up, which should help you to feel more confident going in.

Here are some example questions an interviewer might ask:

What attracts you to a role in PR?
Which news outlet or magazine do you enjoy reading the most?
Who would your dream client be?
What would you bring to the table?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?

How much knowledge do you have of SEO/PR?
What experience do you have of the industry?
Give examples of recent PR campaigns you love and why
Why do you want to work for us?

Useful industry tools explained

At the moment, there are many agencies hiring for digital PRs…

To help get your head around some of the different industry tools you might come across, we want to give some insights into the most popular and useful tools* that we typically use day in, day out as digital PRs.

Buzzstream

Buzzstream is an outreach platform that you can use to launch and monitor your campaigns. No longer do you have to manually send each individual email, instead, you can build and upload media lists to the platform, create and edit different templates to get them distributed with ease.

Vuelio

Vuelio is a key tool when building media lists and during outreach because it is essentially a contact database where you can find all sorts of media contacts from around the world. This is particularly useful when the journalist’s email isn’t within their recent articles or in their Twitter bio.

ResponseSource

A great tool for reactive PR is ResponseSource which is an email subscription service that helps to connect experts, PRs, and journalists who need help or information. Not only can you respond to requests to get your client’s name out there, but PRs can also use this tool to send out their own requests for campaign support, for instance, expert commentary.

Google Trends

You can use Google Trends to research and analyse search trends of a given term or keyword over a period of time. In PR, this can be used as its own data source (something we’ll touch on in more detail later), or to add relevance to an existing piece.

Ahrefs

One well-known piece of software is Ahrefs which classes itself as an all-in-one SEO toolset, and here at c3 this is used across a few of our different teams including PR. Some of the tools you can find on Ahrefs include their site explorer, content explorer, keywords explorer, rank tracker, and link intersect.

Moz

Moz is another tool that allows you to gain SEO insights such as page authority, domain authority, site rankings, keyword research, and auditing. There is also a free google chrome extension you can get called MozBar which is useful as it provides a quick overview of some of these metrics.

Keyword.io

Keyword.io is a free keyword research tool that helps you find autocomplete keyword suggestions from various sources including Google, Amazon, and YouTube. This is a versatile tool that can be used across various digital marketing teams, including PR.

BuzzSumo

Working in digital PR means you always need to keep up to date with what is going on in the news including what topics are currently trending, Buzzsumo lets you do just that, and you can filter or search a certain category. This tool is pretty versatile and can be used for ideation, finding results, and competitor analysis, amongst other things.

Google Analytics

We’re pretty sure you’ll have heard of Google Analytics before as it provides all sorts of SEO and marketing insights and can even help you find results for your campaigns. Google Analytics is free to use but the client will have to give you access to their account in order to analyse the website traffic.

HypeAuditor

HypeAuditor is an AI-power analytics and discovery tool which allows you to manage and monitor influencer marketing campaigns. You can also use it to gather useful data and metrics about influencers from across various social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch.

Linkfluence

Linkfluence is a social listening tool that can help PRs to take a deep dive into consumer insights via a live feed of global social data. Some ways PRs can use Linkfluence include monitoring brand reputation, finding results, understanding competitors and data collection.

AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic is a keyword and search listening tool and, in short, it provides automated autocomplete results. All you need to do is ask a question related to whatever topic you’re interested in and then you’ll be able to see what Google would predict you to ask based on the most common searches.

Who should you follow?

It’s no secret that the digital PR community is huge on Twitter, and you’ll always see people shouting out one another and just generally being super supportive.

Of course, if you’re new to the world of digital PR you don’t have to worry about being super active online but there are some great accounts and hashtags to follow for all sorts of tips and tricks.

Below are a few of our personal favourites:

@DigitalPREx
@DigitalPR_Tips
@PRJournoRequest
@justdigitalpr
#journorequests
For more light-hearted content you can check out @DigitalPRMemes

Of course, these are just a few examples and there are so many other great people and industry leaders out there offering invaluable advice.

Where to find campaign inspiration

One of the best parts about working in PR is how creative it is but campaign ideation isn’t always planning.

In order to spark inspiration, sometimes all it takes is looking at other sites for inspiration. If you’ve recently joined the industry and aren’t sure where to start, here are a few of our favourites:

The Grapevine

The Grapevine is a monthly newsletter set up by Iona Townsley (@IonaJTownsley), a creative at NeoMam Studios. Each month Iona sends out an email which rounds up all the PR campaigns that she can find for a particular month, even sorting them into categories such as travel, lifestyle, and food to name a few.

PR Week

Another news outlet that is worth looking at if you’re new to the industry is PR Week as it covers all aspects of the PR and communications industry. The only caveat with this one is that some things are hidden behind a paywall, although you can register for free and access a limited number of articles a month.

The Drum

The Drum is a media and news outlet sharing the latest industry news and insights on marketing and media industries from around the world. This includes stories, job search resources, event listings, and features.

Famous Campaigns

Famous Campaigns is an independent blog that covers all sorts of PR and marketing stunts and campaigns. On the blog you can find posts that cover the different stunts and campaigns, split out by sector, explaining them in a bit more detail.

Content, Curated

Mark Porter (@markcporter) the head of marketing at Screaming Frog runs Content, Curated which is a monthly newsletter looking at his top picks for campaigns that month. In his posts, Mark gives a quick overview of his selected campaigns and why he likes them as well as some other honourable mentions, PR stunts, must-read marketing articles, and a must-follow marketer. You can either sign up for the Content, Curated email newsletter or head over to the blog.

Root Digital

Root Digital, a digital marketing agency, has its very own The BEST Digital PR & Link Building Campaigns list of what they deem the best digital PR and link building campaigns which you can go to for campaign inspiration. You can even go as far as filtering the campaigns by format (e.g., competition, interactive, and map), industry (e.g., automotive, beauty, and hone), market (e.g., UK and US), and year. Plus, they also tell you how many links each campaign secured.

Ideation tips and tricks

Now you know where to find campaign inspiration it’s time to put that to use during an ideation session.

Productive brainstorms are crucial in PR as this is where the campaign ideas come from and are the base of future work.

Of course, you’ll be attending brainstorms for your own clients but it’s likely that you’ll support those for clients too. It can be hard to think of innovative ideas all the time so if you ever find yourself in a bit of a rut these are our ideation tips and tricks:

Break down the brief

Typically, you’ll receive a brief prior to the brainstorm which will include key information such as an overview, previous campaigns, industry news, competitor insights, inspiration, and some initial ideas so other people can see where to start.

Try different approaches

Not everybody thinks the same way, so the same approach won’t work for everyone, and that’s fine. There are all sorts of ideation styles including brainwriting, figure storming, round the room, and change of scenery.

Never lose sight of the ‘why’

This can be easy to do when you work on multiple clients and are constantly having to come up with new and exciting ideas. However, one of the most important things to bear in mind when heading into a brainstorm is relevancy and the purpose behind whatever campaign you’re suggesting – constantly question yourself and ask ‘why’.

Remember that no idea is a bad idea

And last but not least, no idea is a bad idea. Sometimes we might randomly think of the wackiest things but there’s always something to take from it. Even if it’s not a developed concept you can still put it forward and potentially spark something from somebody else. After all, PR is all about creativity and standing out.

What are some popular data sources?

Helpful data sources really are the bread and butter of our PR work, especially as they form the basis of our campaigns.

Below we’ve listed just some of the data sources we tend to use here at c3, although you will need to check the terms before using them as some require attribution and/or permission first:

Survey providers (e.g., TLF, Censuswide, One Poll, and 3Gem)
Freedom of Information Requests (FOIs)
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
YouGov
Our World in Data
Statista
Numbeo
Built-in Excel functions
Social media (e.g., Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok)

How PR and SEO can work together

Being able to combine PR and SEO will see you achieve better results and supports a wider strategy.

Below are some important pieces of SEO knowledge to have if you’re going to be working in PR:

Types of links and their value

A major part of PR is link-building and getting quality links can have a big impact on SEO, so it’s important to know the difference between each type and their value.

Followed links are seen to be the most ‘valuable’ as they pass link equity and help boost the page rank of the linked-to site which in turn see them go higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

No-follow links are slightly different, and you can spot them as they have a rel=”nofollow” tag and are invisible meaning it doesn’t pass link equity, but that’s not to say they don’t hold value, depending on what your clients’ goals are.

There is also content syndication, which is when a journalist, in particular someone who writes for an umbrella media business, publishes the same content over multiple news websites. While Google is not a fan of duplicate content, syndication won’t negatively impact SEO, but it also only tends to count as one link so doesn’t help massively either.

What does DR mean and what figure is considered valuable?

Domain rating (DR) is a metric created by Ahrefs that shows the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile. They determine strength by comparing the given site to others in their database on a 100-point ‘logarithmic’ scale with higher numbers being stronger.

What does DA mean and what figure is considered valuable?

Domain authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score used to see how likely a website is to rank on SERPs, aka how authoritative it is. DA scoring was developed by Moz and you can use their website, or the handy chrome extension MozBar, to find this out. The scoring is ranked from one to 100, with higher scores correlating to being more likely to rank and is based on multiple factors such as linking root domains and total number of links.

What does DA mean and what figure is considered valuable?

If you’re not sure what referral traffic means, essentially it is any time that someone clicks on a link to go to a website from another source. This is pretty much the core of digital PR strategy where you create and outreach content with the aim of getting a link on another site that someone else might click.

Ultimately, good digital PR will result in a diverse backlink profile including links from authoritative websites with a high DA which should see your site move up in the rankings, improve visibility, and lead to more clicks and conversions.

Tips on writing a brief

Depending upon which clients you work with and the types of campaigns you can do, the main areas you’ll probably end up composing briefs for are brainstorms, design and development, content, and potentially video.

Here at C3, we really believe in the power of teams working together. To do so effectively, your brief needs to convey your campaign and client’s message.

Some tips for writing a comprehensive brief include:

Whether it’s a brainstorm, design, or content brief, make sure that all the relevant information that those attending or working from the document will need.

Always provide examples! From creative inspiration to what’s trending in the news, examples for brainstorm briefs help to provide context, whereas for design briefs they’ll give the designers insight into how you’d like the content to look.
Don’t forget to include any no-goes, if there is something the client has expressed, they don’t like or doesn’t work for them, be sure to let those who will be using the brief know.
Share it within enough time. Every business or team will work to their own timeframes, and it’s important to ensure that you’re meeting those, so that those who will be digesting the brief have time to ask questions and prepare.

How to write a top-notch press release

A press release is your way of communicating your campaign to the media, which will then be transformed into a story to share with the public.

Not only is your press release your ticket to sharing your asset and securing results, but it’s also your opportunity to build credibility for your client and highlight that they are the experts in their field.

Given that it’s so important to get your press release right and grab the reader’s attention we’ve come up with some top tips:

Be clear, concise, and straight to the point. As we know, the media will often skim a release looking for standout information, that’s why it’s important to follow a structure that entices them to read more. If in doubt, refer to the inverted pyramid method.

Remember the five W questions and the one H question: who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Don’t focus on being too clever with your title, it’s not your job to write the journalist’s headline. Just ask yourself what you find most shocking/surprising about the piece and lead with that. If you’re struggling, wait until you have finished the release before coming up with a title.
Don’t forget to add additional value with insight from your client, after all, that’s what is going to make your campaign stand out.

What is newsjacking and how to use it to your advantage?

Newsjacking, aka reactive PR, means reacting to current events and the ever-changing news agenda allowing you to position your client as an expert in their field. It’s also a great way to build extra links.

There are two main types of newsjacking in PR which are using press releases (either new or old) along with expert commentary.

Newsjacking dos and don’ts

Getting the most out of your newsjacking is crucial, here are some of our top tips on what to do, and what not to do:

Always make sure you’re targeting relevant people; you don’t want to miss coverage by sending it to the wrong person.
The comment you’re providing needs to offer something new, don’t just repeat the facts.
Pull together a reactive calendar to ensure that you’re prepared for any upcoming reactive newsjacking opportunities.
Include some sort of prediction, opinion, or angle in your comment.
Don’t worry about using a lot of jargon, the comment needs to be understood by the journalist and readers.

Using press releases

When you spot an upcoming opportunity, it’s always worth seeing if you have any previous campaigns you can use or quickly reangle first. For example, maybe you have a campaign on the UK’s favourite pets that you can quickly edit to reflect National Pet Month. However, if not then you might consider quickly creating an entirely new release. An example of this might be revealing the most popular houseplants in light of Houseplant Week.

Expert comments

Expert comments are probably the most common form of newsjacking and, in theory, take less time. There are different sorts of comments, for instance, you could be talking about a breaking news story or reacting to a planned event or release like car registrations and house price indexes. These tend to be more unplanned than using press releases, so you need to be ready to get a comment out to the media fast.

How to save a failing campaign

It might seem obvious, but you should be monitoring your campaign constantly and unfortunately, there are occasions when things don’t always go to plan.

Perhaps you’ve launched and followed up but you’re still not seeing an open rate that you’re happy with or haven’t had any feedback… now is the time to act!

But what do you do? Here are some of our tips on how to save a failing campaign:

Each campaign should have multiple angles when possible. This means that if the hook you’ve gone out with hasn’t landed you can switch to plan B.

Trends are your best friend! If something isn’t working, look at what is trending in the news or on social media to see if it can add something relevant and newsworthy to the piece that you might have missed.
Check in with the rest of the team. At c3, we find it super useful to have regular campaign calls with the wider PR team to talk through concepts that aren’t performing and get a new perspective from those who aren’t as close to the client.
If you’re working on something that isn’t yet in outreach but you’re having difficulty with the data or making it newsworthy enough, don’t be afraid to switch it out for something you have more confidence in.

Mastering your outreach

Outreach is a key skill to master early on in your digital PR career, and this involves building relationships with journalists and earning yourself a reputation as a reliable and helpful PR at the earliest opportunity.

There are several different publications you can target during outreach, with the most common sectors being:

Nationals (e.g., Daily Mirror, Express, Metro, etc)
Regionals (e.g., Yorkshire Evening Post, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, etc)
Lifestyle (e.g., Cosmopolitan, Apartment Therapy, Refinery29, etc)
Niche titles (e.g., Dogs Today, Property Week, etc)

Here are some of other top tips for getting the most out of outreach:

Do your research when looking for journalists you want to contact and make sure they’re relevant. When it comes to outreach, quality over quantity wins every time.

Make your outreach emails personal and friendly but be conscious not to be too over-familiar if you’ve not built up a relationship with them.
Keep your pitch clear and include everything they need to know when you first get in touch, your aim is to make their job as easy as possible.

If you’re doing international outreach, don’t forget to check what time it is over there to ensure you’re landing in their inbox at the most optimal times.

How to find results

The thrill of launching a campaign never goes away and we still find ourselves looking for results right after the campaign is live and launched, but where are the best places to check?

If you can’t see anything straight away, don’t panic, sometimes you just need to dig a little bit deeper.

Try these tips and see if you can spot something you missed the first time around:

It’s no secret that a simple Google search for your client’s name or key terms from your campaign will pick up on links, as well as any syndications that might have come as a result.

As well as Google, tools such as Buzzsumo and Ahrefs are the go-to when looking for results, but they won’t always find every single link your campaign has achieved.
Social listening tools such as Linkfluence are really useful for finding unlinked brand mentions and turning them into links, as well as monitoring new links that are pointing to your client’s site, all you need is your client’s name and the URL the links would be pointing to.
Google Analytics is another great way to find links, but you’ll need to have access to your client’s Google profile in order to do so. All you need to do is navigate to All Traffic and then select Referrals, and Source which will allow you to check all the linking domains.

Conclusion

There you have it, a full digital PR starter pack, to help you feel confident when applying to your next role in PR even if you don’t have any previous experience.

As you can see, digital PR isn’t just about building links, it encompasses so much more than that and holds a lot of value for your clients. It plays a key role in increasing brand awareness and if you can establish a solid workstream alongside SEO and content then it can be game changing!

Here at c3 we’re constantly growing so if you’re ready to start a career in digital PR then head over to our careers page, or you can find even more digital marketing advice on our blog.

Introduction

Coronavirus was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation on 30 January 2020. Not only have governments, and particularly healthcare systems, had to respond swiftly to mitigate the risks and ensure the wellbeing of their citizens, COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on work practices across every industry – and law is no exception.

In order to assess whether consumer behaviours and attitudes towards travel have changed ahead of the 2021 summer holiday period, we created this report, which outlines consumer behaviour using search data, social media listening, keyword research and data from respondents gathered through surveys and user groups.

The pandemic has forced entire firms to work from home, turbocharged technology adoption across the sector, impacted client demand and forced prices to increase. Although, after a year and a half, the legal community has embraced many of these pandemic-driven changes, some haven’t fared so well in the face of such rapid and distinct changes.

The data for this report was compiled in late 2020, and at the time of launch (March 2021), we Brits have provisionally been told that travel will be permitted from the 17th May – subject to the lockdown exit stage criteria being met.

To delve deeper into the impact COVID-19 has had on the legal sector, we take a look at how smaller law firms have coped relative to larger firms in the UK market. To do this, we have analysed the visibility and organic traffic of the top 10 and bottom 10 UK law firms, comparing performance in 2018 (pre-pandemic), 2020 (during) and 2022 (post-pandemic).

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How Covid-19 has changed the legal sector

Thankfully, it looks like we’re coming out the other end of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, whilst this is great news, it doesn’t necessarily mean the end to the issues that have arisen in the legal sphere as a result of it. So, how has the coronavirus pandemic impacted the legal sector as a whole?

Remote work

One of the most significant results of the pandemic, which influenced nearly all sectors, is the switch to remote work. Along with almost every other profession, lawyers were forced to pack up their offices and move work into their homes. With this change, lawyers had to adjust to video meetings with clients and work with co-workers on projects without the ease of being in the same office.

It will be interesting to see how this drastic change to working life affected the law sector – whether for better or for worse. Will larger law firms have slipped with such large teams to keep track of? Or will the smaller ones have failed to adapt due to a lack of resources?

Client demand

During the period of ‘lockdown’ there were fewer arrests, charges and prosecutions brought by the Crown Court Prosecution Service, trial by jury was paused, and fewer civil cases were started. This reduction in legal activity meant lower client demand and, thus, lower incomes for legal service providers.

With this in mind, we would expect to see a decline in demand for legal services during the pandemic. However, given that many cases were put on hold throughout, now that we’re starting to emerge from it, we could expect to see a sudden surge in client demand again in 2022.

It will be interesting to see how this drastic change to working life affected the law sector – whether for better or for worse. Will larger law firms have slipped with such large teams to keep track of? Or will the smaller ones have failed to adapt due to a lack of resources?

Client expectations

In addition to a potential post-pandemic surge in demand, we’re seeing the legal needs of clients shift and evolve. According to Thomson Reuters, the main trends and developments during the pandemic (2021) in the UK legal market were strongly client-centric and client-driven. Issues from increased legal spending to what clients want to see from their external firms in terms of expertise, tech-savviness, and efficiency dominated the minds of lawyers and their clients.

Since even before the pandemic, the service needs of UK legal buyers were becoming more complex and intertwined. Data from Thomson Reuters also found that client satisfaction rests on the ability of law firms to provide consistency and innovation, which in turn, can provide them with opportunities to differentiate themselves in the competitive UK market.

Rising costs

More recently, a slightly lagged impact of the pandemic has been inflation, which has drastically impacted legal rates. And inflation ramped up so quickly in the second half of 2021 that many law firms had very little chance to react.

In the past, law firms have predominantly relied on raising their rates each year as key means of improving profits, as opposed to increasing the hours they work, on average. With inflation so high, though, worked rate growth currently lags inflation.

This threat of inflation gives plenty of incentive to push rates up. This will, however, test the willingness of clients to accept such steep rate increases.

How has Covid-19 affected different sized law firms?

To determine how the impact on large law firms has differed to that of smaller ones, we selected the top and bottom 10 law firms according to thelawyer.com. We then conducted an analysis into their SEO performance, including visibility and organic traffic, for the years 2018 (pre-pandemic), 2020 (during) and 2022 (post-pandemic) to determine which fared better over the period of Covid-19.

Rank	Law Firm	Average Revenue 2015-18 (M£)
1	DLA Piper	1674
2	Clifford Chance	1472
3	Clifford Chance	1430
4	Linklaters	1378
5	Hogan Lovells	1373
6	Freshfields Buckhaus Deringer	1312
7	Norton Rose Fullbright	1204
8	Herbert Smith Freehills	889
9	CMS	840
10	Ashurst	543

Rank	Law Firm	Average Revenue 2015-18 (M£)
100	Turcan Connell	23
99	Geldards	23
98	Stevens & Bolton	23
97	DMH Stallard	23
96	Boodle Hatfield	24
95	Harper Macleod	25
94	Harbottle & Lewis	25
93	MW Solicitors	26
92	Gordon Dadds	26
91	Sackers	26
90	Digby Brown	26

Organic visibility

Law Firm	Visibility score 2018 (pre-pandemic)	Visibility score 2020 (during pandemic)	Visibility growth % (2018-2020)	Visibility score 2022 (post-pandemic)	Visibility growth % (2020-2022)
DLA Piper	582	1,520	+161	1,226	-19
Clifford Chance	1,180	1,552	+32	2,648	+124
Allen & Overy	884	1,262	+43	979	-22
Linklaters	1,238	1,408	+14	1,515	+8
Hogan Lovells	1,319	1,358	+3	532	-61
Freshfields Buckhaus Deringer	271	518	+91	248	-52
Norton Rose Fullbright	2,392	1,538	-36	814	-47
Herbert Smith Freehills	1,135	1,143	+0.7	1,202	+5
CMS	1,689	1,171	-31	1,674	+43
Ashurst	255	718	+182	1,483	+107

Looking at the visibility change for the top 10, it is clear that nearly all but two experienced fairly significant growth from pre-pandemic (2018) to during the pandemic (2020). The only two that experienced some slight decline during this period was Norton Rose Fullbright (7) and CMS (9).

However, this visibility trend changed slightly with the onset of the pandemic, with half of the top 10, including the number one ranked (DLA Piper), suffering a loss of visibility from 2020 to 2022. Nevertheless, it is clear that many of those more established managed to fare relatively well throughout the pandemic, with most only seeing their visibility growth slow slightly and others actually continuing to see visibility growth post-pandemic.

This suggests that while some larger businesses failed to maintain the impressive visibility growth seen pre-pandemic, most have managed to at least not see a large drop or have even managed to keep on seeing improvements.

Organic traffic

Law Firm	Organic traffic 2018 (during pandemic)	Organic traffic 2020 (post-pandemic)	Organic traffic growth % (2018-2020)	Organic traffic 2022 (post-pandemic)	Organic traffic growth % (2020-2022)
DLA Piper	1,058	13,903	+1214	6,010	-57
Clifford Chance	10,469	13,310	+27	39,986	+200
Allen & Overy	24,819	28,246	+14	49,692	+76
Linklaters	20,529	26,068	+27	32,785	+26
Hogan Lovells	22,960	27,208	+19	23,493	-14
Freshfields Buckhaus Deringer	20,203	25,620	+27	20,763	-19
Norton Rose Fullbright	0	13,281	–	16,632	+25
Herbert Smith Freehills	20,981	23,544	+12	23,205	+18
CMS	0	20,519	–	27,868	+36
Ashurst	16,535	25,184	+52	35,564	+41

The trend in organic traffic for the top 10 is fairly in line with that for visibility. Pre-pandemic, all larger law firms were experiencing significant growth in organic traffic, with DLA Piper (1) seeing the largest increase. For most of the top 10, this growth, despite largely slowing, continued throughout the pandemic. In fact, 7 out of 10 continued to see organic traffic grow slowly between 2020 and 2022.

This indicates that most larger law firms, despite seeing some impact from the pandemic, have still managed to maintain growth in the face of the changes forced upon them by Covid.

Law Firm	Organic traffic 2018 (during pandemic)	Organic traffic 2020 (post-pandemic)	Organic traffic growth % (2018-2020)	Organic traffic 2022 (post-pandemic)	Organic traffic growth % (2020-2022)
Turcan Connell	3,921	2,883	-26	1,925	-33
Geldards	3,821	5,562	+46	2,354	-58
Stevens & Bolton	2,643	6,405	+142	6,905	+8
DMH Stallard	4,981	5,120	+3	6,051	+18
Boodle Hatfield	4,238	5,182	+22	2,237	-57
Harper Macleod	6,910	8,335	+20	9,348	+12
Harbottle & Lewis	3,849	4,989	+29	3,688	-26
MW Solicitors	0	5	–	191	+3720
Gordon Dadds	0	1,839	–	9,364	+409
Sackers	1,944	1,186	-39	1,187	+0.08
Digby Brown	1,944	7,527	-3	7,986	+6

Like with those more established, most smaller law firms were also seeing improvements in organic traffic pre-pandemic, with 8 out of 10 experiencing growth. Yet, this growth was much smaller than that seen for the larger businesses before the pandemic hit in 2020.

Unlike the larger law firms, however, organic traffic growth post-pandemic has been much slower for smaller law firms, with some continuing to experience a decline in traffic to their websites.

This suggests that, as with visibility, smaller brands have failed to recover from the impacts of the pandemic as well as the larger ones, struggling to attract potential clients to their websites.

What do these findings mean?

Overall, the results from our analysis of visibility and organic traffic performance of the top 10 and bottom 10 law firms in the UK suggest that the larger ones have been more successful in their recovery from the impacts of the pandemic.

Despite both the larger and smaller brands both experiencing some visibility and traffic growth prior to the pandemic hitting, the smaller firms failed to maintain or improve this growth during and after the pandemic. By contrast, many of the top 10 were able to keep their visibility and traffic levels stable, while some even experienced some growth during the pandemic. This indicates that not only were larger firms able to cope with the sudden changes brought about by the pandemic, but that they have fully evolved how they work and market to maintain or continue this growth post-pandemic.

Perhaps this is a sign that the larger brands are simply able to throw more resources at the problem and come out the other side comparatively unscathed. Whether it’s marketing, training, or recruitment resources, these will have all made a massive difference in maintaining or growing their brand presence online and attracting more people to their websites.

What can smaller law firms do to remain competitive post-Covid?

At first glance, the legal sector doesn’t seem like the standard bearer for change and innovation. After all, the go-to marketing strategies and business models of most have remained static for over half a century.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned these traditional marketing tactics on their head. Today, in this post-covid legal world, clients have more choice than ever before, so legal firms, and especially the smaller, less established ones, must do more to stand out from the crowd and articulate their competitive advantage to potential clients.

Perhaps once seemingly unnecessary in a sector that just kept on growing, digital marketing is now becoming widely recognised as essential to navigating a changing future. In fact, according to a 2018 Legal Marketing Association (LMA) report, over 60% of law firms are increasing their focus on marketing and business development. This fact contributed to 41% of them stating that acquiring or increasing marketing staff was a top investment.

A sound SEO strategy can work to boost brand awareness online by improving organic visibility. In turn, driving more website traffic and converting more potential clients. As a result, smaller players will be placed in a better position to levy their resources and adapt to the changes brought about by the pandemic, mitigating issues like remote work, recruitment, client expectations and rising costs.

For further information on the data presented above or to hear more about our SEO, content strategy, and content marketing services, feel free to contact us directly.

Most people are aware of how detrimental the Covid-19 pandemic has been to so many industries across the UK, but the legal sector, despite being one of the hardest-hit, is often overlooked. Conducting this research, I was able to highlight, not only how the legal climate has changed as a result of the pandemic, but also the disparities it has caused amongst larger law firms that were already performing well and smaller law firms that weren’t quite as established before we were hit.

What I found most interesting about this research was the extent to which the pandemic affected smaller law firms compared to larger ones. While I did expect smaller firms to have been slightly slower to adapt, it was surprising to see just how significant their drop in performance was from pre- to post-Covid.

Elle Pollicott

Organic Search Director

Abstract

Digital public relations, often shortened to digital PR, is all about showcasing your expertise, trust, and authority to Google by creating relevant news, stories, and information that the media will cover which in turn, improves your online presence and visibility.

But exactly what makes it such a crucial part of your overall strategy? Well, we’re here to tell you why your brand should be investing in digital PR and help answer any potential questions you may have!

In this guide, we will be covering:

What is digital PR?
What are the benefits of digital PR?
How digital PR supports SEO and drives online presence
The future of digital PR

What is Digital PR?

Digital PR is a digital marketing strategy that utilises many tools and tactics to prove to your audience and Google that your brand is authoritative and trustworthy.

While it tends to be mostly associated with ‘link building’, digital PR is so much more than that. Yes, sending outreach and gaining links to improve a website’s authority still plays a role, but that’s just one part of a bigger strategy.

If implemented correctly, Digital PR is an effective way to boost your brand awareness, social engagement, online presence and so much more.

Below are some examples of the types of tactics that digital PR specialists use:

Pulling together relevant PR campaigns (we go into further detail about the different types of PR activity in our guide on how to create a digital PR strategy)
Creating and sending out press releases and data
Building relationships with online journalists and bloggers
Organising interviews, influencer partnerships, and other collaborations
Crisis communications
Setting up publicity stunts to grab attention

Digital PR vs traditional PR

To sum it up, traditional and digital PR strategies are both all about improving and sustaining a brand’s reputation.

However, when it comes to specific strategies, traditional PR often focuses on crisis and reputation management and promotes brand awareness through stories or events that gain social media, print, and online coverage, as well as other disciplines that will showcase brands in a positive light.

Meanwhile, digital PR strategies are informed by SEO recommendations and goals, with the focus being on gaining online coverage (links) from relevant, authoritative sources. This, in turn, increases online brand awareness and supports further SEO goals such as bringing traffic to a website, improving visibility, and ultimately, driving leads and conversions.

What are the benefits of Digital PR?

Maybe you’re wondering how digital PR could benefit you and your business? Well, when used effectively, some of the benefits of digital PR to your brand can include:

Enhancing your SEO efforts:

Backlinks, which are inbound links coming from another website, are an important ranking factor for search engines like Google. Therefore, the more high-quality backlinks you have pointing to your brand’s website, the more likely it is that you’re going to rank higher for relevant search terms. We’ll touch more on how digital supports SEO in the next section.

Stronger brand reputation

Securing positive media coverage will help to position your brand as an authority. Not only that but getting your name out there and mentioned in a variety of sources will raise brand awareness and ultimately build trust with potential customers.

Driving traffic to the website

Securing positive media coverage will help to position your brand as an authority. Not only that but getting your name out there and mentioned in a variety of sources will raise brand awareness and ultimately build trust with potential customers.

So, as you can see, if you’re a brand hoping to grow your online presence, you should be running digital PR activity as part of your organic and marketing strategies.

In fact, according to a recent blog post, various experts in the industry believe that link building is the third most important ranking factor when it comes to SEO. Back in 2021, Google’s very own John Mueller also acknowledged the importance of this when he said, “[digital PR is] just as critical as tech SEO, probably more so in many cases.”

How Digital PR supports SEO and drives online performance

Building links is like acquiring social proof, with digital PR helping to boost wider SEO performance. But why is this?

Well, when search engines crawl a website, having strong, authoritative backlinks pointing to your domain is a great signal that you’re trustworthy and know what you’re talking about. It’s also one of the factors that allows you to rank higher on Google when people search for relevant terms associated with your brand.

Other key benefits that PR can have on SEO performance include increased site visibility, traffic, leads, and improved keyword rankings. Through digital PR tactics, you’re also able to feature your internal experts and products, which boosts brand awareness, loyalty, and credibility.

So, whilst both on-site SEO and PR are separate practices, the benefits of marrying the two together is obvious! For more information, be sure to check out our blog on why PR and SEO are better connected.

Examples of Digital PR

Here at connective3, our digital PR experts have extensive experience creating and executing digital PR strategies for a range of brands across different sectors. Working collaboratively with the organic team, we’ve delivered results that have driven clear business growth.

If you’re interested in even more examples of digital PR that have proven results, be sure to check out our case studies.

So, whilst both on-site SEO and PR are separate practices, the benefits of marrying the two together is obvious! For more information, be sure to check out our blog on why PR and SEO are better connected.

The future of Digital PR

The entire digital marketing industry is ever-changing thanks to new trends and tools emerging, so it’s only natural that the world of digital PR is also going to evolve and change over time.

But what exactly does this mean for your business?

Given the ever-changing digital marketing landscape, it’s obvious that the world of digital PR is going to continue to evolve and change over time. But what exactly does this mean for you and your business?

Below are some thoughts we’ve gathered from our expert PR team here at connective3.

Creative campaigns will continue to thrive

A lot of brands that have specific products to push or want to get in front of their audience will run more large-scale, creative campaigns/stunts that’ll deliver both offline and online results that support PR, organic, and social. However, to cut through, these tactics will need to be relevant, have a strong key message, and entice audiences to take action.

If you’re curious about how we bring creative campaigns to life, we’ve got a whole case study on launching an Avon fragrance with the help of our c360 services.

The rise of reactive PR

Reactive PR will continue to increase in popularity, especially for sectors with quicker news cycles such as finance, travel, and fashion. This strategy continues to build impressive results, and we’ve seen huge successes across our c3 newsroom team for this.

Brands need to utilise their internal expertise on these strategies to showcase themselves as authoritative leaders in order to build trust among their audience. The content you produce also needs to be helpful; answering the questions we know audiences are seeking advice on.

This is especially important considering Google’s ‘Helpful Content Update’ which aims to promote informational content with the user in mind rather than that which has been written to rank well in the SERPs. There has actually been a number of updates to the algorithm that claim to boost helpful information and reduce the appearance of low-quality or unoriginal content.

Focusing on technical link building

As the world of digital PR becomes more competitive, it only makes sense that more and more brands are running PR strategies. However, this does mean that finding niche ways to build results to support overall SEO objectives has never been more crucial.

From link reclamation and partnerships to broken backlinks and employer news, there are a number of ways to achieve this, and we expect that there’s going to be a huge focus on this type of technical link building in the future. If you’re wanting to get ahead but not sure where to start, we’ve got a whole guide to technical link reclamation that goes through some of the different tactics you might want to employ.

Relevancy remains key

The biggest factor which remains is relevancy. Basically, you need to ensure that all your PR content is relevant to your brand and audience/interests, relevant to keywords you want to rank for, and relevant to your target media and the general news agenda.

PR strategies should be guided by organic insights, so it’s important that you speak with your SEO teams to determine where you should be directing your backlinks on your site to have the biggest growth impact.

If you’re interested in finding out more about what our team get up to, and how we can enhance your brand’s online presence and reputation, be sure to check out all of the digital PR services we offer.

How to build a PR strategy for your brand

What to know about coming up with a Digital PR strategy?

Maybe you’re sold on digital PR but not sure where to start when it comes to formulating your strategy? We understand that you’ll want to get it right, which is why we’ve pulled together information on potential digital PR tactics you might want to use and steps for getting started.

In this blog, we will be discussing:

Common digital PR tactics
What to know about creating a digital PR strategy
The importance of setting KPIs
How to measure the success of digital PR

Common digital PR tactics

Content marketing campaigns

Content marketing campaigns are perhaps the most common digital PR tactic, and can include attention-grabbing stunts, interesting surveys, fun interactives, data-led studies, and more.

Regardless of the campaign framework, the end goal is always the same – creating content that is interesting to both the media and potential customers.

When ideating for content marketing campaigns, the thing that should be at the forefront of your mind is whether it will provide value to your brand’s audience. After all, they’re the people you want visiting your website, interacting with your brand, and eventually converting.

Reactive PR

Then there’s reactive PR, which, as you might have guessed from the name, involves keeping up with current news and trends so that you can quickly jump on any opportunities that could be relevant to your brand.

The main difference here is that you can’t really plan ahead for reactive PR. Basically, in order to secure coverage, you need to respond fast and be one of the first to get in there before the media (and people) move on to the next thing of interest.

With the rise of social media, TikTok in particular, this has become an even more popular PR tactic. In fact, we’ve got our own dedicated newsroom team at connective3 so that we can ensure an ‘always on’ and ‘always there’ approach for our clients.

Product PR

Whether it’s getting your products mentioned in gift guides and roundups, generating excitement around a new launch, or having your products reviewed in the media, there are various ways to create buzz through the use of product PR.

In short, product PR is a great tactic if you’re wanting to place attention on your brand’s products or an upcoming launch.

Internal business news

If you’ve got internal business news that you want to showcase or that might be of interest, there doesn’t always need to be another existing story in order to secure coverage.

From new openings and big hires to charity initiatives and more, internal business news is information that can be shared with the trade media to promote your brand and establish authority.

Technical link reclamation

Technical link reclamation is another PR tactic that can help with building links but isn’t quite the same type of outreach. Instead, this is the process of trying to reclaim both lost and broken links or transforming existing brand mentions into links. We’ve actually got a whole guide to technical link reclamation if you’re interested in looking into this further.

Creating your own digital PR strategy: step-by-step

1. What do you want to achieve?

To start, you need to nail down your goals and aims. This could include promoting a new product launch, increasing traffic and visibility of a particular section on the site, increasing brand awareness, and more.

2. Identify your audience

Given that your PR tactics should appeal to your brand’s target audience, you need to identify who they are, including their age range, interests, and other information. From here, you can then decide what media they consume that you should be targeting.

3. Use organic insights to your advantage

Once you know your audience, it’s time to combine this with organic insights to inform a strategy that will be effective. This includes information on any target keywords, particular areas of the site that need focusing on, and how your competitors are performing.

4. Ideation

To ensure your ideas are relevant, you should bring all key channels together to brainstorm ideas that will meet your goals and objectives. On top of that, you should be taking your target audience, their preferences, and the media landscape into consideration as well.

5. Creating top-quality content

In some cases, you may have accompanying on-site content for your PR campaign which will be referenced in the press release. It’s important that this blog is also in line with your overall goal and organic insights, including internal linking opportunities and target keywords.

6. Having an outreach strategy in place

Before you start any outreach, it’s important to decide on a strategy which details how you’re going to make your campaign work harder. This also includes compiling an overall media list, coming up with a range of hooks and angles for different media niches, and figuring out when you’re going to outreach these angles.

7. Use any learnings for the future

Once a PR campaign is over, sit down with your team to discuss learnings for the future. This way, you can identify what worked, as well as what could be improved next time. We’ll delve further into the importance of setting KPIs and how to measure success in the following sections.

Creating your own digital PR strategy: step-by-step

1. What do you want to achieve?

To start, you need to nail down your goals and aims. This could include promoting a new product launch, increasing traffic and visibility of a particular section on the site, increasing brand awareness, and more.

2. Identify your audience

Given that your PR tactics should appeal to your brand’s target audience, you need to identify who they are, including their age range, interests, and other information. From here, you can then decide what media they consume that you should be targeting.

3. Use organic insights to your advantage

Once you know your audience, it’s time to combine this with organic insights to inform a strategy that will be effective. This includes information on any target keywords, particular areas of the site that need focusing on, and how your competitors are performing.

4. Ideation

To ensure your ideas are relevant, you should bring all key channels together to brainstorm ideas that will meet your goals and objectives. On top of that, you should be taking your target audience, their preferences, and the media landscape into consideration as well.

5. Creating top-quality content

In some cases, you may have accompanying on-site content for your PR campaign which will be referenced in the press release. It’s important that this blog is also in line with your overall goal and organic insights, including internal linking opportunities and target keywords.

6. Having an outreach strategy in place

Before you start any outreach, it’s important to decide on a strategy which details how you’re going to make your campaign work harder. This also includes compiling an overall media list, coming up with a range of hooks and angles for different media niches, and figuring out when you’re going to outreach these angles.

7. Use any learnings for the future

Once a PR campaign is over, sit down with your team to discuss learnings for the future. This way, you can identify what worked, as well as what could be improved next time. We’ll delve further into the importance of setting KPIs and how to measure success in the following sections.

The importance of setting KPIs

As with any type of marketing activity, setting KPIs (aka ‘key performance indicators’) for your digital PR campaigns is crucial, as it is essentially how you value your success and see the actual impact of your work. Having KPIs in place will also help you stay focused on the main goal and allows you to report back on the performance of your campaigns with data that actually matters.

When it comes to setting these KPIs, this will depend on your overall goals and what you want to achieve to drive business performance. It’s important to bear in mind that one brand’s idea of success might look different to another, and this will then impact your KPIs and how you measure success.

Of course, when it comes to digital PR, you should be setting KPIs in relation to backlinks such as average DA, whether the links are from a new, relevant domain, etc. However, aside from backlinks, other important KPIs include:

Social media reach/engagement
Traffic
Visibility
Keyword improvements
Impressions/clicks
ROI

Measuring the success of digital PR

Here at connective3, our PR strategists work closely with our organic team to map out the PR results we expect to receive over time. Measuring the success of your digital PR efforts isn’t just about link numbers on a sheet. It goes beyond this, including:

Traffic share growth
The state of the link (e.g., follow or no follow)
The type of tactic the link is for (e.g., campaign, reactive, proactive, etc – this is also good to report on so you can see what kind of strategies are currently performing best for you!)
The DR/DA and relevancy of the site linking to your site – is it a ‘new’ link on a wishlist domain?
Where does the link point to on your website – is it a target page, has it made any impact?
Visibility and traffic increases throughout outreach – how many people have been sent to the site? Leads/sales made? Have clicks or impressions increased?

On top of that, you’ve also got other vanity metrics like reach, awareness, positive brand sentiment, and social engagement.

What are good results for digital PR?

Good results for digital PR don’t necessarily equate to tonnes of links. Other factors, such as the relevancy and authority of the domain that provides a backlink, are just as, if not more, important when it comes to boosting organic rankings.

Ultimately, even though the number and quality of your backlinks do matter to search engines like Google, focusing on link building alone won’t lead to a boost in organic rankings. If your brand’s site is struggling technically, producing poor content, and the majority of their backlink profile is coming from sites of little relevancy, you’re not going to see the results you want. All of these different elements share the same goal and need to work together harmoniously in order to achieve true success.

Essentially, ‘quality over quantity’ couldn’t be any more accurate than when looking at the impact of your digital PR work. Taking this back to what we said right at the start, this is exactly why digital PR is so much more than just ‘link building’.

If you want to find out more about what our team get up to and how we can enhance your brand’s online presence and reputation, be sure to check out all of the digital PR services we offer.

What is digital PR & how can you use it to your advantage?

Abstract

Over the last decade, the rise of digital PR has revolutionised how brands communicate with their audience online, both in the UK and the US.

However, in recent years, more and more countries are catching on to this wave of marketing, and now France has become a fertile ground for global brands keen on earning or diversifying their backlink profiles and boosting SEO through European PR strategies.

With that being said, the French market presents several unique challenges and opportunities that are distinct from the UK, US, and other European practices, but they can be overcome.

From our experience of working in the French market, we’ve pooled our knowledge together to compile a useful guide that explores the key differences in the French media landscape, including consumption habits, popular news outlets, and social media usage.

Additionally, we’ll offer a few invaluable tips for brands seeking to navigate the French market and how to craft successful digital PR campaigns in this region.

The current state of news consumption in France

Despite the worldwide digitisation of news, the consumption of traditional media remains imperative throughout France, with much of the population getting their news via TV, radio, or print newspapers.

Currently, television reigns supreme as the most popular medium for consuming news and entertainment in France. Thanks to flagship networks like TF1, and public broadcasters like France Televisions, television channels play a pivotal role in shaping public discourse and disseminating information.

But alongside TV, newspapers also maintain a significant presence in the French media landscape. With over 100 daily newspapers available across the country, including respected publications like Le Monde and Liberation, print media continues to serve as trusted sources of news and information for French readers.

However, recently, many digital media platforms have emerged as pivotal players in shaping news consumption behaviours in France. ‘Ouest-france.fr’ was the most visited news site in France in June 2023, with online publications like Bfmtv.com and LeFigaro.fr rounding out the top three, highlighting the increasing digitalisation of news consumption in France.

Social media has also become an integral part of the French media landscape, with platforms like Facebook, YouTube, X, and Instagram commanding a large user base. So much so that a 2023 report revealed that 80.5% of French people are active on social media¹.

In fact, competition from social media influencers has become quite a contentious issue for traditional media outlets, who are increasingly seeing many of their readers move to more readily accessible content.

What are the key differences between the UK and French markets?

Based on our experience in executing PR campaigns across France, it’s important to understand there are several key differences between the French and UK media landscapes.

From differing consumption habits, content preferences, and media practices, here are some distinct characteristics that set the two media landscapes apart:

Tabloid newspapers don’t exist in France

One notable difference between the UK and French markets lies in their media preferences. While UK audiences may gravitate towards tabloid-style content, the French media landscape differs significantly.

Case and point, in France, the coverage of lighter lifestyle articles commonly found in UK tabloids like The Daily Mail or The Sun, is not typically featured in mainstream media.

And while there are some French platforms dedicated to celebrity gossip, they tend to focus on different aspects of news and entertainment compared to their UK counterparts.

As a result, PR campaigns tailored to the UK tabloid audience may not resonate with many French media outlets.

French news is often more ‘serious’ than UK news

In France, media stories are typically favoured when they are backed up with data, interviews, and reports from credible sources. This contrasts sharply with the UK media landscape, where shorter, less substantiated, ‘fluffy’ stories often feature heavily.

Part of this difference is due to the challenge of French media in the past years trying to promote itself as a trusted source of information that fights against fake news. So, before covering a topic, French journalists usually ask themselves three questions:

Is this content 100% accurate?
Will it help me be seen as a trusted source of information?
Will it boost my number of readers?

Therefore, to capture the interest of French audiences and journalists, PR campaigns should emphasise authenticity and relevance, incorporating elements such as surveys, national data, or expert interviews.

Remember cultural differences

Central to effective PR in France is an understanding of the many different cultural norms, values, and communication styles present across the country. For example, French people have a different sense of humour to Brits, which could impact the success of your PR campaign.

This means that, if your PR campaign is only suited for Brit’s self-mockery and dark humour, it would not make sense to a French audience as they tend to favour irony, second-degree jokes, and cynical humour.

Rethink your outreach approach

Surprisingly, the famous #journorequests hashtag doesn’t exist in France, so any PR professional thinking of using X as a pitching and sourcing platform should refocus their outreach efforts towards using media databases or searching manually for similar stories via search engines.

Lead times are longer

Unlike the quick turnarounds often seen in the UK, PR efforts in France typically require patience, with lead times stretching anywhere from 2 to 3 days, or even months in some cases.

This delay is influenced by various factors, including the meticulous attention to detail prevalent in French business culture and the emphasis on building relationships before transactions.

Considering this, prioritising evergreen campaigns is recommended to ensure your campaign topic is relevant not just in the present moment, but in the weeks and months to come.

Understanding and accounting for these longer lead times is essential for crafting effective PR campaigns tailored to the French market.

French PR best practices

From data-led studies to regional campaigns with a nod to individual cultures, below are some actionable tips for crafting high-quality PR campaigns that will resonate with French audiences and most importantly, land relevant French links.

Data-driven campaigns are important

French journalists value the use of robust statistics to add credibility to their stories and will most likely conduct thorough fact-checking procedures before publication.

If you choose to implement data-driven campaigns within your French Digital PR strategy, be sure to obtain the information from reputable sources and include detailed methodologies.

Additionally, incorporating quotes from relevant industry figures can add further legitimacy and interest to your client’s data-based campaign, increasing the likelihood of coverage.

Regional breakdowns matter

France has many regional differences which can spark creativity for crafting regionally focused PR campaigns. French culture often involves playful criticism among regions, ranging from culinary preferences to linguistic differences in describing everyday actions and objects.

A great example of a cultural debate that gets French people talking is the “Pain au Chocolat” versus “Chocolatine”². This long-standing dispute over what to call a chocolate pastry sums up the differences in regional identity and linguistic diversity in France.

Whether it’s enjoying a “Pain au Chocolat” in the North or indulging in a “Chocolatine” in the South, this culinary debate continues to unite and divide communities across the country and could be the perfect idea for a PR campaign to settle the debate once and for all.

Having on-site content is key

Having on-site content is important when developing campaigns targeting the French market.

Providing journalists with easily accessible, comprehensive resources not only increases the likelihood of media coverage but also aligns with the meticulous attention to detail valued in French culture.

Furthermore, having well-crafted on-site content adds a layer of credibility and trust, both of which are essential elements in building relationships with French journalists and audiences.

By prioritising having on-site content tailored to French audiences, brands can establish themselves as trusted sources of information, fostering stronger connections and driving greater engagement in the French market.

Introducing and selling your story properly matters

Properly introducing and selling your story to journalists is crucial for PR success, especially in France, where building relationships and maintaining professionalism are highly valued.

When reaching out to journalists, it’s essential to personalise your communication by using formal language, such as “Vous” instead of “Tu”. Using “Bonjour [First Name]” is becoming increasingly common, mostly when contacting journalists in their 20s or 30s. For a more experienced journalist, use “Dear Mr/Ms. [Last Name]”.

Another key point is that journalists like to see interest in their work. When outreaching a similar story they may have covered in the past, make sure to compliment them on their work. It will provide a rationale for you emailing them.

Prioritise outreaching content in French

It’s recommended that, before you begin outreaching to French media, you accurately translate all infographics and landing pages into French. This will help ensure you maximise communication efforts and resonate with a broader French audience, enhancing the success of PR efforts in the region.

PR in the French media

We have developed and executed campaigns in France for some of our clients who have already witnessed promising results.

Here are a few standout examples of our PR campaigns from a range of different sectors featured in the French media:

Sumup’s best cities to open a business

Our global financial tech client, SumUp, landed links in the popular regional publication, Nice Presse, for their best cities to open a business campaign.

The study was based on a ranking of 14 criteria, including the number of bakeries and average customer reviews on Google Maps in January 2024.

The study was also picked up by other key regional publications, including ActuMarseille, which boasts a high domain ranking of 90.

The headline followed an English PR style, beginning with ‘According to this ranking, ‘Selon ce classement, Marseille est une ville en vogue pour les commerces indépendants’ which translates as ‘According to this ranking, Marseille is a popular city for independent businesses’.

According to Buzzsumo data from the past 6 months, French media outlets have published over 100 articles featuring the headline “Selon ce classement” (according to this ranking), indicating a clear preference among French journalists for study-based content.

By leveraging robust regional data and conducting a comprehensive analysis of business-friendly factors, SumUp strategically positioned themselves to secure follow links across France, effectively amplifying their campaign’s visibility and credibility to a wider European audience.

José Mourinho interview

It’s not just study-based campaigns that land in France; our financial trading platform client, XTB, collaborated with football manager, José Mourinho, to expand their partnership and achieved high-quality links in France.

By identifying shared traits between traders and football managers, such as emotional control and handling pressure, we crafted a PR strategy targeting audiences across France.

Through interviewing José Mourinho, tips-based content was hosted onsite and segmented into courses featuring José’s tips, translated and tailored for each target market.

In France, the campaign garnered attention from sports-focused publications like goal.com and national news site lepoint.com, leveraging the interview-style strategy to bridge the gap between sports and trading, thus securing links in relevant sports media outlets.

View Case Study

Elevate your international PR results

And there you have it; by consistently following the insights and strategies outlined in this blog, you should be able to set yourself up for success in the French market and drive impactful results for your brand.

Of course, if you’d like more information on French digital PR and to see the amazing work the connective3 international team are currently doing, you can visit our c3 international page or get in touch directly!

Sources

Social media in France: Link
Pain au chocolat vs Chocolatine: Link
CISION State of The Media 2023 (France): Link

Keyword category	No. of SERPs returning ‘People also ask’	% of SERPs returning ‘People also ask’
Informational	10,479,180	98.49%
Navigational	26,211	0.25%
Commercial	2,508,276	23.57%
Transactional	1,182,025	11.11%

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Abstract

Understanding the German media and consumer landscape

The German media landscape

The consumer landscape

How can your brand benefit from a Digital PR strategy in Germany

What can you expect in terms of results?

Content strategy: Landing success with the campaigns that work

What content works?

What content doesn’t work?

Our successful campaigns

Outreach tips

Conclusion

Meet the author

Vera Staiger

Want to know more? Contact us today to start achieving unprecedented results.

Why Casual Impact beats simple Period-on-Period comparisons

The surprising results: Deconstructing the CPC shifts

Beyond the bid: Why consumer intent trumped competition

The new rulebook: CPC is a symptom, not a sickness

Amazon’s endgame: Why they could afford to walk away

Methodology for Casual Impact Analysis

Meet the author

Subhash Herur

Intro and overview of landscape

Google’s AI mode

What is AI mode?

How does AI mode differ from LLMs?

What should you be doing right now, to get featured in AI mode and across LLMs?

Consider ‘search everywhere’ in your organic strategy

Ensure you implement best-practice SEO tactics

Report back on AI traffic

AI overviews

What are AIOs?

How to get your content seen in AIOs

How to understand the scope of opportunity

Reporting back on performance

Video and social search

How to conduct keyword research for Google and across social channels

How to optimise your videos on social

YouTube

TikTok

Instagram

Embedding videos into your blogs

Reporting back on performance

Ecommerce SEO & Google’s organic shopping experience

1. Product snippets

How to enhance your organic product snippets

2. The organic shopping grid

1. Optimise your product detail pages (PDP’s)

2. Merchant centre and feed optimisation

3. Parity

3. People also buy from

4. Google images

5. Google Lens

How to optimise for Google Lens

6. Al mode

8. Beyond Google – LLMs

Reporting on organic shopping results

Google Analytics

Google Search Console

Google Merchant Center

What does this all mean for the future of ecommerce SEO?

Discussions and forums

What is the ‘Discussions and forums’ SERP feature?

How do people interact with the feature?

Is the feature worth your attention?

What sort of SERPs return discussions and forums?

How does ‘forum SEO’ differ to classic SEO?

What is forum SEO?

Forum SEO vs classic SEO

How can you optimise forums for search?

Can online forums inform on-page content strategies?

Sources across the web

What is ‘Sources across the web’?

How to get featured in ‘Sources across the web’

People also ask

What is ‘People also ask’?

Where do the answers from ‘People also ask’ come from?

I’ve seen an AI overview in the ‘People also ask’ box

Want to know more? Contact us today to start achieving unprecedented results.

Want to know more? Contact us today to start achieving unprecedented results.

Want to know more? Contact us today to start achieving unprecedented results.