Link Building or Digital PR: that is the question

In the world of SEO, there are choices that seem opposite but are actually just two sides of the same strategy. This is the case with Link Building and Digital PR. It’s not about choosing one over the other, but about making them work together to build a solid, recognizable, and lasting online presence.

Shakespeare’s great dilemma strikes SEO

Last week, we posted a riddle on our Italian LinkedIn account, disguised as a simple survey, and asked you:

Everyone thinks I’m just good for climbing Google.
Some use me to get a link.
Others exploit me to tell stories.

Those who really understand me… build relationships.
I’m strategic, but often misunderstood.

Are we talking about Link Building or Digital PR?

Most people answered “Digital PR,” but it wasn’t a foregone conclusion: only 14 votes separated it from Link Building. A close call that made us realize how thin and blurred the line between these two strategies still is.

There is a scene in Shakespeare’s Hamlet where the Danish prince wonders whether it is “more noble to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” a doubt rooted in the tension between action and reputation, between the sword and the word. Today, as we have seen from the survey, SEO professionals are experiencing a similar dilemma: should they continue to chase links or build reputation through Digital PR?

On the one hand, Link Building promises traffic, immediate visibility, and tangible results; on the other, Digital PR speaks to people, builds relationships, and lays solid foundations for an authoritative and lasting reputation.

The real solution is not to choose, but to integrate. It is not a question of either/or, but of both/and.

It is in the union of seemingly opposite approaches that a solid online presence is built, capable of speaking to both algorithms and people, and a linear path is not enough: a multifaceted trajectory is needed, like Hamlet’s, made up of doubts, impulses, and second thoughts.

In the same way, a brand needs authentic stories to tell, backlinks earned through merit, mentions earned in the field, and scattered signals that weave, page after page, an authoritative narrative on the web.

But let’s start from the beginning: what do we mean by Link Building and what by Digital PR?

 

Link Building o digital PR

 

Link Building, or “being cited”

Link Building is one of the pillars of off-site SEO. We could define it as “the art and science of obtaining citations (backlinks) from other websites to yours.” Each backlink is a vote of confidence: if someone else cites your site, it means they consider it useful, interesting, and authoritative.

Over the years, this practice has evolved: in the past, it was enough to accumulate links from every possible source, often even forcing the issue. Today, quantity is no longer enough; what matters most is the quality of the link:

  • It must come from a site that is truly related to your industry.
  • It must be placed in a coherent and natural context.
  • It must use credible anchor text that is not obviously manipulated.

It must stem from a real relationship, not a cold exchange.

Thanks to semantic analysis and AI Overview, Google recognizes the intent behind links: forced or artificially constructed links can become signs of manipulation, reducing the algorithmic trust in the linked site. Without a coherent narrative and a credible reputational ecosystem, even the best backlink loses its transformative power. That’s why, in order to be valuable, a link needs other metrics to be evaluated.

Measure the strength of your backlinks and the potential of your brand
Use SEOZoom to monitor your authority
Registrazione
 

SEOZoom’s Zoom Authority: why it’s the most important

Today, Zoom Authority is one of the most important metrics for evaluating the authority of a domain. Its difference from other metrics lies precisely in what we are talking about today: it does not just consider traffic volume or backlinks.

In fact, it has been observed that the number and quality of backlinks can be misleading, especially when a site is not ranked for any relevant keywords and does not get organic traffic. Zoom Authority, on the other hand, starts with SERP analysis and is based on Google’s liking of the site. That’s why it’s a key metric for your strategy.

Digital PR, or “being perceived”

If Link Building is the art of getting links, Digital PR is the art of cultivating mentions, conversations, and stories about your brand.

What is Digital PR, exactly?

  • Strategy for relations with the media, influencers, bloggers, and digital stakeholders.
  • Activities aimed at ensuring that your brand is talked about, mentioned, and recognized spontaneously in online channels.
  • Creating interesting content to “earn” with confidence, not to buy.

Why are they important today?

  • Digital PR works on perception and reputation: it transforms your website from a “digital presence” to a “noteworthy source.”
  • Links obtained through Digital PR are often more credible, natural, and embedded in an authentic narrative.
  • Unlinked mentions (brand mentions) are increasingly recognized as signs of authority by Google, particularly in the new scenarios enabled by AI Overview.

How do you build a Digital PR strategy?

  • Identify stories that are relevant to your audience.
  • Engage with those who really have a voice in your industry.
  • Create useful and shareable resources (data, guides, research, tools).
  • Be present in conversations, not just in rankings: in 2025, online reputation will be built as Shakespeare would have done, sentence by sentence, relationship by relationship.

The sword and the pen

Link Building and Digital PR are not rivals, but complementary poles. Link Building is the sword: a technical tool for gaining rankings, but sterile without a strong story behind it. Digital PR is the pen: it weaves the story, giving meaning and motivation to every mention.

Digital PR needs technical support to transform the reputation it has acquired into concrete SEO signals; without solid relationships, Link Building risks becoming an empty exercise.

Digital PR e Link Building

 

The checklist for integrating Link Building and Digital PR

Why choose when you can orchestrate?

In the new digital ecosystem, it is no longer enough to line up unrelated actions; you need a harmonious strategy that can unite branding, content, and relationships into a single coherent design:

  1. Take care of your brand
  2. Define your values, analyze your positioning, and build a distinctive identity. Optimize your website and take care of every aspect of the user experience.
  3. Listen to your audience
  4. Analyze data, internal research, and conversations gathered on digital channels to understand real needs, questions, and issues. Videos, for example, are now one of the best-performing formats for both SEO and organic sharing: recent surveys show that video content has higher engagement and sharing rates than other media.
  5. Respond promptly
  6. Offer precise and targeted solutions. Listening must translate into informative content, practical guides, answers to frequently asked questions, and useful multimedia resources.
  7. Find your space in the right place.
  8. Identifying a well-defined niche, whether it’s a vertical blog, a specialized community, or an industry influencer, means talking to people who are already ready to listen. This is where your message works best: because your audience understands the language, recognizes the value of what you offer, and can truly find your service useful or your product desirable.
  9. Integrate Digital PR and Link Building
  10. Only at this point should you incorporate structured Digital PR activities and high-quality Link Building initiatives into your strategy: invitations to digital events, authoritative guest posts, press campaigns, and relationships with key industry players.

The modern SEO orchestra no longer plays in separate sections, but from a single score where technique and storytelling intertwine to build presence, reputation, and trust: even Shakespeare, if he were alive today, would admit that between the sword and the pen, victory never belongs to those who choose only one path.

Sword or feather?
Strategies become easy with the right tools
Registrazione

So, what’s the difference?


This inevitable question brings us back to the heart of the matter: what really distinguishes Link Building from Digital PR in the context of SEO?

Link Building acts as a technical force, a sharp sword that cuts through the algorithmic mechanisms of ranking, translating the trust of other sites into concrete, measurable signals that are decisive for positioning. Digital PR, on the other hand, is the invisible pen that weaves narratives, relationships, and reputation: it works on a human level, on perceptions and authenticity, creating a resonance that goes far beyond mere links.

But if today these two dimensions merge and intertwine, it is useful to return to Shakespeare for one last powerful metaphor.

In the tragic epilogue of Hamlet, the prince pays with his life for his choice to act only after a long examination of his soul and reality, in a corrupt world marked by deception. His death is symbolic of that eternal drama between action and reflection, between the desire to appear and the desire to be.

Similarly, in modern SEO, those who choose Link Building exclusively without solid Digital PR work run the risk of ephemeral and fragile effectiveness, almost like Hamlet wielding his sword without having fully shaped his identity and history. Those who focus only on building narrative without concrete technical signals risk remaining invisible to search engines, like a voice that remains in the shadows.

The real lesson from the ending of Hamlet is this: to survive and triumph in a competitive ecosystem, you need to know when and how to combine the sword and the pen, action and perception. SEO is not a tragedy to be experienced in solitude or with clear divisions, but a complex work to be written together, with a balance between technique and storytelling, between measurable signals and authentic relationships.

In the Hamlet-esque doubt between “to be or not to be” linked or perceived, today the answer is clear: you have to be both, in harmony, to conquer the digital stage and ensure that your story does not end like that of a forgotten prince, but like that of a recognized, respected, and enduring brand.

Try SEOZoom

7 days for FREE

Discover now all the SEOZoom features!
TOP