February’s State of Search & AI covers the latest AI-driven changes to local search, visibility signals, and how marketers should continue to adapt in 2026.
Digital PR plays a growing role in SEO and AI search by building authority, trust, and brand visibility across media, reviews, and third-party platforms.
As AI-powered results become more prominent, brands can no longer rely on their websites alone to drive visibility. AI search tools look beyond your owned channels to understand who you are, what you do, and whether you’re worth trusting.
That’s where digital PR comes in. The relationship between digital PR and AI/SEO is evolving, and the two are increasingly intertwined. Brands that earn credible mentions, coverage, and recommendations across the web are far more likely to be surfaced in AI-generated answers.
Digital PR (digital public relations) is a marketing strategy focused on building a brand’s online visibility and authority through earned media coverage and positive brand mentions across the web.
Instead of pitching newspapers or magazines like traditional PR, digital PR targets online publications, blogs, podcasts, forums, reviews, influencers, and news sites, with the added goal of earning high-quality backlinks that improve SEO and AI optimization.
Think of a mattress brand earning the #1 spot on a trusted “Best Mattresses” list or a protein bar brand being consistently recommended in a fitness subreddit. That’s digital PR at work.
Digital PR can include:
AI systems pull from many sources to generate answers, summaries, and recommendations. Digital PR helps ensure your brand shows up in those sources — and shows up positively.
In an ideal world, an AI bot pulls all the info it needs about your brand directly from your website. But that’s not what happens. AI systems (like Google’s AI Mode or OpenAI-powered search experiences) pull from a wide variety of sources, making external brand signals essential for training them to understand who you are, what you do, and whether you’re trustworthy.
Digital PR helps by:
These off-site signals help AI systems decide which brands to trust and surface when generating answers.
Traditional SEO places heavy emphasis on backlinks. While links still matter, AI search can understand brand mentions and context even when no link exists.
Digital PR:
Positive mentions can increase the likelihood that your brand is referenced or summarized in AI-generated results. Negative mentions can surface, too, which is why proactive digital PR and reputation management matter.
Similar to traditional SEO, AI search prioritizes signals tied to Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-E-A-T).
Digital PR supports these signals by showing that:
These are the same trust signals humans rely on, and AI systems are trained to look for them.
In a Semrush article about the impact of PR on AI recommendations, Google’s VP of Product is quoted from a podcast appearance saying that AI “thinks a lot like a person would” when deciding which brands to surface.
Think about a time when you made a major purchase decision before AI. Maybe you were ready to upgrade your fridge, which isn’t a purchase to make on a whim. You likely parsed through customer reviews on product pages, skimmed “Best Refrigerator” listicles, and scoured Reddit threads for recommendations and real-life experiences before choosing a fridge.
AI systems perform similar work (but in seconds instead of hours) to determine which products and brands to surface in a response. So, you want to make sure your brand and products show up favorably in those same places AI platforms and humans are looking.
Digital PR sits at the intersection of what you can control and what you can’t. You can’t dictate what people say about your brand, but you can shape the ecosystem AI pulls from.
Here’s how to optimize digital PR for SEO and AI visibility.
Effective digital PR starts with focus. Define the topics, services, or expertise you want associated with your brand, then build coverage, content, and outreach around those themes. Consistency helps both people and search engines understand your role in the space.
Prioritize quality over volume when pitching media outlets, blogs, and industry publications. Mentions from credible sources carry more weight than a high number of low-quality placements, especially for long-term authority and AI search visibility.
Journalists and creators are more likely to mention brands that offer original data or insights, clear explanations, and timely expert commentary. The easier you make it to quote or reference your brand, the stronger your digital PR results will be.
Customer reviews are public, third-party validation — and AI systems can cite individual reviews directly. Encourage honest reviews, respond thoughtfully, and keep information accurate across review platforms. Reviews reinforce trust and often influence how brands are perceived in search and AI-generated results.
Digital PR also includes paying attention to how your brand is discussed outside of formal media coverage. Track brand mentions, address misinformation, and ensure consistent descriptions of your business wherever it appears online.
Forums, Q&A sites, social media, and communities like Reddit provide context around how real people talk about your brand or industry. Participating where appropriate and ensuring accurate information is available helps strengthen topical relevance and credibility.
When coverage, reviews, or mentions point back to your website, they should land on clear, helpful content that reinforces your expertise. Strong on-site content helps connect off-site signals back to your brand in a meaningful way.
If you want your brand to appear in AI-generated answers, you need strong authority signals — and that starts with the content and on-site experience you control. While third-party mentions play an increasingly important role, we help you maximize the parts of your authority footprint you can directly influence: high-quality blog content, optimized landing pages, entity-building strategies, and ongoing organic search consulting.
If you’re ready to strengthen your credibility, improve how AI systems understand your brand, and give your business a better chance of being surfaced across modern search experiences, reach out, and let’s build that foundation together.
February’s State of Search & AI covers the latest AI-driven changes to local search, visibility signals, and how marketers should continue to adapt in 2026.
Has your Google Business Profile been suspended? We’ll explain the common causes and how your business can remain compliant through GPO’s listing management.
Digital PR plays a growing role in SEO and AI search by building authority, trust, and brand visibility across media, reviews, and third-party platforms.
