The blurred lines between PR and SEO, and how to win at both

By Matthew Caiola

In today’s media ecosystem, digital visibility is no longer separate from brand reputation. It is the engine behind it. The lines between public relations and search engine optimisation have not only blurred, but they have become increasingly indistinguishable. Modern marketing leaders are beginning to understand that search performance is as much a reputational asset as it is a technical one. Likewise, PR storytelling is no longer effective unless it is discoverable, crawlable, and structured for both human readers and machine summarisation.

To win in both PR and SEO, brands need to bridge the traditional divide and adopt an integrated approach. This means crafting messages that resonate emotionally while performing digitally. It means building authority with audiences and algorithms alike.

Why PR and SEO are now inseparable

Public relations has always been about influence. Traditionally, this meant shaping narratives through media relationships, earned placements, and strategic messaging. SEO, on the other hand, evolved from the technical side of marketing, focused on keywords, backlinks, and page structure. For years, these disciplines operated in parallel. Now they intersect at every turn.

Today, when a user types a question into a search engine or asks an AI assistant for a recommendation, the answer is a blend of public perception, digital content, and algorithmic authority. The best PR campaigns are those that not only earn headlines but also rank in search. Visibility is no longer just about news coverage. It is about showing up when and where audiences are searching.

The convergence of PR and SEO has created new expectations for content performance. For a press release to matter, it must be indexable. For thought leadership to drive awareness, it must appear on page one. For brand credibility to grow, it must be linked to across authoritative domains. In this new landscape, public relations must function as a performance channel, and SEO must speak the language of story.

Strategic storytelling is the new SEO strategy

In the past, SEO content often prioritised keywords over clarity. Pages were written for algorithms rather than people. That no longer works. Search engines have evolved to reward context, quality, and trust. The introduction of generative AI into search interfaces has accelerated this shift. Whether through Google’s Search Generative Experience or AI assistants summarising online content, algorithms now prefer content that reads well, answers directly, and reflects real expertise.

This has opened the door for PR professionals to lead in SEO-driven content creation. Strategic storytelling is one of the few marketing skills that remains both deeply human and algorithmically valuable. A well-written op-ed, feature story, or by-lined article can now perform like evergreen search content when optimised properly.

To do this effectively, content must be structured in a way that AI can parse and summarise. That includes using strong headlines, clear sections, direct answers early in the text, and language that reflects topical authority. When public relations content is written with search indexing and AI summarisation in mind, it becomes a powerful dual-purpose asset driving both reputation and traffic.

Building authority for humans and algorithms

Authority is a central pillar of both public relations and SEO. In PR, authority is built through thought leadership, credible messaging, and third-party validation. In SEO, authority is signalled through backlinks, domain strength, and semantic consistency. These are different languages describing the same idea: trust.

For PR and SEO to work together, campaigns must be designed to build both types of authority. That means publishing content on reputable sites that pass link equity back to a brand’s domain. It means aligning media messaging with the keywords audiences actually use when researching a topic. It means ensuring that content is structured for syndication, citation, and snippet-level retrieval by search engines and AI tools.

An article that earns a headline is valuable. An article that earns a headline, ranks for a relevant search term, and appears in an AI-generated response is exponentially more valuable. This is the new measure of media performance visibility that lasts longer than a news cycle and reaches audiences across search, social, and conversational interfaces.

Why AI Overview technology changes the game

AI-generated overviews are rewriting the rules of digital content distribution. Tools like Google’s AI Overviews or OpenAI’s search integrations are increasingly synthesising multiple sources to provide a single, summarised answer. In this environment, brands cannot rely on just being linked to they must be part of the summary.

This changes how PR content must be written. It must now be structured for AI readability, with key insights presented early and repeated naturally throughout the piece. It must reflect topical breadth and depth so that AI engines can cite it as an authoritative source. It must be formatted for chunk-level retrieval, meaning each section of a piece should stand on its own while supporting the larger message.

PR professionals are now competing not just for headlines but for citations in machine-generated responses. This is where influence is increasingly shaped. It is where brand messages are filtered, reframed, and delivered in seconds to millions of people asking questions. The brands that win in this space are those that create content with both editorial voice and technical precision.

Integrating PR and SEO into a unified marketing strategy

To succeed in this new landscape, marketing leaders must break down the silos between teams. PR, content, and SEO should no longer operate separately. Instead, they should collaborate from the start of campaign planning to align on message, performance, and measurement.

This integration benefits both sides. SEO gains from the credibility and storytelling skills of PR professionals. PR gains from the analytics, search trends, and performance insights of SEO teams. Together, they can create a content ecosystem that performs across channels from media to search to AI.

Success means going beyond short-term metrics. It means asking whether content builds brand trust, earns attention, ranks organically, and gets cited by AI models. These are not conflicting goals. They are all part of a modern, multi-dimensional influence strategy.

The future of digital influence is searchable and credible

As digital platforms continue to evolve, the brands that stand out will be those that speak with authority and show up consistently. Public relations must no longer be confined to media coverage. It must operate across every point of discovery. Likewise, SEO must no longer rely solely on technical fixes. It must be fuelled by content that tells real stories, answers real questions, and builds real trust.

The lines between PR and SEO may be blurred, but the opportunity is clear. When marketers create content that is optimised for both influence and performance, they earn something more valuable than impressions. They earn relevance.

A colour portrait of Matthew Caiola smiling. Matthew is a white man with short brown hair, wearing a blue shirt under a dark jacket.

Matthew Caiola is the CEO of 5WPR, one of the top 10 independently owned PR firms in the US, overseeing its corporate, technology, and digital divisions. Under his leadership, 5W has earned numerous accolades, including Inc. magazine’s Best Workplaces, a Top 50 Global PR Agency by PRovoke Media, and several American Business Awards. Recently, Matt was honoured as Communications and PR Executive of the Year by the American Business Association and listed among PRDaily’s Top Communicators of the Year.