Josie, our Digital PR & Content Director, unpacks the biggest trends shaping digital PR in 2025, from navigating affiliate links to adapting to a shifting media landscape.
The digital PR and SEO world changes rapidly, and 2024 is no exception. From Google Updates to the Google documentation leak, journalist redundancies and the impact of AI, there has been more than enough to keep the industry on its toes.
Although the industry is ever-changing, one thing remains consistent: when done well, digital PR is an excellent channel which can provide long-term growth and ROI. So, with so much going on throughout 2024, what can we expect to see from 2025?
Almost every Digital PR will understand the frustration of affiliate links. For those unaware, affiliate links are unique URLs that allow publishers to earn commissions by promoting a product. Think about those articles you see across consumer titles and national news. You know the ones – they’re usually in the style of the ‘top 10’ or ‘best XYZ’, here are a few I’ve pulled from a quick search if you aren’t catching my drift:
24 Outstanding Men’s Skincare Products To Fill Your Bathroom Shelves
The 100 best gifts for her 2025 are your gift shopping cheat sheet
14 best yoga mats for at home and in the studio
So why are these the bane of most digital PR’s lives? Well, from an SEO perspective, affiliate links don’t pass page rank. This is due to the custom URL I spoke about earlier. Instead of a straightforward link that goes from page A to page B, an affiliate URL will bounce around a few different URLs and eventually land on the target website.
I say eventually, this actually happens in milliseconds and isn’t visible to the naked eye. If we run an affiliate link through a tool (I’m using the Redirect Path, which is free on Chrome Web Store), you can see the journey it takes:
*The client’s name was removed in the red marker; this isn’t part of the Redirect Path tool.
Bit of a pain if your job is to secure clean links, right?
A few years ago, journalists were more open to changing the link type if an affiliate snuck into an editorial placement. Fast forward to today, and it’s rare a journalist will have any control over the link type, or if they can even see the affiliate tag for that matter, which cropped up for me recently:
*The client’s name is redacted in red
So, are affiliate links here to stay? With more pressure on publishers than ever to drive income, I’d say they are. What’s more, once you’ve signed up for an affiliate partnership, the likelihood of a publisher removing the automatic affiliate code from their website is very unlikely, even if you leave the affiliate scheme yourself. From what I’m seeing, the automatic code can’t determine whether the link is a product or editorial link either; it just blanketly adds this to all URLs associated with the affiliate scheme – so the type of content you pitch doesn’t really make a difference.
So, how can you learn to work with affiliates?
This challenge was brought to us by an eCommerce client who wanted to improve their visibility for a specific product category but had previously found it challenging to navigate the vast amount of affiliate links they were receiving. Our solution was to work on a calendar of digital PR campaigns which tapped into a mixture of national news and consumer titles, where we were happy to earn affiliate links, and smaller niche publications, where we felt we were more likely to earn clean links. So far, this approach is working for us and by targeting more niche publications, 99% of the links we have earned for this client to date have been ‘clean SEO links’.
It’s also worth noting that while the SEO community doesn’t believe that affiliate links directly impact organic rankings, there are other benefits to these links, so don’t cut them out of your strategy too quickly. Affiliates can help to drive referral traffic, increase sales and build brand – all goals of SEO. So, while we might love to hate them, they come with benefits.
To remain competitive in 2025, we will have to learn to work with these links and work creatively to build clean SEO links alongside these placements. It takes more thought, research and digging, but it is well worth it in the end.
Press Gazette estimates that as of September 27th, 2024, at least 2,500 jobs had been cut in the UK and US media. Going back to 2023, we saw at least 8,000 jobs cut. Adding to this crisis, publishers such as Reach PLC are now asking journalists to increase article output to five to eight stories a day, citing page views as one of their leading performance indicators in 2024.
So, what does this mean for digital PR?
With less and more stressed journalists to pitch to, outreach needs to be highly targeted, and campaigns must offer everything a journalist needs to publish the story up front. My best advice here is to educate your clients – so they understand why you need every asset published or why you can’t offer a quote late or drop out of a media interview at the last minute. If the latter two do happen, by the way (which happens to the best of us!), let the journalist know as soon as you do and be open and honest. If you can, try to source a replacement.
Although much PR communication takes place over email now, don’t forget that the journalist you are speaking to is a person with their own deadlines, so if you can’t fulfil a promise or you’re going to miss a deadline, let them know.
In terms of campaign types, I predict that data-driven and real-world stories will continue to be big in 2025. For smaller campaigns, experts will be more important than ever, so make sure to nail yours down.
If the Google documentation leak in 2024 taught us anything, it is that links do matter, despite previous statements from the search giant.
To drive organic performance, off-page digital PR teams must work closely with on-page content and technical specialists. Digital PR is part of the SEO mix, not a channel which should be siloed and treated as entirely unique.
My advice for brands in 2025 is to also appreciate that digital PR isn’t a magic wand. So, if you want your website to perform, a well-delivered on-page strategy is just as important. If your website delivers a poor customer experience, driving customers via link placements may not provide the results you hope for.
By working with on-page SEO teams, digital PRs can focus strategies on building links to key products or services, enabling brands to become more visible for the things that really matter. And that is where the magic really happens.
Are you looking to upgrade your 2025 digital PR strategy? Our Digital PR team have decades of experience and has earned links across some of the world’s largest publications. Reach out for more information, and a member of our team will get back to you to discuss your specific requirements.
For more expert insights from the Bonded team, download the 2025 Future Trends Report today!
