THE DIGITAL PR OBSERVER NEWSLETTER ISSUE 42

Hey everyone. Welcome to Issue 42 of The Digital PR Observer Newsletter.

If you missed last week’s issue, or any others, you can always catch previous issues of The Digital PR Observer Newsletter here.

Here’s what you’ll get in this newsletter:

• The latest Digital PR news and resources

• 5 quick fire tips to enhance your Digital PR activity

• 5 data sources you can use for Digital PR campaigns

• 5 successful campaigns from the archives

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Here is the latest Digital PR news and resources from the last week that you might have missed.

Digital PR Tips: Digital PR Learning Resources You May Have Missed From August

Press Gazette: Reach to cut editorial headcount by 186 in ‘biggest reorganisation’ yet

Press Gazette: Lifestyle brand Refinery29 closes UK office and lays off journalists

Press Gazette: Dubious PR agencies are bombarding journalists with fake content

Prowly: PR Strategy for ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews: What Works Now

DemandSage: 41+ Digital PR Statistics 2025 (Trends & Insights)

Affiverse Media: How to Grow Your Google Visibility in an AI World Via Digital PR

PRmoment: GEO: PR friend or foe?

Press Gazette: ‘Flipping the script’ and other tell-tale signs of AI-written copy

Raquel Pinto on LinkedIn: Here's the quickest way to show the AI citation value of reactive pieces

Laura François-Marie on LinkedIn: After a campaign flopped, I re-outreached it with a different subject line. The results were eye-opening.

Shakira Sacks on LinkedIn: How to spot Reactive PR opportunities

Ahrefs: 100 Most Cited Domains in Google’s AI Mode

Search Engine Land: Apple to launch AI search for Siri in 2026: Report

BBC News: Google avoids break-up but must share data with rivals

BuzzStream Podcast: Deep Dive into Journalist Requests with Greg Heilers

Five quick fire Digital PR tips to help make you better and more efficient at getting SEO results via Digital PR:

1️⃣ Friends and family outside of your Digital PR bubble are often the best people to proof concepts with. The rest of your team usually think the same way you do. Feedback from people with no understanding of how you do what you do is just as valuable as that from your peers.

2️⃣ Focus your campaigns around what your target audience wants to read about, not what you think can go viral and gain 100+ links.

3️⃣ Links to a product/category page > links to a blog post with internal links to product/category pages > links to a blog post with no internal links

4️⃣ The links that you need to rank #1 is dependent on the backlink profiles of the competitors currently ranking above you have. This will be different for every keyword but it is also about so much more than just links. It's a big part of the algorithm but not the whole piece.

5️⃣ The only page that will be passing link juice through your links with syndicated coverage is the canonical url. However, there's a solid theory that the more canonical links pointing to that url, the stronger the authority of that link that is pointing to your site.

Each week I’ll be sharing five data sources that you can use, either for content inspo, or as data sources for your campaigns.

1️⃣ ORR Train Station Performance Data

The Office of Rail and Road publish regularly updated data on every train station in England, Scotland, and Wales. For every train station, trainline operator, and even the specific route taken, you can access data on the number of scheduled stops to find the busiest stations, and how many trains arrived within three minutes of their scheduled arrival time, or were cancelled and didn’t arrive. Loads of great data here for ranking train stations and operators.

2️⃣ UK Business Demography

This ONS dataset has a huge amount of data on the number of businesses in the UK and how those numbers change dating back to 2018. This is a really great dataset for tracking the number of new businesses created in each UK local authority, as well as the number of business closures each year. My favourite part of the dataset however is the data on how many businesses are still operating after their first, second, third, fourth and fifth years, which you can break down not just by region, but by industry too.

3️⃣ U.S. International Visitor Arrivals Program

Tourism declines in America are very topical right now, which makes this a very useful dataset. The International Visitor Arrivals Program tracks arrivals into the U.S. and which country they are coming from, which provides so much travel data to pinpoint which countries have stopped visiting the U.S. at the highest rates. The data is up to date as of June 2025 so gets updated very close to real time which is also ideal for using the data for topical news stories. You can download all of the data but the page also has a very user friendly dashboard that you can use to get a snapshot of potential data stories.

4️⃣ Winter Depression Scores by Country

Another topical dataset here. This is actually an index produced by WellnessPulse made up of a number of different data points to create their own winter depression/SAD score for each country. While I definitely wouldn’t advocate just using their score and copying the ranking of the countries, I do think index scores like this can be a slept on metric that could be used as a ranking factor in your own campaigns, with this being a particularly valuable and unique one ranking the countries most likely to be affected by seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

5️⃣ Animal Protection Index

This is another data source that is a really great PR campaign on it’s own but can also be a super useful data source as part of an index. The animal protection index ranks 50 countries around the world according to their animal welfare policy and legislation, grading them with a score between A and G. Could be a good ranking factor for any pet themed indexes such as the best places for pets to live.

In this next section, I take a look at five campaigns from my archive of campaign inspo, with some quick fire analysis of what I liked about them and what made them work. Referring Domains (RDs) figures are taken from ahrefs.

1️⃣ 149 AI Statistics: The Present & Future of AI by AuthorityHacker

📊 545 RDs, 182 DR 50+

This week I’m putting the spotlight on what is for me one of the most underrated campaign formats - statistics posts. They’re not the most creative content that you’ll ever produce as a PR, but as you’ll see from these campaigns, they can produce fantastic results.

This first one is by AuthorityHacker who have curated 149 stats about AI. Picking a topic that is not only topical, but will also have longevity to its audience interest is a great starting point for a statistics post as they’re really a long-term strategy. Yes you’ll get results in the short-term, especially if you’re making it part of your proactive outreach strategy too, but the real value is in creating an organic link building asset that sustainably earns links consistently over time.

One thing that does frustrate me with some statistics posts however is when they don’t cite each individual figure and instead just list a collection of sources at the end of the post or section as has been done here. As a user, it just makes my life more difficult trying to find the original source of a specific figure that you’ve listed. From an SEO point of view, the FAQ section at the end is a really good addition to help the page rank for specific long-tail search terms.

And the results show how effective these pages can be as a long-term link building strategy. The page first started earning links in May 2023. After six months it had links from 45 referring domains. After 12 months it was on 329, and two years in it had climbed all the way up to 533. Now it has over 1,100 backlinks from 545 referring domains, 182 of which are DR 50+ domains, including sites such as Yahoo, Euronews, and The Street.

2️⃣ First-time buyer statistics UK by Finder

📊 100 RDs, 24 DR 50+

In this post, Finder, a money saving comparison site, have curated a list of first-time buyer statistics in the UK. I like this one as an example of how statistics posts don’t have to be all about the volume of content and stats that you have in your post. Finder’s post isn’t the longest but it is very user friendly, and for me that goes a long way to creating content that is similar to what competitors will also be producing, but better positioned to earn stronger results.

The key stats are concise and there isn’t a lot of fluff to them with stats for the sake of being able to say 100+ stats for example. I also think some form of data vis, even if it’s just basic tables and charts, are really important to creating a great statistics post campaign, as Finder have done here. The toggles to switch between viewing the charts as tables instead is a really cool interactive touch too. Another thing I’ve noticed that they’ve created is that when you copy and paste any of the text on the page it automatically adds “Source: https://www.finder.com/uk/mortgages/first-time-buyer-statistics” to the text that you paste. Not sure how I feel about that becoming more common on sites but it’s definitely an interesting tactic.

As well as these pages being extremely valuable from a link building point of view, they also have lots of value beyond links. Statistics posts can be great for organic visibility and ranking for not only high volume search terms, but also super relevant ones that your target audience will be searching for. Finder’s page here ranks first for terms such as “average age to buy a house uk” (300 MSV) and “average first time buyer house price” (150 MSV). Ranking these pages to start earning their own organic traffic is also a long-term strategy, which is why picking the right topic that will have not just evergreen interest, but ideally a growing long-term audience interest, is really pivotal to the success you can achieve with this strategy.

3️⃣ ChatGPT Statistics by Tooltester

📊 289 RDs, 82 DR 50+

And speaking of statistics posts that pick a great topic in the infancy stage of a huge growth period, ChatGPT is a terrific example of that. Tooltester first created this page in what seems like February 2023, with the number of linking referring domains quickly jumping to 169 by June 2023. But again, even after the initial growth, what statistics posts can provide that other campaign formats find harder, is consistent growth. Fast forward another two years and the page has nearly doubled in linking domains, and ranks on page 1 in the U.S. for keywords such as “how many users does chatgpt have” (1,900 MSV) and “how many people use chat gpt” (860 MSV).

If you’ve ever searched for some stats on a topic you’re writing about, you’ll probably know that it’s the type of research that you click on multiple sites to find what you’re looking for, whether it’s something very specific, or a collection of different figures to use. Because of how people engage with the search results of these type of search terms, results anywhere on page 1, even the lower half, can still earn a lot of clicks and visibility.

Relevancy is obviously a key consideration in any PR campaign that we’re putting together (or hopefully is at this point), and statistics posts are great for ensuring you have that relevancy with the content you’re creating, and with the sites that you’ll be earning links from. For example, this page by Tooltester has earned links on lots of top Tech publications such as ZDNET, TechRadar, Engadget, and Computerworld.

I also really like the chronological structure of this statistics page, which makes it a lot more user friendly and easier to skim through. Some pages just bombard you with quick fire stats one after the other, but this page has a nice storytelling element to it which helps to make the page a much easier read for the user.

4️⃣ Cybercrime statistics by Surfshark

📊 201 RDs, 76 DR 50+

With statistics posts you can use either your own research, or curate a roundup of secondary research, or a combination of the two. This page from Surfshark is a really good example of a statistics post built on your own research. As PRs we do a lot of our own data-led research, and chances are that we’re sitting on a lot of different data insights, survey data, keyword research, etc, that when put together could form a very strong starting point for a statistics page campaign centered around unique research that competitors don’t have on their landing pages (or better yet, they add your stats and link to your page).

Search engines are always keen to place extra value on pages that have unique content, stats, arguments, etc that the rest of the pages ranking on page 1 don’t cover themselves, so focusing on stats that the pages currently ranking on page 1 for your target statistics posts keywords is a great strategy, especially if you have your own internal data or primary research that you can use.

This is another stats page that is really user friendly and well put together from a data vis point of view with maps, charts and tables to better visualise the data and make it easier to digest. Not all pages need to have a global focus, but having data comparing countries against each other as Surfshark have here with their ranking of the top 10 countries by cybercrime density, definitely helps for making the page more capable of earning links and ranking for keywords in multiple countries.

5️⃣ UK business statistics and facts by money.co.uk

📊 209 RDs, 58 DR 50+

The final example that we have is from money.co.uk who are one of the best sites I’ve seen at using this strategy across multiple topics to earn a huge number of backlinks and drive a lot of organic traffic to their statistics posts. This one is around UK business statistics and is one of the best examples of a well constructed statistics post that has a lot of information on but it is still very user friendly to read through and engage with through the various data vis formats that they’ve used to present different data points.

The page was first launched in June 2022 and is another great case study of the long-term impact of these pages. 68 referring domains after one year, 130 after two years, 157 after three years, and now up to over 200, 58 of which are DR 50+, including super relevant sites such as Entrepreneur, Business Matters Magazine, and Startups Magazine.

The page also earns hundreds of monthly organic sessions from ranking on page 1 for keywords like “most profitable business in uk” (350 MSV) and “sme statistics uk” (150 MSV). One thing that money.co.uk do really well with their statistics posts is keeping them updated rather than just publishing them once and hoping they grown into a valuable asset. Google favours fresh content, so keep your stats campaign pages updated with the most up to date data where possible, include the current year in your page title and H1, and use schema to show when the page was published and most recently updated.

And that’s a wrap for Issue 42. Same time again next week ✌️

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Each week in the newsletter, you’ll get:

• The latest Digital PR news and resources

• 5 tips to enhance your Digital PR activity

• 5 data sources you can use for Digital PR campaigns

• 5 successful campaigns that we liked

If you’ve missed any previous editions of the newsletter, you can go through the archive of issues on the Digital PR Tips website.

Have any feedback for the newsletter? Anything you liked, disliked, or want to see more of? Send an email to matt@digitalprtips.com and let me know 🙂