PUBLIC RELATIONS
Build Brand Authority Through Public Relations
PR is now more about brand authority than ever. It is a performance marketing tactic that gets you visibility but also drives search engine results, AI models and reputation management.
Your brand's authority is measured not just by what you say about yourself, but by how often credible sources, publications, and AI tools reference you as the answer.
PR has shifted from a “hits and clips” approach to a real strategy for driving digital trust signals. The citation economy is the new currency of digital trust, where your brand's authority is measured not just by what you say about yourself, but by how often credible sources, publications, and AI tools reference you as the answer. Every earned media mention, premium backlink, and structured citation contributes directly to how your brand appears online. Our PR bridges the gap between traditional media relations and digital authority. PR used to be about getting your name in a magazine your CEO could frame and hang in the lobby. Now it's about making sure AI systems know who you are before your competitor's name comes up first. As of 2024, 58.5% of US Google searches end without a click to an external website (SparkToro, 2024). Among searches that trigger AI Overviews, 83% end without a click (Similarweb, 2025). For every 1,000 US Google searches, only 360 clicks go to the open web. Earned media from authoritative sources is now the most powerful play in AI-driven search.
Authority First PR
What Is an Authority-First Digital PR Strategy?
Walk West leads every PR engagement with a strategy designed to build your brand’s visibility and influence.
We use original research, data driven ideation and tangential content to earn coverage from outlets that matter for your business. Tangential content is a PR strategy where we create stories that live adjacent to your brand, think a healthcare company publishing a study on workplace burnout, designed to earn coverage and backlinks from major outlets that would never write about your product directly, but will absolutely cover a compelling data story in your orbit.
Walk West anchors every campaign in comprehensive analysis and creativity so journalists have a newsworthy story to tell. We use tangential content to create stories adjacent to your brand to assist in earning links from high traffic outlets. This technique brings both referral traffic and relevance to ranking algorithms.
Authority First PR Services:
- Tangential Content Strategy: Brand-adjacent stories engineered for major media pickup
- Original Research Studies: Custom surveys and data analysis that give press exclusive angles
- Data-Driven Ideation: Systematic topic discovery based on journalist interest and search volume
- Domain Authority Growth: Link building campaigns
- Media Relations Management: Ongoing journalist relationships built for long-term coverage
EARNED MEDIA
Earn Media Placements and Build AI Citations for Your Brand
Walk West secures your brand’s presence in the new citation economy.
Your brand needs to be mentioned all over the web so AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews can source you to answer questions. Earned media from authoritative sources is now the most powerful play in AI-driven search.
A mention in a credible outlet can now carry more weight than a traditional backlink. Our goal is to ensure your expertise is cited. Our earned media campaigns are built around proactive pitches that position your spokespeople as go-to sources for your industry. We help you become the most trusted source when an AI system needs to answer a question. If an AI answers a question about your industry and your name isn't anywhere in that answer, you don't technically exist, but it's uncomfortably close.
Earned Media & Citation Services:
- Expert Authorship Placement: Bylined articles in industry and national publications
- AI Citation Building: Strategies designed to influence what AI models cite about your brand
- Media Relations: Building relationships with voices AI models rely on
Share of Model Tracking: Monitoring your brand's equivalent of market share, but inside AI systems instead of search results.
HOW WE WORK
AI Citation Building Process
01
Content Extractability Audit
Review existing content for AI readability, chunking, and structured data.
02
Schema & Structure Implementation
Schema & Structure Implementation: FAQ markup, structured data, and verifiability signals applied site-wide.
03
Earned Media Alignment
Identify citation gaps and target placements in outlets AI models already trust.
04
Share of Model Monitoring
Track brand appearance frequency across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.
DIGITAL PR CAMPAIGNS
Digital PR Campaigns To Build Search Authority
Walk West runs structured digital PR campaigns that earn premium backlinks from outlets that matter in your industry to power your search rankings.
Digital PR is the modern outreach model. It combines the relationship building of traditional PR with the precision of digital marketing. Each campaign follows a clear process and includes linkable assets like interactive data visualizations to support getting back links to your site.
Digital PR Services:
- Premium Backlink Building: Targeting relevant outlets with editorial-quality pitches
- Data Asset Creation: Interactive tools, infographics, and research reports built for link earning
- Journalist Relationship Management: Cultivated relationships with targeted media contacts
- Link Profile Analysis: Competitive backlink gap analysis and opportunity mapping
HOW WE WORK
Digital PR Campaign Process
01
Research & Ideation
Competitive backlink gap analysis, journalist interest mapping, and search volume alignment.
02
Asset Development
Original research, data visualizations, and linkable content built for editorial pickup.
03
Targeted Outreach
Personalized pitches to vetted journalist contacts at relevant outlets.
04
Coverage & Link Tracking
Monitor placements, measure domain authority impact, and report citation frequency.
AI SEARCH
AI Search and Trust Signal Amplification To Make Your Brand More Visible
To appear at all in AI search results, your content must be extractable, verifiable and clear.
Walk West architects your content and technical foundation to ensure AI models can accurately represent your brand when citing you online.
This is the new frontier of modern PR. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring content so that AI language models can accurately extract, summarize, and cite it in generated responses. GEO focuses on quotable facts from credible sources. This means you can no longer rely solely on content on your website to drive relevance. You need other sites to quote you, and that is where PR comes into play. The outcome is a greater presence in AI search results. We implement technical structure, FAQ, schema markup and context that can be easily read. We audit your existing content for AI-readiness and help restructure for stronger performance.
AI Search Optimization Services:
- GEO Strategy: Generative Engine Optimization for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews
- Schema Markup Implementation: Structure, Chunking, FAQ, and structured data
- Content Extractability Audit: Restructure copy for AI summarization and citation
- Verifiability: Source attribution and credibility signals for LLM trust
- AI Visibility Monitoring: Track brand citation frequency across major AI platforms
FAQ
What is the 'citation economy' and why does it matter for PR?
The citation economy refers to the new reality where your brand's authority is measured not just by traditional press mentions, but by how frequently and accurately AI tools, search engines, and authoritative publications cite your expertise. Walk West built its PR strategy around this shift. A mention in a trusted outlet now carries algorithmic weight, it signals to AI models that your brand is a credible source worth surfacing in generated answers.How does Walk West's PR strategy help brands appear in AI search results?
We use a combination of earned media placement, schema markup implementation, and content extractability auditing to ensure your brand is correctly represented in AI-generated responses. This includes building structured citations, optimizing for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and tracking your Share of Model, how often and how accurately AI tools reference your brand.What is tangential content and why is it used in PR campaigns?
Tangential content refers to stories that are adjacent to, but not directly about your brand. For example, a fintech company might create a data study on consumer spending habits. Walk West uses this as a core tactic in its digital PR campaigns. This approach earns links from high-traffic publications that wouldn't cover a company announcement, while still building the domain authority and topical relevance that benefits your brand in search.What makes digital PR different from traditional PR?
Traditional PR focuses primarily on media relationships and coverage volume. Walk West's digital PR practice treats every media placement as a strategic link-building and authority-building asset. ]. Each campaign is designed around a measurable outcome, domain authority growth, AI citation frequency, search ranking improvement, not just a press clipping.Can PR help with online reputation management and search suppression?
Yes. Walk West's PR strategy addresses reputation management through proactive authority building utlizing authoritative content and earning placements in high-domain publications, we can suppress unwanted search results and reshape the narrative that appears when people search your brand or your leaders. Unlike traditional ORM services that focus only on search engine results, Walk West's approach is designed to reshape the narrative that surfaces when AI tools like ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews respond to queries about your brand or your leadership.Get in touch
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