Matt: Welcome to Growth Unleashed, the podcast for pet brands that want to grow smarter without relying on paid ads. I’m Matt, the founder of Bubblegum Search.
Louis: And I’m Louis, SEO manager here at Bubblegum. In today’s episode, we wanted to talk to you about siloed SEO. The basic idea is that your PR team, your content team, and your SEO team are all doing their own thing. They’re siloed. We want to discuss why that doesn’t work in 2025 anymore.
Search has evolved. AI is changing how people discover brands. If you aren’t integrating your SEO, content, and PR efforts, then you’re wasting your time and leaving authority, trust, and traffic on the table.
Let’s get into it, Matt. What does siloed SEO actually look like in a typical pet brand or agency setup?
Matt: It’s exactly that. It means each of the teams are working in silos and they’re not collaborating properly.
They’re not working toward an integrated and aligned strategy and the same goals, even if they think they are. Often they’re not. Very quickly, it could be that the technical SEO person or team is responsible for crawling and indexing of all the pages, especially on large sites, or for the classic on-page SEO elements – page structure, navigation, metadata, etc.
Then you’ve got the content marketing person or team, who handles content strategy, planning, and creation.
And then lastly, the PR team – sometimes split between traditional PR and digital PR. They might have different KPIs, but ultimately the goal is the same: more brand visibility and awareness.
When we say “siloed,” whether it’s agency side or in-house, the issue is they’re applying the wrong approach because they’re not aligned on core goals or strategy. They all need to work in harmony, and often they’re not. Their actions and approaches don’t align with each other to get the desired outcome.
Louis: Yeah, to illustrate some examples – one of the most common things we see is a PR team going out and earning coverage, but with the sole goal of getting coverage. It’s not tied to a specific category or product type that the brand actually wants to push.
That coverage should point toward those internal priorities, but instead, the team earns any coverage they can. And when they earn links, they either point to a random page or, most often, just to the homepage. That still has some value, but it could be much more targeted with better thinking.
Another example is when a content marketing team defines a set of initial keywords early on and just keeps working toward those same ones. Content gets created but doesn’t serve anything larger than itself. You miss the chance to build topical authority.
Matt: And often it’s a case of, “Well, this long-tail keyword is relevant, and we created a blog around it.” Great. But is that really going to move the needle on what matters?
Unless it connects to a cluster page or interlinks to a core page, it’s not strategic. And if we haven’t built the authority of that page, then we need a PR strategy to do that. It’s about going beyond basic traffic goals.
Louis: Exactly. You might rank for a long-tail blog, and people visit, but then they leave straight after. Nothing else happens.
Matt: Yeah, it’s about understanding the bigger picture – how does each role, each department, contribute to the broader strategy?
Louis: And we’re not saying these teams are doing bad work. Everyone knows their role. It’s just that when it’s disconnected…
Matt: Yeah.
Louis: …you’re not getting the most return for your effort.
So, why is this siloed approach outdated now? And why is integration so important in 2025?
Matt: The integrated approach has always been important, but it’s become more critical because of how advanced and sophisticated both Google and AI have become.
If we look back, the siloed approach used to work – a blog post could rank and pull traffic, random non-relevant links could still boost rankings. SEO, PR – everything in silos used to work.
But as Google has evolved, understanding topical authority at an entity level has become essential. If you’re doing things in isolation, they don’t work anymore.
Now, Google is assessing both on-page and off-page. Are you demonstrating topical authority for the category you want to lead in? Are you sending the right off-site signals that show you’re the expert?
It all ties back to E-E-A-T – experience, expertise, authority, and trust. All of those signals are more powerful now, and if you’re siloed, you’re not sending strong enough brand signals to Google.
Louis: Totally agree. When those guidelines came out, people focused on showing E-E-A-T on their website, on individual pages.
That’s still true, but now you have to show those signals everywhere you’re visible – across the whole web. You can’t only focus on your own site anymore.
Matt: Right. It used to work well, and now a lot of brands are playing catch-up. They think, “We’ve got technical SEO, content, and PR – why isn’t it working?”
That disconnect hasn’t clicked yet. If you’ve got those things in place and still aren’t happy with visibility, the first thing to check is: are they strategically integrated?
If something’s off across those channels, that’s probably what’s holding you back.
Louis: Definitely. So let’s break down what an integrated SEO and PR strategy might look like in practice.
Start by aligning goals across all teams – usually at the category level. Say you run an ecom pet brand and your multivitamin dog supplements are your biggest profit makers. You want to 10x your sales there.
So the content, tech SEO, and digital PR teams all work to build authority to that category and the pages within it.
Matt: And identify where the gaps are.
Louis: Exactly. Often, brands think they’ve got the pillar page or category page, so it’s covered. But you’re missing all the subpages that should surround it. It’s not that you’ve done the wrong thing – it’s that there’s more you haven’t done yet.
Matt: Sometimes it’s as simple as a proper gap analysis.
Louis: So you’re combining your tech SEO and content teams to build structure – pillar pages, cluster blogs, internal linking – all of that. You want Google to see that you’re the ultimate topical authority. If they can explore your site and find a matrix of related content, you’re in great shape.
Then, once you’ve got your on-site content in place…
Matt: …you match it off-site.
Louis: Exactly. Digital PR kicks in. Not with random stunts, but with targeted coverage and links that point to the pages you want to rank.
If you’re claiming to be one of the top vet-backed dog supplement brands, then have a vet contribute expert commentary to a Metro article – and have that article link to your multivitamin supplement page, or a supporting blog on dog nutrition.
Matt: As long as the coverage is topically relevant and links internally to your core pages, you’re building real authority.
Louis: If the link goes to a blog or a subpage, it’s fine – as long as it flows through your internal linking and supports your topic cluster.
Matt: Another common mistake is earning links, but to the wrong category or the wrong topic. It’s such a simple thing, but it makes a big difference.
It’s not that those other links have no value – it’s just that you’re starting from scratch again when you switch focus.
Louis: Yeah, at a really basic level, we’re saying something obvious: have your teams talk to each other so they’re all moving in the same direction.
Matt: But it’s easy to miss.
Louis: It’s easy for teams to have their own internal goals, or broad company targets, but not line up in practice. And that means you’re not getting the most bang for your buck.
Matt: When it works, it creates what we always talk about – the organic visibility flywheel. Your category and keywords shape the content strategy, which informs PR campaign ideas. Those campaigns earn links, which move the rankings, which drive more visibility. And it all repeats.
Louis: Totally. And I think final takeaway here – the brands that are winning in 2025 are the ones that stopped treating SEO and PR as separate disciplines.
Matt: If your content, your links, and your topical authority aren’t aligned, you’re more likely to be invisible to Google and the LLMs.
Louis: Yeah. Here at Bubblegum Search, we know the power of an integrated SEO and PR strategy firsthand. If you want that working for your brand, follow the link in the description to learn more.
Matt: And as usual, like and subscribe – and we’ll see you next time.