Copy of Copy of Copy of blog sneak peak template (1)

How to track the long-term SEO impact of PR mention

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tipsSEO

Digital PR is often judged by headlines, coverage volume, or brand visibility, but its real value is revealed over time through SEO impact. While a PR mention might deliver an initial spike in traffic, the long-term benefits lie in authority, rankings, and sustained organic growth. The challenge for marketers is knowing how to track that impact properly.

This guide breaks down how to measure the long-term SEO value of PR mentions beyond surface-level metrics.

Understand what a PR mention delivers for SEO

A high-quality PR mention can provide several SEO benefits:

  • Authoritative backlinks
  • Brand mentions (linked or unlinked)
  • Increased crawl discovery
  • Improved topical authority
  • Growth in branded and non-branded search demand

Not all mentions are equal. A single link from a trusted, high-authority publication can have more long-term value than dozens of low-quality placements. Before tracking performance, it’s important to understand the quality of the coverage you’re earning.

Track backlinks but look beyond volume

Backlinks remain one of the clearest SEO signals from Digital PR, but volume alone doesn’t tell the full story. Instead, focus on:

  • Referring domain quality (authority, relevance, trust)
  • Link placement (editorial content vs footer/sidebar)
  • Link type (follow vs nofollow)
  • Link destination (homepage vs key commercial or informational pages)

Use tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or similar platforms to monitor when links are discovered and whether they remain live over time. Long-lasting links from reputable sites are far more valuable than short-lived coverage.

Monitor keyword performance over time

One of the strongest indicators of long-term SEO impact is keyword movement. PR-driven links often support rankings indirectly rather than causing immediate jumps.

Track:

  • Target keyword rankings for linked pages
  • Supporting keywords within the same topic cluster
  • New keyword visibility emerging after campaigns

It’s important to measure this over weeks and months, not days. PR often strengthens a page’s authority, which can improve rankings gradually as Google re-evaluates relevance and trust.

Measure organic traffic trends

PR mentions can introduce new users to your brand and content, but the real SEO value appears in sustained organic traffic growth. Use Google Analytics or similar platforms to monitor:

  • Organic sessions to linked pages
  • Overall site-wide organic growth
  • Changes in traffic to related content

Rather than attributing traffic to a single mention, look for patterns following major campaigns. A steady upward trend often indicates authority building rather than short-term referral spikes.

Track brand search demand

Digital PR doesn’t just earn links, it builds brand awareness. One of the clearest long-term signals of this is growth in branded search queries.

In Google Search Console, track:

  • Impressions and clicks for branded terms
  • New variations of branded searches
  • Increases in brand + product or service keywords

Rising brand demand often correlates with stronger trust signals, which can indirectly improve performance across non-branded keywords too.

Monitor indexation and crawl behaviour

High-authority PR links can improve how quickly and frequently Google crawls your site. Over time, this can lead to:

  • Faster indexation of new pages
  • More consistent crawling of deeper content
  • Improved discovery of supporting pages

In Google Search Console, review crawl stats and indexing reports to identify improvements following major PR campaigns.

Measure link longevity and mentions over time

Not all PR coverage stays live forever. Tracking link retention is crucial for long-term analysis. Regularly audit your links to see:

  • Which placements remain live
  • Which have been removed or updated
  • Whether unlinked brand mentions can be reclaimed

Unlinked mentions, when converted into links, can extend the lifespan and SEO value of a campaign well beyond its original launch.

Attribute PR impact realistically

SEO impact from PR is rarely immediate or isolated. It often works alongside content improvements, technical SEO, and internal linking. Rather than aiming for perfect attribution, focus on contribution.

Ask:

  • Did rankings improve after sustained coverage?
  • Did organic traffic trend upward post-campaign?
  • Did authority metrics strengthen over time?

Final thoughts

Tracking the long-term SEO impact of PR mentions requires patience, consistency, and the right metrics. While headlines and referral traffic matter, the true value of Digital PR lies in authority building, discoverability, and sustained organic growth.

By focusing on backlink quality, keyword performance, organic traffic trends, and brand demand, marketers can move beyond vanity metrics and demonstrate the lasting SEO power of well-executed PR campaigns.

Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of blog sneak peak template

Our top picks for the best valentines campaigns

by Cedarwood Digital NewsGeneral Marketing

Lush’s 2024 Valentine’s collection

This campaign was effective because it combined strong seasonal storytelling with product innovation and brand consistency. The campaign introduced a limited-edition range of themed products, such as heart-shaped bath items, special fragrances, and gift sets, that tapped into Valentine’s gifting behaviour while staying true to Lush’s core values around ethical sourcing, handmade production, and sensory experience.

The time-limited nature of the range created urgency and collectability, encouraging repeat store visits and social sharing, while the highly visual, tactile products were well-suited to in-store displays and digital content. By blending occasion-based demand with its established brand identity and experiential retail approach, Lush turned a seasonal moment into both a sales driver and a brand engagement opportunity.

Tinder’s Extra Super Like Valentine’s campaign

This was particularly effective because it combined strong seasonal relevance with smart product strategy. Valentine’s Day is a peak moment for dating intent and app usage, so the promotion met users at exactly the right time with added value that felt contextually appropriate rather than forced.

By giving users a daily temporary bonus to a normally limited premium feature, Tinder increased engagement and repeat app opens while letting free users experience a taste of paid-tier functionality without friction. The mechanic was simple, built on an existing feature, and required no extra steps to claim, reducing drop-off and maximising participation. Importantly, it rewarded users while also reinforcing upgrade pathways, making it both customer-friendly and commercially aligned.

Hotels.com anti-Valentine’s Day

Hotels.com recognised that Valentine’s Day doesn’t resonate with everyone and built a campaign aimed squarely at people who feel overlooked by traditional romance-focused messaging. Its tongue-in-cheek “V-Day Dumpster Stay” promotion invited participants to nominate an ex-partner they thought deserved a trip, symbolically, to a dumpster, while the entrant received a $300 Hotels.com gift card to book a much nicer getaway themselves. The idea reframed the holiday around humour and self-treating rather than a couple-centric celebration.

The campaign landed well because it deliberately moved away from sentimental Valentine’s tropes and instead used irreverent humour and cultural relatability. By acknowledging breakups and dating disappointments, it connected with audiences often ignored in seasonal advertising. The contrast between the joke “prize” for the ex and the real reward for the entrant created a shareable hook, making the campaign feel inclusive, entertaining, and socially engaging rather than overly romantic.

Specsavers’ “Don’t Let Specs Get in the Way”

Who says Valentine’s Day ads have to be serious? Specsavers proved they don’t. Their 2023 campaign, “Kiss Clash,” turned a common everyday struggle into comedic gold, showcasing the awkward realities glasses-wearers face while trying to kiss. Couples bumping spectacles mid-smooch, near misses, and fumbling pecks all made for moments that were as hilarious as they were painfully relatable.

Beyond the laughs, the campaign carried a clear, practical message: “Don’t let your specs get in the way.” It encouraged viewers to take advantage of Specsavers’ free contact lens trial, offering a simple solution to a universal problem for glasses-wearers.

Why It Worked: The campaign struck the perfect balance between humour and relatability, turning a minor inconvenience into a highly shareable scenario. It reminded audiences that everyday annoyances, even during romantic moments, can be solved in a fun, memorable way. Specsavers combined wit with utility, creating an ad that was entertaining, impactful, and completely in line with the brand’s long-standing reputation for clever, audience-focused storytelling.

Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy of blog sneak peak template (6)

Why ranking for the wrong keywords can hurt your SEO

by Cedarwood Digital NewsSEO

Seeing your pages rank in Google can feel reassuring, but rankings alone don’t tell the full SEO story. If you’re ranking for the wrong keywords, that shiny visibility might not be helping you at all.

Not all traffic is good traffic

More visitors don’t automatically mean better results. If people land on your page expecting one thing and find something else, they’ll leave just as quickly as they arrived.

This usually comes down to search intent. Someone searching ‘what is technical SEO’ is looking to learn, not to buy. If they land on a sales-heavy service page, they’ll bounce, and Google notices that behaviour.

So while you might be getting traffic, it’s not the kind that sticks, converts, or supports long-term rankings.

When rankings look good, but results don’t

One of the clearest signs you’re ranking for the wrong keywords is when Google Search Console tells a confusing story:

  • High impressions, low clicks
  • Decent rankings, poor engagement
  • Traffic that doesn’t lead anywhere useful

It can feel like SEO is ‘working’ but somehow not delivering real, commercial value (which defeats the point of investing in SEO at all). That’s often because the page is visible for searches it was never designed to satisfy.

Trying to rank for everything (and ending up ranking for nothing)

Another common issue is trying to make one page do too much. When a single page targets lots of loosely related keywords, it often ends up diluting its message.

Instead of being the best answer for one clear query, the page becomes an average answer for many. Worse still, it can start competing with other pages on your site that would actually be a better fit, a classic case of keyword cannibalisation.

Why does intent mismatch slow growth?

Google’s goal is simple: show users the most helpful result. If users regularly land on your page and don’t find what they’re looking for, Google may decide your page isn’t the best match, even for keywords you actually care about.

Over time, this makes it harder to rank for:

  • Higher-intent, conversion-focused terms
  • More competitive keywords in your niche
  • Queries that genuinely match your offering

In other words, ranking for the wrong keywords can quietly block progress for the right ones.

How to Get Back on Track

Fixing the issue doesn’t mean starting from scratch. A few smart adjustments can make a big difference:

  • Review the queries your pages actually rank for
  • Map keywords to pages, rather than pages to keywords.
  • Group keywords by intent, not just topic
  • Separate informational and commercial content
  • Tighten page focus so each URL has a clear job

Successful SEO isn’t about ranking for the most keywords; it’s about ranking for the right ones. When your pages match what users are actually searching for, engagement improves, conversions increase, and rankings become far more stable.

Copy of Copy of blog sneak peak template (3)

Save this for your next DPR campaign inspiration

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tips

In Digital PR, the best campaigns don’t just happen; they’re carefully engineered to capture attention, spark conversation, and secure high-quality media coverage that resonates with audiences and boosts SEO authority. For inspiration, look no further than one of the most talked-about campaigns of 2026 so far: the so-called “Beckham clause.”

When travel brand On the Beach launched a tongue-in-cheek holiday refund perk dubbed the Beckham clause, it wasn’t just clever wordplay; it was strategic Digital PR genius. The idea? If a family holiday suddenly unravels due to a family feud, the brand will refund one person’s share of the accommodation as long as the fallout happens at least 60 days before departure.

What made this campaign so effective wasn’t just the offer itself; it was the context and timing.

1. Tap into a trending narrative

The Beckham family has been the subject of global media coverage due to their widely reported family tensions, particularly between David and Brooklyn Beckham. The personal drama has dominated news cycles, social feeds, and search behaviour, creating a cultural moment everyone’s talking about.

On the Beach didn’t create the story, but it inserted itself into it cleverly. They took a high-visibility trend and played off it in a way that felt light-hearted, relevant, and perfectly pitched for travel audiences.

Lesson: Your next DPR campaign doesn’t always need a massive original dataset or multi-tier assets. Sometimes the smartest idea is to tap into what people are already searching for and talking about.

2. Use humour and human insight

Family holidays are emotional. People have been there: one person argues, tempers flare, and suddenly plans change. By framing this universal experience with a cultural hook, the campaign struck a chord with audiences, and crucially, with journalists. Clever PR isn’t just about facts; it’s about feelings and relatability.

Lesson: Look for angles with emotional pull, humour, nostalgia, frustration, fear of missing out, to give your pitches an extra layer of resonance.

3. Create newsworthy criteria

On the Beach didn’t just launch a refund offer; they defined clear criteria (like a 60-day notice), making the announcement newsworthy and quotable. Journalists love specifics; it makes writing easier and lends authority to the story.

Lesson: When conceptualising your campaign, ensure there are clear takeaways that reporters can quote and explain in headlines and sub-headlines.

4. Earn media and SEO results

The result? Coverage in major outlets like the Daily Mail and beyond, a perfect blend of reach and backlink potential that boosts branded search and domain authority. For agencies specialising in SEO and Digital PR, that combo is gold.

Digital PR shouldn’t be an afterthought or a bolt-on. The Beckham clause campaign shows how a strong cultural hook, mixed with strategic positioning, can deliver coverage that supports SEO performance, elevates brand presence, and generates engagement. Save this idea for your next DPR brainstorming session. It’s a reminder that sometimes the best inspiration comes not from reinvention, but from reaction and relevance.

1

How to balance creativity and linkability

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tips

Digital PR teams face a constant tension between two priorities. On one hand, there’s creativity: developing innovative campaigns, crafting compelling stories, designing shareable assets, and capturing attention in ways that resonate emotionally. On the other hand, there’s linkability: ensuring every campaign or asset has the potential to earn high-quality, authoritative links that boost SEO and measurable business outcomes.

Both are critical, but finding the right balance is often challenging. Lean too far into creativity, and campaigns may fail to generate measurable impact. Focus solely on linkability, and your content risks being bland or forgettable.

This tension is intensified by limited resources. Many teams are small, and marketers are expected to deliver both standout ideas and measurable results simultaneously. The question becomes: how do you create PR that is both memorable and link-worthy?

The role of creativity in digital PR

At its core, PR is about connection. It’s people talking to people, telling stories that resonate, and creating moments that inspire coverage and engagement. Creativity drives this connection.

Creative campaigns spark media interest, evoke emotion, and encourage sharing. Whether it’s a clever interactive infographic, a thought-provoking survey, or a timely cultural campaign, creativity makes your content stand out from the noise. It’s what turns a press release into a story journalists want to cover, and what encourages audiences to engage with your brand.

However, creativity alone doesn’t guarantee links. A campaign can be visually stunning or entertaining, but if it lacks SEO-friendly hooks or shareable components, it may never earn the organic visibility needed to amplify its impact.

Why linkability matters

Linkability ensures your creative campaigns drive measurable results. It’s the combination of strategic thinking, audience understanding, and SEO awareness that transforms great ideas into tangible business outcomes.

  • Earned media: High-quality links from reputable publications enhance your site’s authority and visibility.
  • SEO impact: Links are a key ranking factor; campaigns that naturally attract them can improve search performance.
  • Sustainable results: Unlike one-off social posts, linkable campaigns create content that continues to generate value over time.

Linkability doesn’t mean stifling creativity; it means designing campaigns with built-in opportunities for journalists and influencers to cover, cite, and share your work.

Finding the balance

The most successful digital PR campaigns strike a harmony between creativity and linkability. Here’s how to achieve it:

  1. Plan with purpose: Start every campaign with both creative and SEO objectives in mind. Ask: How will this idea earn coverage? Which audiences will amplify it?
  2. Use data to guide creativity: Audience insights, competitor analysis, and trend monitoring help shape ideas that resonate and attract links.
  3. Design for shareability: Interactive tools, infographics, and visually compelling assets increase the likelihood of coverage.
  4. Test and iterate: Analyse which campaigns earned links, traffic, or media attention. Use these insights to refine future initiatives.
  5. Collaborate across teams: SEO, content, and PR teams working together ensure campaigns are both imaginative and link-focused.

Why it matters

Balancing creativity with linkability is no longer optional—it’s a business imperative. A campaign that earns coverage but fails to create backlinks may not impact SEO or revenue. Conversely, a campaign designed solely for links may be forgotten by audiences and journalists alike.

When done right, digital PR becomes a dual engine: it builds brand awareness, engages audiences, and drives lasting SEO value. The key is treating creativity and linkability as complementary, not competing forces.

1

PPC tracking for beginners

by Cedarwood Digital NewsPaid SearchPaid Social

Pay-per-click (PPC) tracking is essential for measuring the performance of your advertising campaigns across platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and social media. When someone clicks on your ad, you pay for that interaction. PPC tracking helps you understand not just who clicked, but how those clicks contribute to meaningful outcomes such as sales, leads, or other conversions.

The goal is simple: understand which ads, keywords, and campaigns are driving results, so you can optimise your efforts and allocate your budget effectively. Without tracking, you’re essentially guessing which parts of your campaigns are performing.

Why PPC tracking matters

Tracking PPC campaigns offers several advantages:

  • Optimise ads: Adjust keywords, targeting, ad copy, and bidding strategies to improve performance.
  • Budget efficiency: Identify high-performing campaigns and allocate resources where they generate the most ROI.
  • Competitive insights: Monitor what competitors are doing and adjust your own strategy accordingly.

Effective tracking provides a clear view of your campaigns’ performance and informs smarter, data-driven decisions.

Key PPC metrics to monitor

Several metrics are essential for evaluating PPC success:

  • Clicks and click-through rate (CTR): Shows how many people are engaging with your ads and how compelling your messaging is.
  • Impressions and average position: Indicate visibility and placement of your ads on search results pages.
  • Conversion rate: Measures the percentage of clicks that lead to a desired action, such as a purchase or signup.
  • Website visits and app interactions: Track how users engage with your site or app after clicking your ads.
  • Phone calls and offline conversions: Useful for businesses that rely on phone leads or in-person transactions.
  • Quality score: Google’s assessment of your ads’ relevance and effectiveness, impacting costs and placement.

Monitoring these metrics consistently allows you to identify opportunities for optimisation and ensure your campaigns are delivering results.

Setting up PPC tracking

Use Google Ads conversion tracking to measure actions like purchases, sign-ups, or leads. By integrating with Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager (GTM), you can track the customer journey from ad click to conversion. GTM simplifies implementation, allowing you to manage tags and triggers without manually coding every page.

Similar to Google, Microsoft Advertising uses Universal Event Tracking (UET) tags to monitor conversions. Once installed, define your conversion goals, assign monetary values if relevant, and track performance across campaigns. Integration with GTM can streamline the process.

Google Analytics helps compare PPC performance across channels, including search engines, social media, and display campaigns. By creating comparisons, you can isolate PPC traffic, measure engagement, and evaluate the effectiveness of different devices or user segments.

Making PPC tracking actionable

Tracking alone isn’t enough. You need to interpret the data and act on it. This means:

  • Refining keywords and ad copy based on performance trends.
  • Adjusting bids to maximise ROI on high-performing segments.
  • Identifying underperforming campaigns to pause or reallocate budget.
  • Understanding cross-channel impact and the full customer journey.

With a robust PPC tracking framework, your campaigns become smarter, more efficient, and more profitable.

The bigger picture

PPC tracking is more than clicks and conversions; it’s about understanding how your audience engages with your brand and where your investment delivers the highest returns. Accurate tracking empowers marketers to optimise campaigns, scale successful strategies, and maintain a competitive edge in a constantly evolving digital landscape.

Copy of Copy of blog sneak peak template (1)

5 Chrome extensions every Digital PR team needs

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tips

Working in Digital PR is fast-paced, so to help you work as efficiently as possible, we have shared five of our favourite Chrome extensions.

  1. Instant Data Scraper 

Instant Data Scraper is an automated data extraction tool. It uses AI to predict which data is the most relevant on your page, and allows you to save it to Excel or as a CSV file. The extension is great for scraping lists of data, perfect for data-led campaigns where you are looking to utilise search volumes for a number of keywords.

  1. Glimpse 

The Glimpse extension enhances Google Trends data with absolute search volumes, in real-time, allowing you to discover trending topics. It can help to provide you with valuable data, such as spikes in search volumes, which can be really useful in demonstrating the ‘why now’ to journalists. 

  1. NoFollow

Whilst you can manually inspect for “no follow” links by viewing the page source, there are tools out there, such as the NoFollow tool, which will highlight no follow links in a red box, with those not highlighted in the box determined to be a follow link. The tool can help you to quickly confirm whether a link is a follow link or not, which helps with reporting on client coverage. 

  1. NordVPN

When working with international clients, you will need to visit websites that you may be blocked from accessing. Downloading a VPN, such as NordVPN, will allow you to access foreign publications, helping you to find the right targets and build media lists for journalists outside of the UK. 

  1. Hunter

If you’re unable to locate a journalist’s email on databases, their author profile or social media, Hunter can help by identifying the most common email pattern for the website. 

Copy of blog sneak peak template (5)

What SEO’s should keep in mind moving into 2026

by Cedarwood Digital NewsSEO

As Google gets smarter and continues to update its core algorithm, moving into 2026 is less about tactics and more about trust, usefulness and user interaction. 

Going into 2026, typical black hat techniques will continue to lose visibility as Google will champion content written for users, not for Google. Long tail keyword queries and conversational style search will likely continue to grow in 2026 as AI transitions into everyday life, but that doesn’t mean AI is what SEO should only be optimising for. 

So here are some insights on how to keep SEO performing while search is constantly changing. 

1. Helpfulness beats optimisation


In 2025, Google doubled down on its commitment to rewarding content that truly serves its audience. Pages that rely on keyword-stuffed, shallow, or low-value material continue to fade into obscurity, losing precious visibility. The winners are those who clearly understand and satisfy search intent, offering meaningful depth, actionable insights, and clarity that resonates with readers. In other words, it’s no longer enough to simply exist online; your content must genuinely inform, guide, or delight the user, delivering real value every step of the way.

2. E-E-A-T matters more than ever


Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are critical, especially for YMYL topics and industries. Showing real-world experience, author credibility, original insights, and accurate sourcing is invaluable. You can start writing quality author profiles if you haven’t already. 

3. Intent-based SEO is crucial


Google understands topics, entities, and relationships better than ever. Content should be built around subject authority and question coverage, not individual keywords. Focus on creating content to solve a problem and answer a question, rather than focusing on KW volume; this should be a support.  Long-tail keywords and conversational style content will continue to rise, a good time to review and match intent in your FAQs.

4. Technical SEO still supports everything


Fast load times, seamless mobile usability, intuitive site architecture, and robust Core Web Vitals remain the bedrock of a strong website. While technical issues alone won’t magically boost your search rankings, they can certainly drag them down. A beautifully optimised piece of content is essentially invisible if your website isn’t properly indexed. That’s why ensuring your site is technically sound is non-negotiable — it’s the foundation on which all your SEO efforts are built. Think of it as paving a smooth, sturdy road before inviting visitors to enjoy the scenery.

[blog]_[lessons weve learnt in 2025]_[Blog Picture]

Lessons we’ve learnt in 2025.

by Cedarwood Digital News
  1. AI didn’t kill SEO – it made strategy smarter

2025 was the year AI truly embedded itself into search, and everyone wondered what it meant for SEO. The truth? It didn’t replace strategy. It sharpened it.

AI Overviews, generative results and conversational search forced brands and agencies to get clearer about who they are, what they offer, and how they earn trust. We learnt that AI can speed up tasks and spark ideas, but it can’t replace understanding human intent, brand tone or genuine expertise.

The best results we’ve seen this year came from teams that used AI as a tool, not a crutch, combining machine efficiency with human creativity and judgment.

  1. User Intent Is The New Keyword

Keywords still matter, but only if you understand the why behind them.

2025 made it clear that the most successful content strategies weren’t built around single search terms. They were built around journeys. Whether it’s an awareness-stage explainer, a comparison query or a transactional moment, we’ve learnt that true SEO performance comes from mapping content to user intent across the funnel.

As Google and AI-driven search evolve, it’s no longer about ranking for one keyword. It’s about showing up meaningfully at every stage of discovery.

  1. Content audits beat content churn

This year, we saw a real shift. Brands that slowed down and focused on improving what they already had often outperformed those chasing new content volume.

Refreshing top-performing pages, merging thin assets and removing outdated content not only boosted visibility. It improved site health and made performance more sustainable.

We learnt that smart content strategies don’t mean producing more. They mean producing better. 2025 rewarded brands who refined, refreshed and repurposed, not those who simply hit publish the most.

  1. Data-led stories cut through the noise

In 2025, the most successful digital PR campaigns were the ones grounded in credible, useful data. Journalists are flooded with pitches, and the brands that stood out were those who brought something genuinely new to the conversation.

Whether it was proprietary research, search trends or cleverly combined public datasets, data-backed storytelling gave campaigns authority, originality and media value.

We learnt that numbers alone don’t earn coverage. It’s about turning data into stories people actually care about and that’s where strategy meets creativity.

  1. Always be learning

Attending conferences, training sessions and industry events reminded us how fast marketing moves and how important it is to stay curious.

Every talk, panel and hallway conversation brings something new: a perspective, a challenge or a spark of inspiration that shifts how we think. The best marketers are the ones who never assume they’ve got it all figured out.

We learnt that staying ahead in digital isn’t just about following trends. It’s about constantly learning, sharing and pushing the industry forward together.

[blog]_[Best Christmas Campaigns Over The Years]_[blog picture]

Best Christmas Campaigns Over The Years

by Cedarwood Digital NewsDigital PR & Outreach tips

Every year, brands battle for a spot in the holiday hall of fame by creating Christmas campaigns that tug at our heartstrings, make us laugh, or impress us with their creativity. Some fade quickly, others become iconic cultural moments replayed for years to come.

Here’s a look back at some of the best Christmas campaigns ever produced, and why they’ve earned a place in festive marketing history.

1) Coca-Cola – “Holidays Are Coming” (1995–Present)

The red Coca-Cola Christmas trucks have arguably become more iconic than many traditional holiday symbols. First launched in the mid-90s, the “Holidays Are Coming” campaign created such strong festive nostalgia that people still anticipate its return each year.

Why it worked: A consistent brand message, unforgettable music, and imagery that triggers instant holiday nostalgia.

2. Sainsbury’s – “1914” (2014)

This cinematic ad recreated the legendary Christmas Truce of World War I, in partnership with the Royal British Legion. The emotional power of British and German soldiers sharing food and football on Christmas Eve created one of the most moving ads ever produced.

Why it worked: A beautifully executed retelling of a historical moment that highlights humanity, unity, and peace.

3. Apple – “Misunderstood” (2013)

Apple took a relatable and modern approach with a story about a teenager who appears glued to his phone instead of engaging with family festivities, only to reveal he was secretly creating a heartfelt holiday video for them.

Why it worked: Modern storytelling that flipped expectations and reinforced Apple’s message about technology bringing people together.

4. Marks & Spencer – “Mrs. Claus” (2016)

Marks & Spencer’s 2016 “Mrs Claus” campaign reimagined the often-overlooked Christmas figure as a modern, stylish, and capable heroine. Played by Janet McTeer, Mrs Claus secretly steps in to help a young boy make amends with his sister by delivering the perfect gift on Christmas Eve. With cinematic visuals, warmth, and a touch of humour, the ad offered a fresh perspective on festive storytelling. It stood out by celebrating empathy, family bonds, and subtle female empowerment, quickly becoming one of M&S’s most memorable holiday campaigns.

Why it worked: A fresh twist on traditional Christmas characters combined with humour, warmth, and strong female representation.

5. John Lewis – “The Bear and the Hare” (2013)

No list of iconic Christmas campaigns is complete without the UK retailer John Lewis. While they’ve delivered several brilliant holiday ads, “The Bear and the Hare” stands out as a masterpiece.
Using hand-drawn animation combined with 3D sets, the story of a hare giving his best friend, the hibernating bear, a chance to experience Christmas melted hearts everywhere. Add Lily Allen’s emotional cover of “Somewhere Only We Know,” and you get a campaign that set a whole new standard for holiday storytelling.

Why it worked: Emotional storytelling, cinematic production, and a narrative that celebrates friendship and giving.

[blog]_[SEO Content Writing - Stripped Back to the Basics]_[blog picture]

SEO Content Writing – Stripped Back to the Basics

by Cedarwood Digital NewsGeneral MarketingSEO

The point of writing SEO optimised content is to write content that is genuinely useful to the user. Google ranks content that it deems the most useful and relevant to users’ search queries. 
Meta

I generally follow the rule of ‘Primary Keyword Target | Brand Name’ to frontload your primary keyword focus point, then your meta description wants to look like a shop window, for example:

“Shop commercial refrigerated display cabinets at XXX, perfect for showcasing and preserving perishable goods in any professional food service space.”

As a general rule, page titles should be 50-60 characters, and meta descriptions 150-160 characters, but I wouldn’t obsess over these guidelines. You’re better off writing for purpose than for strict character limits.

Make sure each page has a unique, well-targeted page title and meta description. Google may opt to provide its own meta description, but not your meta title (so get that part right).

Search Intent

One of the most important things to consider when writing SEO content is search intent.  

Search intent is a user’s main goal when they enter a query into a search engine, which could be to find information about a specific topic, to visit a particular webpage, or to make a purchase. 

Types of search intent:

Informational: The user wants to learn about something

Navigational: The user is trying to find a specific page or website

Commercial: The user is researching options before making a purchase

Transactional: The user wants to take an action, like completing a purchase

When considering intent, you should think about the kind of page the user would want to land on:

  • Blog posts
  • Product pages
  • Category pages
  • Landing pages
  • Tools

If you were searching for ‘best commercial fridges’, you’d likely want to land on a blog page with informative, perhaps comparative content, or in a ‘top ten’ listicle format. 

If you were searching ‘buy commercial fridges online’, you wouldn’t benefit from a page of lengthy content; you’re looking to make a purchase. These pages should focus on a smooth buying process; make it easy to purchase, and ensure high-quality product information.

YMYL & EEAT

YMYL (Your Money Your Life): a term used by Google to categorise web pages that might potentially impact a person’s happiness, health, financial stability, or safety. These pages are held to a higher standard due to the potential harm that inaccurate or misleading information could cause.

This is where EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness & Trustworthiness) comes in, a framework that Google uses to assess the quality of content and websites. It’s important for achieving higher rankings in search results, especially for topics related to YMYL.

Internal / External Linking 

Internal and external links are crucial for SEO because they enhance website navigation, improve user experience and boost a site’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines. 

  • Internal links help users and search engines navigate a website and build topical authority. 
  • External links provide valuable context and demonstrate expertise (in the context of EEAT).

Competitors

In SEO, competitors are websites that rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs) for the same keywords as your target page. They compete with you for visibility and organic traffic from search engines. 

These competitors might not always be your direct business rivals, but rather any website that appears in the search results when users search for terms relevant to your content.

Keywords

Keywords are search queries that users are inputting into Google. We use them to inform our content and determine search intent. We want to avoid ‘keyword stuffing’ and only use them naturally in the content we write.

Search engines are able to understand semantics now, so the process is a little more nuanced. 

Duplicate Content

Duplicate content negatively impacts SEO because it confuses search engines. If you have two very similar pages ranking for the same keywords, Google will struggle to determine which page to prioritise, potentially favouring a less important page, or neither at all.

This is referred to as ‘cannibalisation’, which refers to a situation where multiple pages on a website target the same or very similar keywords, causing them to compete against each other in the search engine results page (SERP).

This is why it’s important to have clearly targeted pages and to link between them to show their relationship.

Formatting

SEO formatting refers to structuring and presenting website content in a way that helps search engines understand it, ultimately improving its visibility and ranking in search results. 

Arranged content helps Google and users understand the content. In HTML, <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> tags are used to define the structure and hierarchy of headings on a webpage. They help organise content and make it easier for both users and search engines to understand the page’s structure and content. 

Here’s a breakdown of their roles:

H1: The main heading or title of the page. It’s the most important heading and should be used once per page to summarise the main topic.

H2: Subheadings that divide the content into sections, supporting the main <h1> heading.

H3: Used for subheadings under <h2> headings, providing further granularity and structure. Often listicle or bullet points.

~

Effective SEO content writing is ultimately about clarity, purpose and user value. When you focus on answering real questions, aligning with intent and presenting information in a way that’s easy to understand and navigate, search performance naturally follows. 

[blog]_[Last night's UK Search Awards Wins!]_[blog picture]

Last night’s UK Search Awards Wins!

by Cedarwood Digital NewsGeneral Marketing

Last night we won EIGHT UK Search Awards, including two agency awards ✨

We took home:

🌟 Best Integrated Agency
🌟 Best PPC Agency
🌟 Best SEO Campaign – Patient Claim Line
🌟 Best Content Marketing Campaign – Patient Claim Line
🌟 Best Use Of Search (Gaming)
🌟 Best Use Of Data – Vape Superstore
🌟 Best B2C PPC Campaign – Salt Of The Earth
🌟 Best Low Budget Campaign – Salt Of The Earth

… and a silver for 🌟 Best PPC Campaign – Salt Of The Earth



The awards are a testament to another incredibly solid year for Cedarwood, in fact, our strongest yet, and they wouldn’t have been possible without the continued hard work, dedication, and passion of our fantastic team. Every member of the team has played a pivotal role in pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve, and we are immensely grateful for their commitment. We also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our brilliant clients for their unwavering support throughout the year. We are truly fortunate to partner with such exceptional teams who inspire us, challenge us, and continually encourage us to deliver our very best work.

This year, 2025, has also represented a major step forward in our commitment to giving back. From our ongoing work with Ecologi to support climate change initiatives, to the continued growth of Manchester DM, our bi-monthly digital marketing networking event, we’ve invested time and energy into making a positive impact beyond our day-to-day operations. It has also been a privilege to sponsor fantastic community-focused events such as Women in Tech SEO and the SEO for Paws Charity event. Being able to share our success in ways that uplift and support the wider community has been incredibly rewarding.

We would also like to express our appreciation to all of the judges who dedicated countless hours to reviewing entries and providing thoughtful, expert evaluations. Their commitment ensures the awards remain a benchmark of excellence within the industry. And finally, a huge thank you to the brilliant team at Don’t Panic Events, who work tirelessly behind the scenes to deliver such outstanding, inspiring events year after year. Their efforts help bring the industry together and make celebrations like this possible.