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Proof That Digital PR Works: 3 Standout Results Delivered by LOCALiQ UK

Hamish Lister

September 14, 2026

Would a journalist write about your business? Most owners we speak to assume no, and that’s understandable. Press coverage is for household names, the reasoning goes, for companies with a comms team and a London postcode. Then a solicitor from Norwich gets invited onto BBC Breakfast to talk about working in a heatwave, a sweet shop in Largs lands national coverage for its Burns Night hampers, and that reasoning starts to look a bit shaky.

We’re proud to say that the solicitor and the sweet shop are both our clients, and the three campaigns in this article are the results we delivered for them: backlinks, rankings, sales and all. One turned an argument about wheelie bins into 18 pieces of coverage. Another helped a family confectioner sell more of its premium hampers to customers who’d never heard of the shop a year earlier. Here’s what we did for each of them and what happened next.

 

Digital PR is the practice of earning coverage and backlinks from credible publications by giving journalists stories they want to write. The important part being ‘stories they want to write.’ That might be expert commentary on the news of the day, or a seasonal story with good research behind it. Just as often it’s something already sitting inside the business. A solicitor who can explain what a heatwave means for workplace rights. A shop owner who knows more about Scotch whisky than most journalists will meet in a year.

The links that come from this coverage do the same job as any high-quality backlink: they build your website’s authority and help your rankings. What makes them special and effective is how they’re earned. When a journalist covers your story because it deserves the attention, the backlink arrives with brand awareness and referral traffic attached, which is a hell of a lot of value from one piece of work.

 

Two shifts have made this kind of work more valuable than it was even a couple of years ago, and both are good news for businesses with real expertise in them.

The first is AI search. Tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews decide which businesses to cite partly by looking at how often, and where, a brand is mentioned across the web. Coverage in trusted publications is one of the strongest signals a business can send, and our guide to AI search visibility covers how that works in detail. The short version is that the businesses AI recommends tend to be the ones other credible sources already talk about.

The second is trust. Google’s quality systems increasingly reward demonstrated expertise, particularly in sectors like law and healthcare where the standards are highest. For a business with knowledgeable people in it, that’s an advantage waiting to be used. A campaign that puts a real expert in front of the right publications builds authority with Google and with customers at the same time.

 

All three of these are real results for real clients, each starting from a different place with a different story to tell.

1. Rogers & Norton

Rogers & Norton is a multidisciplinary law firm with roots in Norfolk, established in 1982 and now employing almost 70 people across offices in Norwich, Dereham and Attleborough.

The challenge: When Marketing Manager Louis Hilldrup-Boorman joined the firm, he described inheriting a relatively blank canvas. The website was meant to be an important source of new business, but it wasn’t producing the enquiries the team hoped for. The underlying issue was authority. The site didn’t yet have the off-page signals needed to compete in the legal sector, where Google’s “Your Money or Your Life” standards set an especially high bar for trust, and with a marketing team of two, there was only so much Louis could take on in-house. Plenty of marketing managers will recognise that position.

So how did we do it? We built a 12-month editorial plan that turned the firm’s everyday legal expertise into stories journalists wanted: inheritance tax, renters’ rights, digital assets in wills, employee monitoring. Alongside the planned calendar, we moved quickly when the news gave us an opening. A campaign about neighbours leaving their bins out earned 18 placements on its own, because it turns out the great British bin dispute makes headlines when a solicitor can explain who’s in the right. A reactive story on workplace heat rules did even better. It generated 28 pieces of coverage and put one of the firm’s lawyers on BBC Breakfast.

The results:

  • The original 12-month target of 30 backlinks was passed within five months, with 61 secured, beating it by 204%
  • 92 pieces of media coverage and 31 brand mentions across the campaign
  • Backlinks averaged a domain authority of 79 against a campaign benchmark of 50, with the strongest scoring 95
  • Ahrefs authority score up 21% within four months
  • Organic clicks up 31.6% and search impressions up 57.9%
  • National coverage in the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, HELLO! and OK!, plus that BBC Breakfast appearance

“Every report we receive includes positive results, and achieving more than 200% of our target only a few months into a 12-month project speaks for itself. We couldn’t be happier.” – Louis Hilldrup-Boorman, Marketing Manager, Rogers & Norton

View the full case study to find out more.

 

2. Geraldo’s of Largs

Geraldo’s of Largs is a family-run confectionery and gift business on the Ayrshire coast, where owner Toni Dawson works alongside her mother, known to customers as Sweet Caroline. Established over 20 years ago, the shop is known for handmade chocolates, artisan ice cream, premium spirits and luxury hampers.

The challenge: Online sales surged during lockdown, then settled and slipped back as larger retailers caught up. By April 2024, Toni had seen online revenue drop by around 20%. Like many of the independent retailers we speak to, she knew something needed to change without having the time or the technical background to work out exactly what. Standing out in national search results for hampers and gifting is a tall order for a community shop competing with the biggest names in retail.

So how did we do it? We built a content-led digital PR strategy around what makes Geraldo’s a joy to write about: Halloween sweets, the nation’s chocolate habits, the family story behind the shop, and Toni’s expert knowledge of Scotch whisky. Campaigns timed around Burns Night, Valentine’s Day and hamper season landed coverage in UK and Scottish press, earning links that keep supporting rankings long after each occasion has passed. As the campaign matured, we sharpened the focus on premium products and the customers who appreciate them most.

The results:

  • 30% higher average basket value, driven by better-qualified traffic choosing premium products
  • 24% increase in website sales, with online orders up 10% year on year after reversing the decline
  • 47 new backlinks with an average domain authority of 60
  • Average Google position improved from 41.3 to a peak of 14.2
  • 122.3% increase in clicks in Q1 2026 compared to Q3 2025

“They’re very good at putting everything into layman’s terms for you to understand. They clear all of the jargon and make things a lot simpler. They’re very good to work with, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.” – Toni Dawson, Owner and Managing Director, Geraldo’s of Largs

View the full case study to find out more.

 

3. The Devonshire Clinic

The Devonshire Clinic is a Harley Street dermatology practice whose founder is a leading consultant in skin cancer and complex skin health.

The challenge: Harley Street is one of the most concentrated healthcare markets in the world, with world-class clinics within walking distance of each other. The Devonshire Clinic needed to reach patients searching for private dermatology, and to be recognised for what it is: a serious, medical-first practice with a leading consultant at its head.

So how did we do it? We built the campaign around the founder’s credentials, taking a reactive, expert-first approach. When a health story broke or a seasonal skin topic started trending, the clinic was ready with consultant-level commentary while journalists still needed it. Every piece of coverage reinforced exactly the positioning the clinic wanted.

The results:

  • 93 backlinks earned with an average domain authority of 62
  • Coverage in The Scotsman, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, MSN, ITV, Greatest Hits Radio and Yahoo News
  • Domain authority increased by 12%
  • Clicks to the website up 40%, with click-through rate up 24%
  • A record month of media placements during the campaign period

View the full case study to find out more.

Could your business get results like these?

Our digital PR team works with UK businesses of every size, sweet shops and law firms included. Get in touch and we’ll talk through what a campaign could look like for you.

 

Three different businesses and three different strategies, but a few things hold true across almost every campaign we run.

The best stories already exist inside the business
Toni’s whisky knowledge and the consultant’s medical credentials were sitting in those businesses long before we arrived. So was a solicitor who could settle the great bin debate once and for all. Our job was spotting what journalists would want and packaging it well, and in our experience most businesses are sitting on more newsworthy expertise than they realise.

Being quick and easy to work with earns coverage
The workplace heat story and the Devonshire Clinic’s expert commentary both landed because the clients approved things fast, while the story was still warm. You don’t need a press office for that. You need someone who can say yes today, with a partner handling the rest.

Digital PR keeps paying you back
A Burns Night story earns its coverage in January, and the backlink keeps supporting rankings in July. Each campaign builds on the authority the last one earned, which is why Geraldo’s numbers kept climbing quarter after quarter, and why Rogers & Norton passed a 12-month target in five.

 

Digital PR works best with real journalist relationships behind it. As part of Newsquest Media Group, we work alongside the UK’s largest local news network, and our campaigns have earned clients coverage in the national press and a spot on breakfast television, alongside the regional titles we know best. That work was recognised this year when we were named finalists across four categories at the 2026 UK Agency Awards, including for the Devonshire Clinic campaign above.

If you’d like to see the same approach across our other services, our SEO case studies follow the same format: real clients and real numbers.

 

Want to turn coverage into customers?

Every campaign in this article started with a conversation about what makes the business worth writing about. Yours has a story too, even if it’s a little hard to see from the inside. Contact us today and our digital PR team will talk you through what a campaign could deliver for your business.

Talk to our digital PR team

Hamish Lister
Meet the Author

Hamish Lister

Hamish Lister is a digital marketing content writer with eight years of experience across SEO, paid media, brand and content strategy. Having worked with clients from Google Cloud and Unilever down to early-stage startups and local businesses, he has a broad understanding of what makes digital marketing work for businesses of different sizes and budgets.

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