In the complicated and interconnected worlds of SEO and digital PR I find myself increasingly talking about the importance of "quality". However, after a series of déjà vous inducing client meetings I realise what a contentious and subjective term it can be.

From a brand, customer engagement, marketing perspective quality is key to delivering the right content to the right audience and ensuring brands aligning themselves with appropriate partners. But, from a link equity perspective quality relies on Google page rank, deep linking anchor text to the right page and ensuring spiders are able to follow those links. So how can we as an industry ensure we deliver the best "quality" work to clients to create brand buzz and excitement fuelling demand whilst also appearing at the top of the search engine listings to increase visitors to the site? If digital PR is the new SEO, how can we ensure that the right people are defining what constitutes quality?

There is no question that digital PR managed correctly can be a key tool in the link building armoury. Optimised content distributed to sites and syndicated across the web all containing back links can help to provide the crucial "votes of confidence" Google uses to help position web pages in their index. It sounds great and allows brands to deliver improved SERPs as a side effect of distributing engaging content. But the skills and techniques of natural link cultivation should be not forgotten in this wave of enthusiasm and excitement around digital PR. Whilst generic back links to a brand from high "quality" sites which reach the right audience will provide some small degree of improvement in their SERPs, a focused link building campaign on key pages and terms will deliver far greater results from a positional perspective and allow brands to improve positions on key revenue driving pages.

Of course brands should be protective of the environments in which they appear but they must also be pragmatic about the methods required to improve their SERPs. While adopting a holistic approach to all parts of the digital spectrum is crucial, this should not be done to the detriment of the subtleties and specialist knowledge available. Perhaps the solution is the same as any other marketing campaign, setting clear objectives and realistic goals.

As you'll know by now, I preach about the importance of bringing distinct disciplines closer together, to understand the interplay between them and take advantage of the wide and diverse skills within this industry. But to suggest SEO is dead and it's all about the PR seems to be moving the task from one team to another rather than combing skills to deliver results which are fundamentally greater than the sum of the parts.