PR and media 2026: how to get into the media for free and what it gives for SEO and traffic

Most of the “PR strategies” I see from clients are a Word file with a press release sent to a database of 40 editorial addresses. Journalists receive 200+ pitches per day. Such a file is deleted in 3 seconds.

Over three years, I posted 15+ expert columns and comments for clients - in vc.ru, Habr, RBC, "Secret of the Firm", industry media. None of them appeared through a press release. Everything - through a pitch with a specific story, through Pressfeed or through direct contact with the editor. The average time from the first letter to publication is 9 days. On vc.ru through samizdat - 0 days if the material is ready.

A good pitch is not about you. It's about the reader of that publication and why your story matters to them.

1. Why PR at all in 2026 - SEO, trust and traffic

PR is not about press releases. PR is about having a journalist write about you. The difference is fundamental: in the first case, you pay with the attention of the editors (who don’t care), in the second, the editors themselves choose you as an expert.

Three real results that I measure on projects. The first is SEO. A link from vc.ru (DR 74 on Ahrefs) or Habr (DR 71) moves positions for niche queries in 4-8 weeks. On one b2b project, three publications on vc.ru with dofollow links raised positions for 6 commercial queries from 8-12 to 3-5 in two months. Links from RBC and Kommersant are often nofollow, but they give E-E-A-T signals - Google takes into account mentions of the author as a signal of expertise.

The second is traffic. A good article on vc.ru gets 5,000-20,000 views in the first week. Of these, 2-4% click on a link to the author’s website - that’s 100-800 transitions. The conversion rate for such traffic is higher than for contextual advertising: the person has already read the material and understands who you are.

The third is trust. When a potential client Googles you before a deal and sees columns in well-known publications, the trust threshold decreases. One of my clients (an online school) recorded this directly: after three publications in the “Company Secret”, the conversion from “viewed the site” to “left a request” increased by 22%. There is no magic - just social proof works in both B2C and B2B.

Read more about how PR fits into the overall personal brand strategy, I discussed it in a separate article - in the same place about the content funnel and long-term positioning.

2. Where to look for journalistic requests

The most direct way is Pressfeed.ru. Journalists publish specific requests: “we are looking for an e-commerce expert to comment on the material on import substitution, the deadline is tomorrow 18:00.” The free plan gives access to some queries, the paid plan (from RUB 3,900/month) gives access to all of them, plus analytics for publications. There are 4,000+ journalists and editorial offices registered on Pressfeed. The main thing is to respond quickly: most requests have a deadline of 24-48 hours.

Telegram is the second fastest source. Channels that really work: “We are looking for an expert” (@expert_needed), thematic PR chats for niches (marketing, e-commerce, fintech), as well as chats for specific publications, where editors sometimes make requests. Another format is journalists with personal channels who themselves look for interlocutors. One subscription to 3-4 such channels covers most needs.

LinkedIn - for b2b publications and Western media. Russian journalists are less active there, but editors of Cossa, Sostav and b2b publications regularly publish requests. The format is standard: a post with a hashtag or simply “looking for an expert on...”. The search string “journalist expert comment” + filter by date for the week gives a working list.

The most underrated channel is direct monitoring of editorial staff. If you see an article on a topic that you understand, write to the editor suggesting the next angle. “You wrote about X. I have data on Y that complements your topic” - this works better than a cold pitch without context. Conversion is 2-3 times higher.

3. How to write a pitch: structure, length, hook

The optimal pitch is 5-7 sentences, no more. The editor reads it in 20 seconds or deletes it. Structure that works for my clients:

Hook (1 sentence). Why is the topic important to readers of the publication right now? Not “I want to talk about marketing,” but “since March 2026, CPL in performance channels has increased by 30-40% - your readers are asking what to do.”

Sentence (2-3 sentences). What exactly are you offering - a case with numbers, analytical commentary, step-by-step instructions. Specificity decides: “I have a case: we reduced the CPL from 4,200 rubles to 1,800 rubles in 6 weeks in X” - this is a pitch. “I can share my experience in marketing” is not a pitch.

Credentials (1 sentence). One line about yourself with facts. “9 years in digital, 40+ clients, last year - b2b SaaS.” Without listing all the regalia.

Call to action (1 sentence). “Ready to write 1,500 words in 3 days” or “I can give a comment today until 16:00.” Specificity speeds up the response.

Write the subject line without clickbait. “Comment for an article about X is an expert on Y” works better than “Unique offer!!!” Personalize: Show that you have read this publication and understand its audience.

4. Free platforms for expert columns

The four sites I work with most often are:

vc.ru. Samizdat without prior approval of the topic. Audience: founders, marketers, products. Good material with specific data gets 3,000-15,000 views per week. Of the minuses: competition is high, the algorithm promotes materials with comments and reactions, so the first 2-3 hours after publication you need to actively share in your channels.

Habr. IT audience, strict moderation. Technical articles with code or data work best. An article about “how I built analytics on ClickHouse” averages 5,000-30,000 reads. The downside is that they do not accept purely marketing materials without a technical component. This is an excellent platform for AI topics, automation, and analytics.

Tinkoff Magazine. Editorial format, you need to propose a topic and go through approval. The audience is wide - up to 20 million per month. Finance, personal finance, small business are their topics. Good material here can get 200,000-500,000 views. But the barrier to entry is high: the editors require a professional level of text.

Industry media. Cossa (marketing and digital), Sostav (advertising), Retail.ru (e-commerce), CNews (IT), Business Petersburg (b2b for the region) - each has a narrower, but very targeted audience. CPL from industry media is often 2-3 times lower than from vc.ru, because the reader comes with a specific request.

5. SEO effect from PR publications

Direct SEO results from PR links are highly dependent on the link type and domain authority. Here's what it looks like in practice:

A link from vc.ru (DR 74, dofollow) to a new site raises its DR by about 3-6 units in the first 60 days. On a site with DR 20-30 this is noticeable. On a site with DR 60+ it’s less noticeable. Three to five links from vc.ru and Habr per quarter is a real replacement for link exchanges, which, firstly, cost money, and secondly, provide less relevant contexts.

Links from RBC and Kommersant are technically nofollow, but Google has long been working not only on nofollow/dofollow. Mentioning a brand next to an authority domain influences E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). This is not an instant effect - it accumulates over 3-6 months. I learned more about how E-E-A-T affects positions in 2026 in SEO guide for marketers.

An additional effect is branded traffic. After a series of publications in the media, the frequency of branded searches (“author’s name”, “author’s website”) is growing. One of the clients, after 8 publications in six months, saw an increase in brand traffic from 120 to 680 visits per month. This is not a direct SEO link, but it is a trust that then converts.

Another working format is PR + content plan. If an article in the media responds to a specific search query for which you also have material on your website, the link from the media strengthens this particular URL. I wrote about how to build a connection between external publications and internal content in content plan template.

6. Working with editors is a long-term game

A one-time publication is luck. System publishing is a relationship with the editor. The difference in results: one material gives a splash, a series of 5-7 materials in one publication per year forms the status of a permanent expert. I have a client who published 11 columns on vc.ru in 14 months. The first one received 2,000 views. The last one is 18,000, because the editors started promoting it.

How to build a relationship with an editor. After the first publication, write a short thank you and ask what topics are relevant for the next quarter. After 4-6 weeks, propose the next topic, more specifically. A good editor remembers authors who: deliver on time, do not argue over every edit, suggest topics themselves, and do not wait for requests. These are three behaviors that open the door to your next publication.

Commenting on other people's content is another underrated tool. If you leave a detailed comment on an editor's article with added value (data, clarification, additional angle), this is better than any cold pitch. The editor sees that you are on topic and can write first.

7. PR mistakes that guarantee rejection

1. Press release instead of pitch. “Company X is excited to announce the launch of product Y that will disrupt market Z” is a direct route to the basket. A journalist needs a story for the reader, not an announcement for your marketer.

2. The pitch is not about the readers of the publication, but about yourself. “I’ve been in marketing for 10 years and want to share my experience” is not a pitch. Correct: “Your readers are now actively looking for a replacement for Google Ads. I have a case with specific figures for the transition to Yandex Direct - 6 months, 4 clients, CPL increased by 15%, but with adjustments it decreased back.” The difference is obvious.

3. “Image publications” without a specific purpose. A PR budget without understanding what exactly is considered a result is a typical trap. Determine in advance: is this a link for SEO? Traffic? Specific audience? The choice of site and measurement of the effect depend on this.

4. Wait for “viral PR” without systematic work. “Viral PR” is not a strategy. One viral material once a year and 0 systematic work with the media yields less than 12 average publications per year in relevant publications.

5. Ignore industry media in favor of top brands. Everyone wants to join Forbes and RBC. Few people understand that Cossa, with 200,000 marketer readers, converts better than RBC with 20 million general readers. Audience accuracy is more important than reach. About how to analyze where your audience sits - in the article about competitor analysis.

6. Send one material to several editors at the same time. It's called "multiple placement" and editors hate it. If you sent an exclusive offer to RBC and at the same time to Kommersant - and both agreed - you will lose both editors forever. Offer an exclusive to one, wait for a response, then move on.

8. What to do right now

PR without a budget is possible, but requires consistency. Not three months of activity and then a pause, but 2-3 pitches per month plus 1 column on vc.ru or Habr. Over the course of a year, that’s 24-36 pitches and 10-12 published materials. The conversion of a pitch into publication for a good author is 20-35%.

The first step: register on Pressfeed, subscribe to 3-4 TG channels with requests from journalists and respond to the first relevant request within 24 hours. It's faster than any press release and more effective than most "PR strategies."

Related materials: marketing brief template, how to build a personal brand through content, SEO for marketers in 2026.

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