Referring Domains From 355 to 2,330
Stelrad is a UK radiator manufacturer competing for search visibility against national retailers with far larger marketing budgets. Absolute Digital Media built a sustained digital PR programme across home, interiors, property and lifestyle media, earning 30 verified placements at an average Domain Rating of 84.
What did Absolute Digital Media achieve for Stelrad?
Absolute Digital Media's Digital PR campaign for Stelrad delivered +556% referring domains (355 to 2,330), 30 verified editorial placements at an average DR of 84, DR 94 highest-authority placement (Forbes) and 2,391 AI citations across 405 pages (UK, seven platforms).
A manufacturer competing in retail search results
Stelrad manufactures and supplies radiators, towel rails and heating products to homeowners, installers and merchants across the United Kingdom, Ireland and mainland Europe. The business operates from Rotherham in South Yorkshire and trades as part of Stelrad Group, listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker SRAD.
The company sells through merchants and trade channels as well as direct to consumer, which puts it in an unusual competitive position online. In organic search it competes not with other manufacturers but with national retailers and merchants, including Screwfix, Wickes, B&Q, Victorian Plumbing and Plumbworld, all of whom bid aggressively on the same commercial terms and carry retail domain authority a manufacturer does not.
556% more referring domains and 30 placements averaging DR 84
Authority figures from Ahrefs Site Explorer and the Ahrefs backlink index, stelrad.com, subdomains mode, measured from programme start to peak. Domain Rating stands at 64, the highest the domain has held. 24 of the 30 verified placements are at DR 80 or above. The ranking and traffic results Stelrad holds are shared with the SEO retainer and reported in full on the Stelrad SEO case study.
A multi-award-winning agency
Integrated Agency of the Year - SilverEuropean Agency Awards 2026
Best Use of Search B2C (PPC) Small (The Swallow Co.)European Search Awards 2026
Standout B2C Ecommerce Website of the Year (Stelrad)UK Digital Excellence Awards 2026
Best Integrated Paid Media CampaignUK Paid Media Awards 2026
Best New Business CampaignUK Agency Awards 2025
Best Use Of Search (Retail/Ecommerce) - SEOUK Search Awards 2024Integrated Agency of the Year - SilverEuropean Agency Awards 2026Best Use of Search B2C (PPC) Small (The Swallow Co.)European Search Awards 2026Standout B2C Ecommerce Website of the Year (Stelrad)UK Digital Excellence Awards 2026Best Integrated Paid Media CampaignUK Paid Media Awards 2026Best New Business CampaignUK Agency Awards 2025Best Use Of Search (Retail/Ecommerce) - SEOUK Search Awards 2024 The wrong kind of authority for the fight
The choices that shaped the programme
Build a proprietary journalist database rather than work a media list
The team built and maintained an in-house database of journalists with whom real relationships existed, segmented by sector of interest, outlets covered, country, domain rating and the type of campaign each one publishes. That made it possible to match an opportunity to a named journalist within hours rather than pitching an entire list and hoping. What was rejected: buying a media database and working it at volume. Bought lists are worked by every agency in home and interiors simultaneously, and the desks that matter filter accordingly.
Treat reactive media as the core channel, not the filler between campaigns
Reactive commentary ran continuously against breaking industry and consumer news, with Stelrad positioned as the heating expert journalists come back to. When UK smoke control legislation put wood burner owners at risk of fines, a journalist at i News who had previously used Stelrad’s commentary came directly back to the brand, and the coverage landed within days. What was rejected: a campaign-only retainer built on quarterly launches. Authority that arrives continuously looks earned, because it is, and Google treats it differently from authority that arrives in a few bursts a year.
Pitch lifestyle and property desks, not the heating trade press
Coverage was targeted at home, interiors, property, travel and entertainment desks at national and international titles. Forbes, Cosmopolitan, House Beautiful, Homes and Gardens, Ideal Home, Apartment Therapy, The Spruce and Elle Decor all carry Stelrad citations from this programme. What was rejected: the plumbing and heating trade press. Those placements are easy, they reinforce a position Stelrad already held with installers, and they contribute almost nothing against retailers in consumer search.
Choose campaign subjects consumers care about rather than products the client sells
Campaign territory was deliberately broad: property values, celebrity homes, engagement and marriage data, travel destinations, interior trends and seasonal home behaviour. The brand earned its citation as the commissioning source or the expert voice, not as a radiator supplier. What was rejected: product-led releases and range launches, which place in trade media and stop there.
Who ran what
Campaign strategy and ideation, led by Ben Austin
The decision to build the relationship layer in-house, to run reactive commentary as the core channel, to target consumer and lifestyle desks over trade press, and to commission research about how people live rather than what Stelrad sells.
Journalist database and relationship management
A maintained in-house database of named journalists segmented by beat, outlet, country, domain rating and campaign type, which is what put Stelrad across five national titles from a single news cycle.
Data research and asset production
Commissioned research on property, relationships, interiors and seasonal home behaviour, with the engagement locations and divorce dataset that placed in Forbes and GQ Germany as the flagship.
Reactive commentary and expert positioning
Continuous heating and home commentary supplied against breaking news, from smoke control legislation to Married at First Sight, positioning Stelrad as the expert source journalists return to.
Who worked on this account
Jack Hawtin leads the outreach team at Absolute Digital Media, running link building and outreach strategy mainly for iGaming clients, alongside adult industry brands, interior design, and a smaller portfolio…
Alex is Head of Content at Absolute Digital Media, overseeing content production and ideation for regulated-sector clients in iGaming, finance, and healthcare. He specialises in creating content that performs reliably…
Shane Fox is Lead Designer at Absolute Digital Media, responsible for the agency’s creative output and for the design of everything a client actually sees: campaign creative, brand systems, landing…
Lewis Esson is Head of SEO at Absolute Digital Media, leading a team of seven across organic strategy for gambling, lending, adult and regulated ecommerce brands. He joined ADM as…
Retailers can buy affiliate links. They cannot commission Forbes.
The referring domain profile rose from 355 to 2,330 across the programme, an increase of 556%, and stands at the highest level the domain has ever held. Domain Rating stands at 64, also a record for the domain. In a category where retailers add links continuously, the manufacturer now carries the larger and higher-quality editorial profile.
The quality of the profile is the point. Thirty verified placements at an average Domain Rating of 84, with 24 of them at 80 or above, on titles a heating trade release could never have reached.
That authority converted. Stelrad now ranks first in the United Kingdom for both radiator and radiators, the two highest-volume commercial terms in the category, held against national retailers and merchants. The ranking result is shared with the SEO retainer that built the category pages the authority landed on. The pattern across the programme was compounding: each round of coverage raised the ceiling on what the following round could achieve.
Stelrad is also cited by AI systems as an authority on its own category: 2,391 AI citations across 405 pages in the UK, spread across Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot. Grokipedia cites Stelrad on its radiators entry, Yandex’s Alisa cites the brand on forced-air versus radiant heating, Alibaba’s radiator buying guide cites it, and the MoneySavingExpert, Screwfix and MacRumors forums all link to Stelrad resources. An academic review of the UK transition to low-temperature heat, published in the peer-reviewed journal Energies, cites Stelrad’s own technical documentation on system balancing.
| Publication | DR | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Forbes | 94 | Engagement locations and divorce study |
| MSN | 92 | How to balance radiators |
| People | 91 | Best patio heaters tested and reviewed |
| Elle Decor Japan | 90 | Modernising a period living room |
| The Spruce | 90 | Selling Sunset inspired decor |
| Kompas | 90 | Maximising natural light in the home |
| The Sun | 89 | Married at First Sight wedding venues |
| Cosmopolitan UK | 89 | Best dog-friendly hotels in the UK |
| Evening Standard Homes and Property | 89 | Ten of the best designer radiators |
| Metro | 88 | Married At First Sight UK wedding venues |
| Express | 88 | Inside Kate Middleton's home |
| Apartment Therapy | 87 | The case for radiator benches |
| House Beautiful UK | 86 | How to decorate a period living room |
| i News | 84 | Wood burner smoke control rules |
| Zoopla | 82 | Are environmentally friendly renovations more expensive |
| GQ Germany | 76 | Engagement locations and divorce study |
A selection of the 30 verified live placements in the Ahrefs backlink index. Others include Bustle (DR 88), Elle Decor Spain (85), The Scotsman (84), Homes and Gardens (83), The US Sun (82), Wales Online (82), Daily Record (81), Hello (81), Marie Claire UK (80), Ideal Home (78), The Scottish Sun (77), MyLondon (77), Woman and Home (76) and Freundin (73). Many national titles, Forbes and MSN among them, apply nofollow to editorial links as policy; those citations still place the brand as the expert source, still appear in the sources AI systems draw on, and still sit in the profile Google reads for authority signals.
What manufacturers and B2C brands should take from this
What Stelrad say
Digital PR for manufacturers, answered
How much does digital PR cost for a manufacturer or home improvement brand?
Cost is driven by campaign frequency and the depth of the relationship layer, not by outreach volume. A programme built on maintained journalist relationships and continuous reactive coverage costs more than quarterly campaign launches and produces results the launches cannot. Absolute Digital Media scopes retainers against the authority and commercial rankings they are built to win.
Does digital PR compound, or does it deliver in bursts?
It compounds, provided coverage is continuous. Each round of editorial citation raises the ceiling on what the next round can achieve, because the authority already earned makes later placements easier to secure and more valuable when they land. Stelrad’s referring domain profile grew from 355 to 2,330 that way, with no single campaign responsible for the result.
Can a manufacturer outrank retailers in Google?
Yes, on subject authority rather than page volume. Stelrad ranks first in the UK for radiator and radiators against national retailers and merchants. The route was editorial citation from consumer publishers, which retailers find harder to earn than manufacturers do, because journalists want the maker’s expertise rather than the seller’s stock list.
What kind of content gets home and heating brands coverage in national media?
Research about how people live, not about what you sell. Property data, celebrity homes, interior trends, seasonal behaviour and consumer money stories all place with national home, property and lifestyle desks. Stelrad’s coverage in Forbes came from a study about engagement locations and divorce rates.
What is reactive digital PR and why does it work?
Reactive PR places expert commentary into news stories that are already breaking, rather than creating a story from scratch. It works because journalists on deadline need a credible quote immediately, and the brand that is already in their contacts gets the call. Stelrad appeared across five national titles from a single news cycle this way.
Does digital PR help with AI search visibility?
Directly. Language models assemble answers from reference sources, forums, community threads and independent publishers rather than from brand websites. Stelrad holds 2,391 AI citations in the UK and is cited on Grokipedia’s radiator entry, by Yandex’s Alisa answer engine and across the MoneySavingExpert and Screwfix community forums, all of which are sources models draw on.
Do nofollow links from national publishers still count?
Yes. Many national titles, Forbes and MSN among them, apply nofollow to editorial links as policy. The citation still places the brand as the expert source in front of the publisher’s readers, still appears in the sources AI systems draw on, and still sits in the same profile Google reads for authority signals. Judging coverage by follow status alone would exclude most of the highest-authority placements a brand can earn.
How do you measure the results of a digital PR campaign?
Against the authority earned and the tier of publication reached, then against the commercial rankings that authority supports. For Stelrad the digital PR measures were referring domain growth of 556% and thirty placements at an average Domain Rating of 84, with rank one for radiator and radiators as the shared commercial outcome. Placement counts are an input. They are not the result.
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