6 replies to this topic

[Bestwines]

Couldn't find a recent conversation about this... Is anyone using press releases for links these days? Some of these companies like prweb charge a couple hundo for distribution. If you are using press releases, who are you using to distribute them? And do they allow you to place a link? I have a topical, relevant release I'd like to put out...

Thanks!

[joneeeee]

Hi Bestwines,
I use prweb OFTEN.
I pay the $200 fee, add up to (I think) 4 links to pages I want indexed and....
et voila, those pages are indexed.
It is an excellent tool to use for low pr sites to get key pages indexed faster.

If you have a good reason to do a press release, by all means do so.
I have seen no negative effects from press releases although, Google hates them.
It is something humans can use to manipulate the algorithm. It is considered a “gray hat” technique for this very reason.
A web page is a web page and should be there for a while. Google can index, cache add it to the serp whenever…news however is news and will only be news for a short time.
My suggestion…post you release and link it to pages relevant to the release and you will be fine.

[Jill]

It's my understanding that press release links aren't going to be considered high quality these days therefore I wouldn't use them for that purpose.

Certainly if you have newsworthy information that you want to get out there to reporters, submitting press releases is still a good idea. But any linking benefit you may or may not get should be a bonus.

[D Daniels]

Hi,

one of the benefits of using a service like PRWeb is that it should get you into Google News.

Kind regards

Des

[Randy]

Press releases for already established sites and for the sole purpose of getting a link bump can be an awfully expensive experiment. Will you see a bump from the release? Perhaps a small one, and only over a very short time frame. I have and still do use them sometimes to announce recent improvements and usually try to time those for when a site is coming into its high season. I never see a huge bump in the SERPs, maybe a place or two since my sites tend to already be at least Top 10, if not Top 5.

It's a pretty fleeting bump though, so definitely not a really good financial strategy if you don't have a specific short term need. Press Release links just don't stick, and don't carry that much authroity from what I can tell.

On the other hand, putting press releases out there in the wild can garner you some really good links from legitimate news sources if you have something exciting to share. I can tell you for a fact that I've gotten a lot more link love (and plain old publicity) by sending my press releases to my local newspapers. I've mentioned it before, but the small local newspapers around here at least are always looking for local companies with something interesting to say/offer. So not only do I get exposure in the local area (the drawback being that everybody seems to know me when I walk through Wal-mart ) and 99% of those articles end up online, with great links pointing at my sites.

Heck, I've even got one editor who calls me every month or two to see what I have coming down the pike. He wants an early exclusive since I have two small newspapers produced in town. It would be a safe guess for you to think that I give those exclusives to him a couple of weeks before I notify any other news outlets. He always writes positive pieces and always links back to my sites. These can be especially helpful with new sites to get the ball rolling.

Edited by Randy, 23 June 2008 - 10:01 AM.

[don h]

Your the man Randy. You should offer classes like Jill and teach people.

[Randy]

Offtopic

Ha! There aren't enough hours in the day already Don! Why would I want to do that again? (I used to do this for locally businesses, webmasters and students at a couple of community colleges.)

It is great fun walking through Wal-mart, though it grates on the daughter's nerves. It seems like every other time she's there with me some complete stranger comes up and wants engage me in a 30 minute convo, trying to convince me to help them with their little web site. God love her, she even has the spiel down and gets it out there a lot quicker than I do: Sorry, he doesn't work on other people's sites anymore. Come on dad, let's go.