March 4, 2009

Dear Jill,

I disseminate news releases for clients using online wire services. Additionally, the releases are posted on my clients' websites, usually as PDFs, and on my firm's website, the same PDF. My programmer just told me that unless I make these releases different I am causing search engine apoplexy. Please let me know the facts and, more important, what I should be doing. Would having one version as HTML, the second as a PDF and the third as an MS Word file solve the problem, if there is one?

Many thanks,

Bob


++Jill's Response++

Hi Bob,

Your programmer is mistaken. The press releases in all those areas are not a problem for search engines. They'll just filter some of them out in a search, so typically only one will show, just as it should be.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Jill