Press Releases

Press Releases

Definition: The production of content which is meant to be newsworthy (quite often, it's not!) which then gets syndicated across hundreds of news websites around the world. There is usually a link back to the source or a URL reference along with contact details for more information.

The types of links you get: If you have a genuinely interesting story that is of interest to journalists and writers, you may end up getting some very high quality links from magazines and newspapers. However, if you do not really have a story and are just relying on low-level syndication, then the quality will not be that high. Also, because many news syndication websites accept many releases a day, yours can be buried quite far from the homepage very quickly and end up not getting much link juice to pass along to your website.

One good thing about press releases is that they can give you domain diversity in terms of links which is always good to have. But doing press releases over and over again, despite not having a real story, probably means you will hit a point of diminishing returns pretty quickly. I’d actually advise against doing them unless you have a genuinely newsworthy topic. Google also confirmed their stance on this late in 2012, but it didn’t really come as a surprise to most people.

The process: You'll notice that above I said that the content should be newsworthy. The reality is that press releases are used by many SEO companies as a cheap and quick way of generating lots of links. However the quality is not always top-notch and there is a point of diminishing returns with press release link building because you end up getting links from the same sites over and over.

Here is a brief overview of the process for link building with press releases:

1. Craft your story into a press release, remember to keep to the interesting angles and include quotes

2. Insert links and contact details where needed - don't overdo it

3. Choose a time to syndicate your release

4. Send out to press release syndication websites (list below)

5. Monitor Google Alerts for links and check Google web search 24 hours after

Additional reading:

Here are some additional resources for link building with press releases:

★ Press Release Link Building Strategies by Linkbuildr

★ How to Write Press Releases for Journalists

Places to syndicate press releases:

★ Business Wire

★ PR Web

★ PR News Wire

★ Market Wire