Press Releases and SEO in 2013
-
Mozers,
A few questions for the community:
-
Distributing a press release through a service like 24-7pressrelease.com - is it a serious duplicate content issue when an identical press release is distributed to multiple sites with no canonical markup (as far as I can tell)?
-
All of the backlinks in the press release are either nofollow or redirects. If there IS a duplicate content issue, will the website be affected negatively given the numerous Panda and Penguin refreshes?
-
Why SHOULDN'T a company issue a press release to multiple sites if it actually has something legitimate to announce and the readership of a given site is the target demographic? For example, why shouldn't a company that manufactures nutritional health supplements issue the same press release to Healthy Living, Lifestyle, Health News, etc _with a link to the site?_I understand it's a method that can be exploited for SEO purposes, but can't all SEO methods be taken to an extreme? Seems to me that if this press release scenario triggers the duplicate content and/or link spam penalty(ies), I'd consider it a slight deficiency of Google's search algorithm.
Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks.
-
-
I use PRWeb.com and opt for the premium service ($360 per release - or you can get a Vocus (PRWeb's parent company) business plan if you send out releases frequently - good savings.
I also don't abuse the various options you can set up with each release for SEO but instead choose the ones that make the most sense for proper relevance.
Ideally, if you have the resources and budget to afford it, yes, it's best to work on making real connections with actual editorial desks at various channels and organizations, because that's where the golden nuggets are that will most likely lead to coverage.
-
Hi Alan,
Good article. I didn't mean to imply online releases are useless, just that I have seen most benefit from releases that have resulted in 'real' articles being written by journalists, and these have usually not been sourced originally from the online release.
That being said, the 24-7 site mentioned in the original post seems to have pretty low editorial standards (to me), do you suggest any specific release services that you consider reliable and trustworthy?
-
Fixed the link so you can read the complete article. The key points:
Press Releases should not be primarily for SEO - the link value is minimal at best except in rare situations.
They do offer, however, many other valuable benefits, even if they are "online only", because they are a perfectly accepted form of communication as part of a comprehensive marketing mix.
-
@Alan it seems that link is not working, I would like to read the article
For the original question, as long as the release is not spammy and obviously for targeted link building only, I don't think it is likely to hurt you much, just wont help much either.
If it is a valid press release aimed at announcing something new and attracting media attention, then I would concentrate on releasing it through more traditional methods (on your site, social media, through press contacts etc) and if you are thinking about online releases go with an established (ie non spammy) service. The 24-7 site you mention does not look that established or non spammy to me.
Legitimate press releases can be a great source of coverage (and links) but to be honest, I wouldn't bother with online only release services.
-
Read my article busting myths of SEO and Press Releases for the answer you are seeking.
-
Charles, thanks for the reply. One of my concerns is whether legitimate press releases, ones that actually have something to say (not spammy) are harmful SEO wise.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Inbound links with malicious anchor text. Negative seo attack
Hi, What to do with more than 300 links with a malicious anchor text that has nothing to do with my content. I am disavowing those links for the last 5 years. Some of them are directed to URLs that have been changed more than 8 years ago. How can I block this malicious behavior? Thanks in advance
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Arlinaite470 -
Infinite Scrolling on Publisher Sites - is VentureBeat's implementation really SEO-friendly?
I've just begun a new project auditing the site of a news publisher. In order to increase pageviews and thus increase advertising revenue, at some point in the past they implemented something so that as many as 5 different articles load per article page. All articles are loaded at the same time and from looking in Google's cache and the errors flagged up in Search Console, Google treats it as one big mass of content, not separate pages. Another thing to note is that when a user scrolls down, the URL does in fact change when you get to the next article. My initial thought was to remove this functionality and just load one article per page. However I happened to notice that VentureBeat.com uses something similar. They use infinite scrolling so that the other articles on the page (in a 'feed' style) only load when a user scrolls to the bottom of the first article. I checked Google's cached versions of the pages and it seems that Google also only reads the first article which seems like an ideal solution. This obviously has the benefit of additionally speeding up loading time of the page too. My question is, is VentureBeat's implementation actually that SEO-friendly or not. VentureBeat have 'sort of' followed Google's guidelines with regards to how to implement infinite scrolling https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2014/02/infinite-scroll-search-friendly.html by using prev and next tags for pagination https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/1663744?hl=en. However isn't the point of pagination to list multiple pages in a series (i.e. page 2, page 3, page 4 etc.) rather than just other related articles? Here's an example - http://venturebeat.com/2016/11/11/facebooks-cto-explains-social-networks-10-year-mission-global-connectivity-ai-vr/ Would be interesting to know if someone has dealt with this first-hand or just has an opinion. Thanks in advance! Daniel
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Daniel_Morgan1 -
Best Component For Joomla! SEO
For all of you who have experience with Joomla! Is there a decent SEO component or plug-in that works in Joomla!? For example there is Yoast SEO Plugin for Wordpress, Beanstags for Drupal, and many others. What are a few good ones or even one good one for Joomla!? Thanks James Chronicle
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Atlanta-SMO0 -
Local SEO
My website was ranked on top of all keywords on Google Local results but in january 2013 it has droped to 2nd page on all keywords. After my checking i had found keyword staffing on place page which i have removed two months back. During last two months site was on 2nd page but now it is dropping more. Website is listed on all major local directories. What is the best way to handle such website case for local seo to get back rankings ??? what should be our new plan or strategy ??? I will be very thankful to all of you for best suggestion.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | mnkpso0 -
How tdo you replace an old SEO company's work?
I have a client that has been paying someone for what is basically directory placement on very specific niche sites that they have created. These sites are exact match keyword domains with not very high PA or DA (they're in the teens) and they provide no direct traffic. It's basically a link wheel that is probably helping them to rank for some of their bigger holy grail keywords. They are also providing some low quality article/blog marketing on these sites. Ultimately, they link to them ALOT and it's working in this specific niche. This client no longer wants to pay for these services, but there's the possibility of all of the links being taken down and their rankings being set back a ton. Has anybody ever experienced this and if so, how did you deal with it? What are some good tactics? Any tips would be great.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
SEO for location outside major city
Hello, I'm hoping to get some opinions on optimising a site for a client based 30 minutes outside of Dublin. Obviously there is a higher search volume for "x in Dublin" than "x in small town". What do you think the best strategies are for incorporating the "Dublin" into keywords? For example is it OK to use phrases like "x near Dublin" or "x in Greater Dublin", or do you think this is a bit misleading? The client in question sells good online, so the customer wouldn't physically have to visit the store. Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | gcdtechnologies0 -
Publishing Press Releases after Google Panda 2.5
For the past few years I have been publish press releases on my site for a number of business. I have high traffic on my site. I noticed that with the Google Panda 2.5 update PRNewswire.com dropped visibility by 83%. Should I stay away from publishing press releases now? Does Google consider Press Releases to be "content scraping" since multiple sources are publishing the release?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BeTheBoss2