Questions about Press Releases

[tutugirl]

Are sites such as Marketwire, PRWeb, PRnewswire, BusinessWire, e-Releases and PitchEngine good for editorial back links?

Also, if I have a press release on PRWeb, for example, can I have the EXACT same one on Martketwire, etc or do I need to worry about duplicate content?

[goodlegaladvice]

Well prweb posts the same article to about 200 news sites exactly the same... so duplicate content is there no matter what but its still worth it for the links google understands that news gets distributed.

Prweb probably has something against posting the same article with another service though so i would suggest writing another pr release on the same topic just different.

[NakulGoyal]

If you have a reason to have a press release, definitely do it. Think about it from a user's perspective. If they see your press release in Google News, would they read it and if they do, is that something they'd call a news ?

As for the distribution, yes, all/most sites have "some" SEO value. But the way I think about a PR is...distribute it with the intent of it getting picked up by offline media potentially and other news outlets..not just for the backlink.

Also, I would not recommend doing too many press releases just for a backlink.

[tutugirl]

OK good to know.  So how does that work in terms of backlinks to my site?  Does Google like sites like PR Web because I noticed they links pointed to sites in the articles are FOLLOW links.

[tutugirl]

Thanks Nakul.  I had a good reason to submit one.    Is there a good rule of thumb on how often to do this?

[RobertFisher]

Many use these sites and my experience with their sales staffs is that they can say SEO more times in a minute than anyone I have ever met. Yes, they can have some impact on backlinks, but the vast majority of that impact flows to them.

The biggest problem with these as I see it is that the vast majority of "press releases" are actually flagrant BS ads for a company, etc. So, if you are going to do them, write real press releases and do not let their people interfere. For example, if you are a dentist and there is a new teeth whitener that guards against cavities do not put out a press release about it and how you use it. (Every other dentist will do the same). Dentist Jones announces XYX teeth whitener, blah blah blah... This is the most common PR they all put out. It is of little or no value.

Also, they all ask for $$ up front, which I don't like and then want to control how often you put out a press release which just struck me as odd. IF they were really press releases, how would they be timed?

That is my two cents.

[RobertFisher]

Nakul,

Rocking good answer.

[goodlegaladvice]

yeah about 80% of the links are followed but be careful you should use it for domain authority more than keyword targeting cause it can make your link profile suck quick .

[NakulGoyal]

Thanks Rob. @Tutugirl, see Rob's answer. He answered the timing piece very well... "IF they were really press releases, how would they be timed? "