Why Does a Press Release Strategy Influence Search Results So Much?

[steelintheair]

Why do press release websites, and their submissions, carry so much influence with organic search results right now?

[AlanBleiweiss]

Actually, press release web sites and their submissions carry much less influence than you might think you're seeing. At least in the overwhelming majority of situations in most markets.  You can read about press releases and how they influence SEO (and how they don't) in an article I wrote on this subject over on SearchEngineJournal.

[GKLA]

That's a good question.

Interestingly enough, Google says that Press releases will have no positive impact on rankings.  The biggest benefit would be from journalist, bloggers, and other people who take your release and write their own articles and post/linkback to your site.

But this company did a test and had different results, http://goo.gl/KMywv

I guess it really boils down to that nobody really knows with one hundred percent certainty.

[AlanBleiweiss]

NO. Matt Cutts said links from press release sites have no positive impact on rankings. Read my article where I discuss that concept and where SEO is a factor.

[steelintheair]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the answers. The reason I asked is because a competing website's link building strategy is completely focused on press releases. While they haven't usurped the #1 or #2 SERPs, they have managed to place themselves solidly as #3 in a short amount of time.

Sometimes what we're hearing from the Search Engines and what actually happens doesn't always line up. I started this discussion to hear what people think and to find thoughtful new ideas to why this may be happening. Appreciate the feedback!