Do press releases add any link juice?

[tennisround]

I've been told by PR Web that anchor text in their press releases will add SEO value and increase our page rank. They even charge more for releases that include the ability to link specific keywords to specific pages (anchor text keywords).

So - do such press releases really add any page rank to our site?

Here's our press release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8289567.htm

Thanks,

Alex

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey, a little, but it's one of those questions with no simple answer.

If the service you have put a press release out for is solid, and the press release itself is well written and not just search engine fodder then it may help.

Taking a look, the page is indexed, so the link has likely been logged. Equally, it looks like the press release has been picked up by several other sites and some of these also have followed links to your site.

So, in this instance, it may well give you a boost, but I would not rely on it as a long term strategy as it will certainly be case of diminishing returns.

Press releases, article marketing, links from forums, blogs etc are all things that can help and should feature in your overall link building plan but they are also all things that have been abused. So, as a rule of thumb, if you are promoting something of value in a meaningful way and building value with any PRs, articles, posts, comments etc then this will help build awareness, exposure and you will get an SEO boost out of it as well.

You should try to supplement it with some high quality links, guest blog posts maybe and links from highly reputable sources in the market place you are targeting.

Hope it helps!
Marcus

[EGOL]

These links will be good for a short amount of time but they are quickly descend deep into the bowels of the site. Their real value is potential visibility in news and other channels. To be really successful you need fantastic content -and if you have that a PR is probably not a good way to use it.

[tennisround]

Thanks, so it sound like any links from the PR Web domain to our TennisRound.com URL would offer little value.

[tennisround]

Interesting thought on not sharing the good content on the press release. That's kinda why I left out the background, story, company formation, motivation behind it etc, for elsewhere, not in the release. Thanks!

[JoelWolfgang]

My experience has been that yes, they help. I get more search results from pages where PR have anchor text in them rather than those with direct links at the bottom of the PR. A lot of times, sites will post the entirety of the PR on their site in the exact form they received it.

Yes, it completely possible, that they will fall completely down into the bowels of your site, but I still receive traffic from sites where my PR is still on the site, and in some cases up to a year after the release.

[tennisround]

Thank you, that's good to know. PR Web charges more for releases that contain anchor text, so I hope it's really worth the higher price.