How good are PR for getting authority backlinks ?

[01Aditya]

I have heard that Press release is one of the best source for getting high authority backlinks. Can anyone tell me about benefits of paid and free services offered by PR websites like PRweb or PRLOG ?

[AlanBleiweiss]

Do not rely on press releases as a source of high quality back links.  I recently wrote an article at SearchEngineJournal.com breaking down the issues, explaining why releases are good for SEO, how they offer value and how they do not.

Above all else, press releases are a natural and valid aspect of an overall marketing campaign, and bring many valuable opportunities.  High quality / high value links however, are rare indeed from them, and only when those releases end up on highly trusted news sites, yet the overall value is diluted because they're a form of syndicated content - just about the only legitimate form of syndicated content that exists except in rare situations.

The many other values they offer, when they're very well written, and when the original intent is for original old-school reasons, far outweighs the lack of high quality links though.

Check out my article and then if you have any follow-up questions, let me know. I'll be happy to answer them.

[01Aditya]

Hi Alan ,

I read your article at SearchEngineJournal.com, very informative and gave me the answer of what i was looking for. Like you said " that PR still works if written for the traditional  old school reasons", this is true for almost everything  Blogs, Articles etc, however how can one produce gr8 things again and again. Does that mean our classical SEO link building will not work at all ?

Regards

Aditya khanna

[AlanBleiweiss]

Thanks Aditya

The reality is SEO now requires a level of quality much more challenging than ever.  While this is true due to the ever-increasing capabilities of search engines in their need to battle spam (and the fact that their systems are so complex as to be far from perfect), it's also the nature of the web regardless of SEO as well.

This is because the web continues to grow in size all the time.  The more crowded any market, the more important the message delivered needs to be consistent in its ability to rise above the noise.

It's a fact of marketing as old as time itself.

While some "classical" link building might still suffice, that notion is fading away.  And because of this reality, my position as an advocate of best practices is that the energy expended on those methods can better be used for fewer, higher quality opportunities.

Whether we like it or not, in many situations, it means a slower building up of trust and authority, and in turn, a slower building up of ranking strength.

It also means more diversity into social signals is that much more important than ever as well.