Revisiting the dangers of PR Newswires

[McTaggart]

Hi, I've just been researching backlinks and newswires...

One of them told me they put nofollow links on news releases, but some of their network would repro the news release without nofollow links. I suspect the network includes some not so brilliant websites, so even if I just use URL rather than anchor text for backlinks I'm thinking there probably is a risk.

The other seemed to have more control over network, from what they said - they didn't auto-syndicate and used nofollow, but still I suspect there's a risk that your news release will end up on not so good websites.

Has anybody out there recently experienced problems with the backlinks produced by newswire services? Beyond that, your general input would be welcome too.

[MarieHaynes]

Provided that your press releases are valid press releases that you would have published even if the links were all nofollowed and had no SEO value, then you shouldn't need to be concerned.  Stay away from using keyword rich anchor text and you'll be fine even if some get republished with followed links.

[McTaggart]

Thanks for feedback Marie... I did notice one newswire specifically told me they didn't auto-syndicate the news release (with links at least sometimes, I presume), so I'm giving those guys a trial on my own site, just to see what happens.