07 Jun Do Links In Press Releases Matter? – Cutts – Tan Controversy
Press releases are a standard part of many marketing campaigns and have been used for a long time. SEOs have opposing attitudes when it comes to this topic, but they have opposing attitudes on many different topics, so this doesn’t say much about the true value of PRs.
What speaks of the true value of press releases is the fact that they are not really intended for intensive link building. They are intended for when a company has something valuable to say and wants its voice to be heard. Shooting press releases just for the sake of links is not really a recommendable practice, especially because numerous more legitimate link building techniques are available.
What Matt Cutts said was:
“Note: I wouldn’t expect links from press release web sites to benefit your rankings, however.” – Matt Cutts (ProductForums.google – Webmaster/Discussion)
He didn’t really say that press releases do not matter and that the links contained in them do not matter. The SEO community may have overestimated this statement big time. The fact is each and every SEO and marketing technique can be abused, and Matt was probably trying to say that services that distribute your press releases to hundreds of different websites that have no value in themselves are not likely to bring any SEO benefits.
Alan Bleiweiss (Forensic SEO Consultant) uses quite a vocal title for his post about Cutts’ statement being overestimated – Get Over Yourself – Matt Cutts Did Not Just Kill Another SEO Kitten – in which he explains that an exaggerated fuss has been created over something quite indeterminate, and probably very accurate if we look at it from the perspective that many press release websites and services are bogus.
This is how he explains the problem with press releases:
“The problem with press releases, of course, is a problem common to most any marketing task that myopic SEO “gurus” turn into spam. Press releases are just one example. On any given day, there are tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of crappy content filled press releases that aren’t really press releases at all, but are purely filler content designed to push links out to the world to falsely prop up site rankings. And most companies that sell press release services either offer no editorial control, or weak, easily manipulated editorial guidelines, so most of that garbage goes out, polluting the web.”
This is true. Many alleged SEO gurus fail to understand the essence of SEO and use everything they can to build as much links as possible, not caring about the quality of the given links.
Tan Contesting Matt’s Statement With Proof
Even though Matt Cutts ’statement was quite inconclusive and certainly didn’t reflect a definitive attitude of Google towards press releases, he received a response from Daniel Tan, the founder of SEOPressor. He used the keyword ‘leasreepressmm’ as an anchor for the link leading to Cutts’ website in a press release he distributed via MarketersMedia. His little experiment worked, with Matt’s site ranking on the 2nd page of the SERPs for the given keyword for a certain time. (Brafton, Search Engine Land)
This may look like a good enough proof, but what would have happened had the keyword been more competitive, or had the anchor contained a link to a site with less authority? We appreciate the effort of Daniel Tan, but further tests need to be conducted in order to substantiate this with more evidence.
What to Do With Press Releases?
You should include them in an extensive SEO and marketing campaign as a means to be used when you really have something important to say, and not each time you need to place a piece of content somewhere on the web.
If you are planning to use press release services, do not use just any – Alan Bleiweiss recommends PRWeb, premium membership if you need to distribute press releases often, but press releases which say something valuable about your company.
Instead of using press releases for link building, why don’t you focus more on guest blogging relevant and valuable content on high authority websites in your niche? Or you can focus on creating valuable social media connections with people who will then share your content and bring value to your website. Use press releases wisely, and you do not have to worry.
