Not sure if this is the right area, but as its related to SEO, i thought i'd post. If i have a site, and its about cats and i create a press release about a new cat product, with links going back to the cat product page i know this is ok. What if, within the press release i have the links to the cat product pages and links to the company who owns the cat site. The owner site is a related site, but not cat orientated. Is this ok to do or could it work against me? The only positive i see is perhaps a gain in IBL's however it might distract the reader from the real story? What are your thoughts? Thanks Fuzz
I think it is a good approach to do, but be sure to use appropriate anchor text leading on the cat site and the site's owner, those are different things....having extra reference is a good thing....
It's ok to link like that - the purpose of press releases in seo marketing is different than traditional press releases which you want picked up by the mainstream media. Chance are few, if any, people are going to read your press release unless it gets picked up and syndicated (a very, very slim chance).
Generally Press Releases are not much good for link building and SEO, so you want to make a copy that will attract human clicks.
I'm looking at the pr from the angle of informing the editors out there (humans). A plus point is the seo which is why i'm considering it at this time. Perhaps im thinking too much. I want the best of both worlds. A story thats read the world over but IBL's too!!!
Press Releases are not directed towards a general audience to read them. The target audience of a press release is usually the staff of journalists to whomever you are pitching the story. They of course should be well written and newsworthy, but they are in essence a sales pitch. You are pitching your news story to a news staff. Thousands upon thousands of press releases are submitted daily, to PRWeb, PRLeap, and of course the dozens of free sites which handle press releases (not talking about articles here, talking about press releases). The chance of any of these getting before the eyes of an actual journalist who will pick it up and write a story on it are extremely slim. (in fact, you're much better off faxing directly to your local AP office or personally contacting the editor of specific TV, radio, print or online news source). Once a press release is picked up, the news staff will then write an article on the press release, using it as a basis for the story and facts. Your press release should be outlining the facts for them and quoting relevant sources. That is the purpose of a press release. An online press release, which you are going to do nothing with except submit to a couple dozen free PR sites and maybe a paid PRWeb or PRLeap site, has a completely different purpose - it is solely for SEO purposes. Very few people will ever read it. Automatic RSS and syndicated websites will pick up those press releases and publish them 100s of times. Google and Yahoo news will pick up the press release also. When I submit a press release it gets republished about 100 times, and every link I put in it goes right back to my site. Those links may or may not contain anchor text (depends on the syndication) but if they do, you had better believe they assist you in SEM (not really SEO we're talking about here, we're talking about SEM).
ITCN thanks for the reply, In the relation to: "you had better believe they assist you in SEM (not really SEO we're talking about here, we're talking about SEM)." How so do they assist in SEM? If within a press release there are 2 links, both of which go to the same page of a site (the purpose being to relate what the site is about), is this an ok practice?
Exactly what i said about focusing on a good copy. Have a read Or here is another quote from Matt Cutts directly: Note the date on the first link? 2005, Google are on to Press Releases, have been for a long time and it sounds like you are doing SEO based of dates "guides". Again i echo my original statement, focus on a good copy rather then SEO. So what are you calling bullshit over exactly?
Since the day the first press release was written EVERYONE has known that press releases are a sales tool and are as such BS. It is not a matter of google "being on to" press releases. Google knows as well as everyone else that press releases are spammy by nature - they are a tool of sales and marketing. And of course I agree (and insist) that all press releases be written properly. BUT they assist with SEM by actually building links, and they actually do work. Google doesn't discount links that come from press release sites. Not at all - in fact, quite to the contrary. Write a press release and do a query on keywords you used in it. If it was written well and was picked up by Google News or Yahoo news you'll see it comes up on the first page in the SERPs for quite a while (unless someone else is trying to knock you out of them). That's because google loves freshness, even press releases, and it definitely will rank well in the SERPs. And while they may not pass any authority through the links (probably not), they sure as hell do index those anchor text keywords, and it does create backlinks and it does work and they do apply towards the site to which you are linking.