I would love to go punch the nose of the SEO guru who first came up with the idea of spamming releasing press releases as a link building tactic. I keep trying, usually vainly, to explain to clients that a press release should have something newsworthy and thereby might actually entice people to visit their site. I explain how if we take something exciting or interesting that the company has done and package it correctly that it might create a real buzz. I explain that what they are asking for looks just like thousands of other articles on the same topic and is unlikely to garner them any new business. But, instead of getting to write something that could really help the client, I'm told yet again "I just need a simple press release to get people to visit my website." Which roughly translates too, take/write this generic article and format it as a press release so my site gets tons of traffic - I know it will work because I read an article that said it did. sigh. I love my clients but some days they drive me batty. Maybe one day, I'll find a client who the SEO gurus haven't brainwashed and who will let me loose to make some marketing magic. Think they still exist?
Get ready for more of it. Press release 'marketing' is one of the top tactics they're going to be pushing down peoples' throats in 2013.
I thought 'press releases' as a link-building strategy where waning in popularity after the Google update that whacked the article directories so hard. Isn't the Internet a great place? Proclaim yourself an expert, buy a bunch of fake followers and suddenly the hordes think you're the Dalai Lama of SEO and marketing. sigh.
Oh, no. Now they're coaching folks on how PRs can be even more effective in search engine rankings if you do A, B and C. http://www.mervikhaums.com/guest-articles/how-to-strategize-and-profit-from-a-press-release http://www.dealernewswire.com/indus...release-tips-for-2013-digital-strategies-1272
Could you just imagine what someone like PT Barnum, George Parker (sold the Brooklyn Bridge and other famous NYC landmarks to gullible immigrants) or the snake oil sellers of old could have done with the Internet? Daniel touts what worked two years ago (even admitting it worked two years ago in the article). And, oh my goodness, what a coincidence...he just happens to run a press release site. The second fellow is espousing "Social Press Releases" and of course, he too, conveniently provides that service. Give it a new name, rinse, recycle. Sadly, there's always a new and eager crop of folks hoping to get rich off the Internet to sell garbage to. Oh well, at least it increases the demand for writers.
Many people just churn out a generic "press release" for a backlink but I always thought this tactic was funny for businesses. Press release- Mindy is having 20% haircuts, Joe Construction is doing a remodel special? Like people go to generic "press release" sites to actually read press releases? I think the real press aka local news could care less about the average "press release" (unless you have a few thousand to throw at them) So people paste them at the average press release/link farm then client wonders why this great tactic fails to "drive traffic". lol
Interestingly, one of the reasons Google rolled out the anti-spinning detection this year was because the spammers had figured out that they could spin and publish press releases with impunity. There aren't the same copyright problems that spammers get with stealing someone's article and spinning it, because a press release almost by definition is designed to be used as a starting point - the author expects it to be modified. Unlike an article, when the author tends to get miffed. All the dodgy spam sites that spin press releases had reached a critical mass in 2012, so Google just switched on the anti-spinning detection. Combined with de-duping, that effectively killed all those sites in one go (and a lot of unfortunate 'collateral damage', too).