These past few months a lot had happened in the SEO community and in the online marketing business as a whole. In particular, everyone has already known that the search engine giant, Google, had blatantly announced that online press releases used to manipulate search rankings are now useless. That links on those press releases that were published on PR distribution websites have no value anymore. That the use of the no-follow tag for links in press release articles should be implemented to avoid penalties.
Looking at these restrictions, anyone can tell how serious the big G in neutralizing (and ultimately discrediting) any types of SEO tactics to improve SERP ranking. The thing is, this is backed-up by a lot of conformists who agreed that online press releases these days are indeed losing their value. But, the truth is, it isn’t. I believe Online Press Releases can still help improve SEO.
How Online Press Releases Can Still Improve SEO
Remember to whom press releases are originally written for. In the past they were only written for journalists from Print, TV, and Radio. Nowadays, they are not only written for journalists alone, but for other media personalities as well – bloggers, online news editor, social media influencers, and the like.
To scrap online press release for good because Google says that it can no longer help improve search rankings is not a good move. If you would try to look closely, most journalists nowadays go online to search for the latest news from organizations and companies that they might think have stories that need to be covered.
Since bloggers, online news editors, and social media influencers are parts of the main target audiences, it is just safe to expect that getting a write-up or mention from these new type of media platforms can boost up SEO. An editorial link (http://searchengineland.com/google-links-in-a-press-release-should-be-nofollowed-like-advertisements-168339) from them is considered by Google as highly valuable.
Also, it is worthy to note, that links and mentions (http://socialmediatoday.com/stephaniefrasco/1901891/6-reasons-social-media-critical-your-seo) from social media networks are now slowly being recognized by big search engines as a form of vote that serve as an indicator of the level of quality and engagement of a content or website. Since social media influencers usually hang out on the net, the easiest way to reach them is through online press release.
The editorial links from blogs and online news websites, and the mentions and links from social media networks would undoubtedly help improve your search rankings.
Are Online Press Release Distribution Services Still Important?
Of course. This type of service can help a lot in lessening your work load most especially if you are the only one who manages your small or start-up business. This would allow you to focus more on the main core of your business. Also, press release distribution service providers have more resources in helping you disseminate your press releases online.
Lastly, always put into mind that like every content strategy, your press release must be newsworthy, interesting, and can elicit response from its readers to that point that they would write a story about it.
