What Is A Press Release?

A press release is a brand announcement written for the media to publish as newsworthy content. The purpose is to expand audience reach in order to strengthen brand visibility, awareness, and publicity.

What is the Quality of Links from PRs?

The majority of the backlinks you receive from a press release will be no-follow, so they will not pass link equity or juice. However, that doesn’t mean these links aren’t valuable for search engine optimization. A careful analysis of Google’s Link Quality Patent shows that it was employed specifically to “rank search results” and that no-follow links, even unlinked brand mentions, are still weighed and evaluated by this same algorithm that weighs “juiced” or DoFollow links.

In other words, press release links won’t provide direct page rank or link equity, but  Google will still recognize these brand mentions and links from authoritative sources. Dofollow or not, PR links build your brand authority. That’s what the SERPs like to see!

Why are the DR and DA Low on Some News Sites?
Does it Matter?

The main issue we see with DR & DA metrics is that third-party metric tools (like SEMRush) flag topically irrelevant sites as toxic. News sites are never going to be topically relevant (sitewide), therefore PR links should be ignored in this tool. 

Respective DR metrics will not always be great either because PR links are, for the most part, small news sites with comparatively little visitors/engagement (in reference to topically relevant sites in your niche that these tools compare against), or they are not big sites all-together. That doesn’t mean syndication to such news sites is going to hurt rankings or cause penalties though! This is why Google News Platform was created in the first place. If anything, the links from your syndication will serve a quick boost then if the PR on the news site itself doesn’t get traction, it will either be ignored by algos or it may fall out of index. Comparing news sites to link farms is a gross misrepresentation. Tools that do so should be addressed immediately or not used to judge News Sites at all. Simply put, News Site links are NOT treated as spammy or “toxic” by the algorithms and are SAFE to use in your SEO strategy!

** You can read more about why you shouldn’t rely on 3rd party metrics in our blog.

Many of the News Sites We Syndicate to are Google News Approved and Verified. What Does That Mean?

This label indicates we reviewed the news site to meet and surpass the quality standards Google requires for their Google News Platform. If the site doesn’t meet the platform’s standards, they could potentially be filtered algorithmically or deindexed. However, we do NOT see this often. and it is quite the opposite in the vast majority of cases when our proven link strategies and writing strategies are followed during syndication! Still, links without approved and verified labels will NOT hurt rankings or cause penalties to your site, as Google will simply ignore the link altogether if the site/URL ends up deindexed. 

Will Other News Sites Pick Up My PR and How Does Syndication Work to Best Serve My Site?

The optimal progression of a press release in terms of passing authority is as follows: First, run a well-written and engaging PR syndication… Other brands will find the press release compelling and worthy of news, leading to organic syndication and sharing… Link equity and brand authority flows from the added promotion. 

Our best PR tool to maximize the chances of this happening is our APNews Brand Feature w/Premium Writing and the Do-Follow Syndication Add-On. These well-known features are super authoritative, index well, and really move the needle! 

How Well Do PRs Index?

Your press release links/sites are much more likely to be indexed, because search engines consistently crawl news outlets and news websites due to the higher frequency of content. We all know indexed links are much more powerful. Press releases and the links they generate provide high-powered SEO you can leverage for better results in the serps.

Oftentimes, link building efforts go unnoticed because they aren’t crawled by search engines. However, with your content stored in the Google database, you know it’s been crawled and see a bigger impact for your SEO efforts. Their algorithm will account for these link signals when it comes to your rankings. Keep in mind, a healthy mix of DoFollow/NoFollow links are still necessary for a strong, natural backlink graph.

How To Safely Build Links With This Press Release SEO Strategy

The biggest factor here is ensuring you use safe Brand Anchor Text in the body of the press release. If you would prefer a keyword anchor, link out to properties like your social profiles or citations used in the company’s JSON-LD script under “same as” section.

We recommend you only use two links and anchor types in the content of the release:

1. Branded Anchor Linked to Homepage or Location/Service Page
2. Keyword Anchor Linked to Top Social Profile or Citation Listing

To build brand prominence for GMB rankings in local campaigns, we first use a keyword anchor to link to the Maps CID URL for a business with or without a shown address. Then, for the second link we use an anchor with a variation of our main keyword, linking this to one of our top citations or brand mentions.

You’ll also get a third link opportunity in the contact section (NAP section) of your press release during syndication. This will always be a naked URL link back to your website homepage. This contact section is extremely important to your local SEO/GMB ranking efforts.

Please Note: Premium news sites will only keep your release up for a short time. You’ll get powerful brand mentions from authority domains, but these premium news sites will purge their releases after 60 to 90 days. So expect to see “link drop off” around this time. You can prepare for it by having a new release ready to syndicate