Google’s latest update with their definitions of hyperlink schemes sent shockwaves through the SEO and online PR entire world; a genuine downer to link constructing strategists.
It’s real: the world’s largest internet search engine called hyperlinks in pr announcements “unnatural” and is mandating nofollowing them. What will this mean to institutions using press releases to get digital visibility browsing and social?
For brand names publishing a news release or an write-up on your web site and distributing it by way of a paid wire provider, such as for example PR Newswire, Business Wire, Marketwire or via an article site, you need to first ensure that you nofollow the hyperlinks if those hyperlinks are “optimized anchor text message. ”
Is This a large SEO Offer? Yes. No . Maybe.
Search engines has been slowly squeezing the SEO daily life out of pr announcements for some time now.
“In 2006 online press releases were amazing for SEO. In 2013? Not so much, ” stated Joe Laratro, SEO professional and PubCon guide moderator “Online press releases have had very little value when it comes to links and content over the past few years – I would say it had been steadily declining. However, I still thought it was a good part of a large organic link building strategy until the new guideline changes. ”
But what about the anchor text links in past press releases? Will the ghost of Google past haunt companies with surprising penalties in the future? Will brands have to back track to older press releases to protect themselves.
“The real issue for the SEO industry right now should be backdated enforcement. If this is right now regarded as a ‘penalizable’ tactic, how are companies that have been using this tactic for over a decade going to deal with the old content material and links? ” Laratro asked. “How quickly can the online newswires update their systems to support the rel nofollow? In my opinion this will have a fairly large effect on the online paid newswire release business. ”
Many more SEO industry experts agree. The clean up work with old press release content that’s been spinning links across the web for years is a big SEO issue.
“There are press releases archived across the web that you will have no control over – how do you clean that up? ” asked Bruce Clay, president of Bruce Clay Inc. ” Even if press release distribution companies do something to address their archives, like noindexing old pages ( and this is a big if), you’re still looking at the larger problem of pruning links on the many sites that have republished those press releases. ”
Don’t Optimize Links, Do… What?
Organizations are now left wondering what they are able to do with pr announcements past, present, and potential.
” In case a client has true newsworthy content, a good online press release will probably be worth doing, but I’d be careful with the hyperlinks right now, at least before rel=nofollow choices are live, ” Laratro stated. “Companies should nevertheless include a couple of links to get the readers over to the web site or blog. This might cause a change back again to more traditional forms of PR work – definitely not a negative thing. ”
The Ghost of NEWS RELEASE Past
The first news release was written in 1906 by Ivy Lee and also published verbatim in the brand new York Times. It wasn’t before mid-1990s that wire services began releasing information direct to customers vis the Internet. Since that time, journalists possess relied on pr announcements to greatly help track company information and come up with story angles and sources.
Today the digital press release reaches beyond the journalist and carries company news direct to customers, prospects, bloggers, and more. The press release lifeline streams through the veins of search engines and flows into social media.
Google might have killed the link juice, but press releases are still alive and kicking according to media experts.
“While most of the companies using PR Newswire (and our competitors ) are doing so to build awareness of their messages, garner media pick up and to deliver their messaging straight to their target audiences, there is a contingent that are issuing press releases for the sole purpose of generating inbound links, and this is the practice Google is discouraging, ” said Sarah Skerik, vice president, content marketing, PR Newswire//MultiVu. ” This is not an indictment of PR. ”
Digital Path of Press Release
The Digital Route of a NEWS RELEASE: It’s About Content Discovery
Press releases tend to be more when compared to a simple SEO device. News release content helps get to journalists, influencers, and customers.
The AP, Dow Jones, Reuters, Bloomberg, and a large number of other main newsrooms worldwide have feeds of pr announcements piped straight into their editorial systems. And nearly 8, 000 sites, including a few of the world’s largest news websites, publish stories due to wire solutions such as for example PR Newswire.
Let’s remember the social media marketing intersection of pr announcements. They help fuel this content fire and travel social conversation, sharing, and engagement – and so are the launching pad for business news. Going for a drive off primary street, pr announcements are area of the Wall Street creed, conference financial disclosure.
In 140 characters or less: Pr announcements drive broad discovery of one’s news message browsing and social.
“None of the has anything regarding link building and SEO, ” Skerik said. “We believe the value press release distribution provides is in discovery, not links. Driving messages deep into audiences and generating authentic reads, clicks and visibility among relevant audiences and social shares – that’s where press releases add value. ”
Hybrid search industry vet Greg Jarboe, president and founder of SEO-PR, specializes in both PR and SEO and zeroed in on the fact that the PR industry still hasn’t fully embraced the concept of public relations optimization, so they might not realize the missing link.
“This is a big SEO deal, ” Jarboe said. ” And it would also be a big deal for PR, if more public relations people were optimizing their press releases. But most of them still aren’t. ”
Less than 15 percent of press releases in corporate newsrooms and posted on the wire services are optimized for search, according to a PressFeed Online Newsroom Survey.
12 Things You Can Do With Digital Press Releases
Adding links still helps drive traffic to a website. “Driving traffic is among the primary goals of website SEO, based on the SEMPO Condition of Search Report, released by Econsultancy. It could be among the important goals of news release SEO, as well, ” Jarboe said.
Enhance the user experience.
Increase visibility browsing and social.
Use pr announcements as inroads to more info and information on a blog or site.
Spark a story concept and attract the journalist or blogger to accomplish a larger tale that might gain an all natural link.
Educate and inform your viewers.
Build relationships.
Report company news or even industry data.
Use images and movie to improve pageviews and attention.
Embed video and multimedia.
Create an infographic edition of news release tell your story.
Broaden your own distribution and use internet sites to report news – both paid and organic.
5 Things You Can’t Do With Press Releases
Generate inbound links.
Add link juice to your SEO campaign.
Use press releases as part of your link building strategy.
Optimized anchor text links, Google now says this equates to unnatural links.
Keyword stuffing.
Summary
Google may have taken away the anchor text links in press releases (and guest posts and articles), but there is still room for press release optimization opportunities like in any other digital content using:
Optimized keywords.
Headlines.
Title.
Description.
Hashtags.
Photos.
Videos.
Social media messaging.
Gaming the system is yesterday’s news. Today’s press releases still work the natural, social, and mobile way of tomorrow.
12 Methods to Optimize a Press Release & Avoid Google Penalties
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