How often should your business submit a press release? Are press releases worth the effort it takes to write, optimize, and distribute across the web in the first place?
Over the years, the press release has remained an oft-used tool in the utility belt of most SEOs. If you’re into search engine optimization, you probably love press releases, which provide another opportunity to build backlinks. However, one of the greatest SEO myths out there is that you should release them as often as possible to raise your rankings.
When to Write Press Releases
It’s simple: Submit a news release when you actually have something news-worthy to report. This rule especially applies to SEO specialists who love to release “news” articles at a constant frequency.
Want to kill some time and laugh a little in the process? Do a little research on Google, and you’ll find plenty of lists filled with unimaginably bad news releases. As we mentioned earlier, these press releases aren’t truly designed for human standards; instead, they’re written and released to be indexed by search engines.
News releases certainly have their purpose, but the typical SEO news release is not much of a news item to begin with. Choose any random press release on PRLOG, and you’re likely to encounter a thinly-veiled SEO article better suited for an article directory.
If you’re releasing a news release every week or month, then the content you’re providing is likely to be of little interest to anyone — including the search engines. By clogging up the same distribution sites with the same anchor texts again and again, you’re only defusing any link-building opportunities that existed through these channels. Remember, your link-building needs to be varied in order to be effective. Building the same backlinks again and again on the same domains smells like spam to both search engines and readers. Your rankings won’t improve, nor will you generate leads with worthless news releases.
So remember to resist the urge and just say no to bad press releases. If you’re releasing the same sort of drivel again and again for the sake of SEO, your ROI will leave something to be desired.
