In 2014, Google declared the new algorithm that changed how press releases were seen by individuals, online businesses, entrepreneurs and influencers. In 2018, a lot of experts believe that releases are dead.
Panda, Google’s algorithm update is aimed at eliminating low-quality content and reward compelling and unique one. Press release sites were greatly affected that they lose 60 to 85 percent of their SEO value after Google Panda 4.0 update was launched.
Does it mean that distributing releases is no longer useful? If you’re an online business, you may be wondering if distributing releases still works.
Contradicting Statements about the Use of Releases:
- Distributing releases provides no inherent value.
- There is a better outcome when you develop relationships with the media and pitch them your story.
- Using newswires is very costly and doesn’t provide a good return-on-investment (ROI).
- You can just write a blog instead of a release.
- Distributing releases is not effective anymore because it doesn’t produce great results.
- No one reads releases now because of its boring structure.
Significant Reasons Why You Still Need to Invest on Distribution:
Releases are still a powerful method to serve journalists who are running out of time to write a story. It helps them come up with a ready story idea, especially if they are tight on their deadlines.
Although it no longer a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) tool to earn backlinks, it still serves a useful purpose. Until now it is effective for public companies when announcing new information.
Below are other significant reasons why it should remain in your PR toolbox:
- It is an effective marketing method.
Once you have written a release, you have two options to distribute it. Send it to relevant journalists and get it covered, or use a
press release distribution service that syndicates it to different locations and sites.
If you’re eyeing for exposure, writing a newsworthy and relevant content can get you written in newspapers or magazines, have you mentioned, or interviewed in a radio station. It can get your name in front of your target audience.
That is if you have written a great release that is worth covering. It is an effective marketing tactic because you’re exposure can widen your reach and get you more leads and sales.
On the other hand, if you use
newswire, your news is syndicated in various sites, social media and locations. You will reach potential customers whom you are never exposed before.
- It gets you credibility.
Releases are no less a proven method to get and maintain your credibility. It remains an effective way to announce your news like developments, new products, achievements or milestones to others.
If you used distribution sites, your business gets exposed to high authority sites that promote awareness of your brand. You reach other locations that promote your business.
If your news gets covered, you build your credibility as it gets read by people whom are impossible for you to reach. It makes you a credible brand because you were covered by the media. People believe journalists who work for reputable news outlets.
- It is still a proven way to get your news out.
Although releases may have limited SEO value, it is still a good way to get your story out. Industry companies are mandated to issue them whenever they have important developments to announce.
This is very useful for journalists who are working on their tight deadlines. Since they don’t have plenty of time to look for story ideas, they can use your story to publish on their site.
- It is rich in information.
As mentioned, it is useful for the media. Since it contains rich information about your brand. Releases talk about relevant news that matter at the present time.
The 300 to 500-word is packed with information about your business. It contains the most important message that you want to share.
It updates people about what’s going on about your business. Quotes provide a way to strengthen your core message. People are able to connect to your story through it.
It gives journalists a way to contact you through the media contact details. Perhaps, there is no other content that can give this much detail like releases.
People like investors and potential customers, looking for a way to get to know a company can learn more from it. Links provide a way for them to access and visit the site.
- It opens new opportunity.
Writing a great release can bring you opportunities you may never have imagined. When your story is widely distributed and syndicated in reputable sites, your brand gets exposed to many people.
If your release is targeted at making you an industry professional, it can get you new business engagements, speaking stints, interviews, and more coverage. If you want more sales, it can help you reach your target sales. If you want more traffic, it can direct more visitors to your site.
It depends on what way you want people to see you. With releases, you can control your own story. You can create content on how you’ll reach your goals, and control what you want people to know about you.
If you are promoting a new product or service, it is a proven method to promote it, without exactly selling it. You provide information. It’s the best way to get it in from of your potential customers. It attracts leads and sales.
- It promotes customer engagement.
Using newswires can get you on top of the search engines since Google spider crawl all sites. If you used relevant keywords that people use when searching and your content is useful, you can reach the top of the search results.
Getting found online surely makes you more visible in the internet. If your content appears on the top five of the “News section” on the search results, more people will connect to you.
It leads to more engagement with potential buyers. Of course, you can successfully do this by writing quality release that benefits them. It should have a good quote that provides a human element, and complete details that would make them want to engage.
With engagement, you can earn more sales. When you appear successful and credible in front of your target, they will have that much confidence to make buying decisions.
- It creates a timeline for your business.
If you publish your releases on your own site, specifically your newsroom, it creates a timeline of your accomplishments and events. It gives people and the media a chance to learn what your business has achieved and what your organization is up to lately.
- It is evolving.
The good news is that releases don’t remain still. It is evolving and improving.
Traditional releases are slowly fading away as social media releases start to overcome its place. With technology and the social media, it becomes easier to consume news through various platforms.
It is changing with the changing needs of the readers. Today, social releases are designed with more elements that make it easy to share on different social media channels.
This means that your business gets more exposure and reach. Your brand becomes more popular as you reach more people who are impossible for you to reach on your own.
- It still has an SEO.
Releases are believed to have no SEO value anymore after Google Panda update. Since then, links should be “nofollowed.” It means that those links don’t give you a point in terms of ranking in the SERPs.
The nofollow link gives the search engines a sign “don’t count this” to boost a PageRank. In general, more links mean greater link juice that gives site pages a higher ranking. But with the “nofollow” update, those links don’t count to boost a site page ranking.
Today, releases don’t have direct SEO value, but it still has indirect SEO value. An optimized release can still get your page organic links from other reputable sites. These backlinks boost your authority and page rank.
If done right, it can still boost your visibility. Everything follows after that. It boosts engagement which increases your leads and sales.
Distribution of releases remains debatable up to now. Some experts still deemed that it has no SEO value, it’s useless and boring.
Some argue that no one is reading and engaging with it. They believe that it is a complete waste of money and time when they can spend the investment in other marketing tactics like syndication, social media postings and writing original content.
In reality, it has no SEO value and it’s useless if you produce low-quality releases. It’s true that the media would ignore bad releases.
But a well-written release still get placement. It is in the form of content that was inspired by a release. A good release is still picked up by media outlets and journalists.
If someone is arguing that releases are now useless, ask how they write it. Newsworthy and relevant news still get placement. Ensure that you send it to quality and reputable news outlets.
You can also send it to journalists with the right audience. Once you get publicity, don’t just stop there. Publish it to your site and your social media accounts to get more exposure. Don’t forget that search engine spiders crawl through these pages that can boost your ranking.
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