Google Flip-flops Regarding Press Releases
For quite some time us SEOs have been using press releases as one of the many things we help rank our own sites and our client’s sites. They allow us to get our client’s info out to many different media outlets and their websites with links back to our client’s site from authority websites. These links then help our site or our client’s sites rank higher.
Last year, Google decided to reduce the value of press releases as an SEO technique because a lot of companies and search engine optimization companies were distributing these press releases that were of low quality and added no news value what-so-ever. Even though Google made this change, a lot of businesses were still using press releases for what they were intended for.
Now, Google has changed their mind and their algorithm to give press releases more value in their search results. This means that companies can now use press releases for SEO value again.
Business 2 Community wrote a blog post about the change:
Don’t Call It a Comeback: Google Just Made Press Releases More Valuable
Recently, Reuters discovered that Google quietly changed its algorithm to increase the prevalence of press releases in Google News search results, which presents a tremendous opportunity for organizations to more widely raise awareness for their news.
Less than a year ago, Google’s Panda 4.0 update devalued press releases as a SEO tactic, in response to far too many companies distributing press releases with zero news value to boost search rankings. As a consequence of rooting out spammy content, legitimate announcements were unfairly penalized, and the traffic to most of the major wire services, such as Business Wire, PR Newswire, etc., dropped almost overnight.
