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press release

Google Flip-flops Regarding Press Releases

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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.

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seo is not dead

The Rumours Of The Demise of SEO is Premature

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Everyday I read through blogs that say SEO is dead. Usually this comes from either:

  • Fear mongers
  • People trying to sell a product or informational book about getting traffic without SEO
  • Uninformed journalists not in the SEO industry
  • People saying the new SEO is social signals

Obviously SEO (search engine optimization) is not dead. It’s still very much alive. Just look at the first page of results for things like “buy viagra online” or even “las vegas personal injury lawyer”. Every single web page listed on the first page is there due to SEO.

There are hundreds of ranking factors in Google’s algorithm. A few of them are listed in this article:

Google Ranking Factors: SEO Is Not Dead

Tyler Collins – Huffington Post
CEO, Orange County SEO.

First, stop assuming SEO is dead because the rules changed. If you are a business owner with a website, or a digital marketer offering services, you are aware of how important it is to connect with people interested in the products or services you or your clients offer. You also know the power of search marketing, and how useful a top position a search can be.

SEO criteria frequently changes and becomes more difficult, so many website owners (and so-called SEO professionals) fall out of their practice claiming that SEO is dead – this could not be farther from the truth. Obviously, people are still using search engines to source information, products, and services, therefore, if your website has content people should find, you should still be optimizing your website. The sky hasn’t fallen and SEO still works.

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The rules for SEO change many times a year at the whim of Google and their algorithm. This means that anyone doing SEO has to change their strategy along with the algorithm. A few of the general things you can do to rank better are:

  • Better and longer content (1000 words or more is ideal right now)
  • Content optimized for “things” not “strings”
  • Original images on each page
  • Backlinks (other websites linking to you)
  • Social signals – (eg. Facebook likes, Twitter tweets, Google +1s, etc.)

Of course, those are very general topics and there is much more to each in order to get your site to have better rankings. Doing just one of those things mentioned won’t be enough. A successful SEO campaign includes all of those things in order to rank as high as possible.

If you are wondering about search engine optimization for your website, give us a call to talk to us about how our Vancouver SEO services can help you.