What is the benefit of press releases?

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tbootz

tbootz

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The past year reading various marketing sources I keep hearing about the importance of press releases. There's never an explanation however and a search on the subject doesn't really find me anything that explains the benefits in understandable terms.

People pay upwards of a hundred dollars for a press release (nvm the free ones), so I'm assuming there's some ROI to be had here. After digging I've a few marketers talk about submitting press releases simply to show up on google organic results for your topic of choice. Again this is not guaranteed, and there are a million free ways through Web 2.0 and good SEO to do the same.

Speaking for myself, I have never gone on google and searched for press releases. I don't think the average consumer does either. Are press releases targeted toward other (Internet) Marketers then as a way of establishing your credibility in the market?

I feel like I'm blind to this elephant in the room and have a hard time figuring out what the direct benefit of a press release is -that would warrant spending money on just a submission of it? Can anyone shed some light on this?
 
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press releases often show up in the top 5-10 results for keywords. They also gain you a few backlinks from credible sources.
 
When your site shows up on the first page of google after a recent press release is that just a temporary (like one or few days) bump in rankings or will that ranking be maintained by your press release over time all things being equal?
 
the press release shows up for a few days. depending on the niche the money paid is well worth it.
 
I make money from my affiliate products by sending press releases. Proper keywords research is though extremely important to get maximum ROI out of your press release. I am still getting affiliate sales from press releases that I sent about a year ago.
 
Hi, thanks for the reply guys.

@wdarpk

Do you use paid or free press release services? is it worth it paying 100$ on a PR that will be up for only a few days, do you see a good ROI on that if optimized well? I'm assuming it's probably more profitable to do PR's on more broad terms where the traffic spike benefit will be larger, though perhaps smaller niches would allow your PR to stay on the front page longer and make the same return through a longer time period.

What's the best PR service in your opinion? I remember some PR site that Howie recommended for paid PR's, they charged like 80 and up (I think there were three levels) for a press release but I forget the name of it, does anyone here know? Thanks.
 
In theory, search engines consider press releases differently than other pages, typically I would expect a sudden peak of importance in any links back from the press release, and then it should reduce.

Just my 2cents...
 
I want to show you an example of the utility of a press release from the user's point of view.

The other day a was looking for a c# component, I was looking to BUY a c# component. I reach a press release, something like: "The company X presents his new c# component. It can do this and can do that". Even without a link, I googled the name of the company, since the description seems to match my needs.

just my 2 cents
 
You guys who are using PR's only for SEO kind of miss the point. I'm using them - and emailing them to reporters - to get publicity. News coverage. I don't know if PR's are worht paying for if you're not doing that. On the otherhand, sedning out free PR's constantly might be worth doing.
 
wdarpk or anyone else who knows, what do you think the best free pr service is?
 
Depends also on how newsworthy your site is. If it's just a spam article it's unlikely to be picked up by any big sites, but if it is interesting and newsworthy it may well get picked up, and the rankings and links can last many months
 
I mostly use free press release services. My main focus is on writing press releases around my chosen keywords. After submitting my press releases to various press releases submission services like http://www.i-newswire.com, http://www.pressbox.co.uk, http://www.pr-usa.net and http://www.prlog.org, I also do some extra work and socialbookmark my press releases. As already said my optimized and bookmarked press releases submitted even a year ago about my affiliate products are still bringing me sales.
 
hi

press releases do help a lot in gaining popularity but you need to combine with other SEO techniques such as directory submissions.social bookmarking.article submissions etc to achieve the perfect results

only doing one thing cannot help in effective SEO of your website :):)

thanks,
ankur
 
I've had PR-Web PR's still showing up in Google after a year.
 
I read some great PR methods ages ago and cant find them.

I think they are similar to posting article methods. I want to include this in my SEO plans.

:)
 
Press Releases can be a great tool for your business.

I use PRweb and do $80 submissions. I feel it is a great investment.

You get your release out to every other Industry partner or competitor - and while PRweb may only leave the release a short time, everyone (including gaggle) who picked it up can have it online for years.

It gets the word out well in your Industry, it is good for Branding. It makes it appear as you are a forward moving (looking) company.

You get good links, you get a traffic bump, you are known as an Industry player, and your competitors wonder how they will keep up with you...

...if there is a negative to a good Press Release, I do not know what it would be? Just make it worthwhile... No press releases just because it's Friday... those do not work well and Brand you too - as an idiot.
 
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Aren't press releases just hyped announcements by businesses that get sent to the "press" for wen they run out of thing to write about? Wat makes a press release any more special than any other kind of article? I could just say hey I'm a press release service. Why would google care?
 
because writers and news sites often associate themselves with realible PR content, and if you get picked up by any of them you can get many possible backlinks and traffic.

A press release is news, articles are just static info.(mostly)
 
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