A press release announces news such as a launch, funding or a research finding. Its value comes from journalists picking it up and writing about it. Links inside distributed releases are generally not counted as editorial endorsements, and Google's guidance on link spam covers links in large-scale article or press-release distribution where the links are optimised anchor text.
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When one is worth writing
Write one when there is real news for a defined audience. Send it to journalists who cover your area rather than to a mass list, and put the full release on your own site so the news has a home you control.
What a good release contains
- A headline that states the news plainly
- Who, what, when and why it matters, in the first paragraph
- A quote and a fact a reporter can verify
- Contact details and a link to supporting material
Common mistakes
Sending releases for non-news
Routine updates teach journalists to ignore you.
Paying a wire to build links
Keyword-anchor links in syndicated releases are the pattern Google's spam policies warn about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Indirectly, when they lead to genuine coverage and mentions. The release itself is not a reliable ranking tool.
Keep reading
- Press Release Links: Press release links appear in releases distributed by wire services. They are usually nofollowed and rarely pass ranking value on their own.
- Digital PR: Digital PR is earning online press coverage, and the links and mentions that come with it, by pitching journalists stories, data, and expert commentary.
- Link Spam: Link spam is Google's umbrella term for links created to manipulate search rankings, including bought, traded, automated and injected links.
- Journalist Request Platforms: Journalist request platforms send reporters' requests for expert sources to subscribers, who pitch answers and may be quoted and linked.
- Authority Score: Authority Score is a Semrush metric from 1 to 100 that grades a site or page using link, traffic and spam signals. Google does not use it.
- Backlink: A backlink is a link from another website to a page on yours. Search engines use backlinks to find pages and as one signal of which pages are worth ranking.
- Blogger Outreach: Blogger outreach is contacting writers, editors and site owners to tell them about a resource, story or expert that could be useful to their readers.
- Citation Building: Citation building means listing a business in directories and data sources. Useful for local and niche visibility; poor directories add nothing.
