Press releases used to contribute directly to SEO directly some time ago. They created opportunities for businesses to get great backlinks easily, improving their rankings and credibility.

Over time, press releases have been used and abused for too long. Company representatives would release a press release about the most mundane things, from hiring a new employee to buying new furniture for their offices. This isn’t exactly what the audience or journalists want, right?

Many of us have seen at least one ‘breaking news article’ with useless nonsense inside. That’s the very definition of clickbait. Soon enough, Google cuts such links off.

In an official statement, John Mueller said that this isn’t a reliable way to get links and improve ranking anymore. News websites are told to only post no-follow links, which don’t generate much value for optimization and ranking.

So, are press releases still useful for SEO? Yes, they are – but indirectly. Let’s talk about how you can use your statements to improve all metrics, from traffic to credibility.

Is Press Release SEO a Thing in 2022?

First of all, what is a press release? Let’s recall.

This is an official statement from a company or an individual, used for:

• Clarifying their side of a problem or conflict;
• Announcing a new product, service, business expansion, or another piece of news;
• Announcing and promoting an event or a special offer.

So, how can a good press release help you manage your website and boost its SEO in 2021?

As we said, the benefit is indirect. Let’s look at two examples so you can better understand the advantage.

Example #1: Company A releases statements every couple of weeks, talking about every small change in the team, projects, furniture, carpets, whatever. Journalists rarely pick those up unless there’s something important or the company pays them to write something about those statements.

People read paid articles and realize there’s nothing interesting. They leave the website, never clicking on a link to Company A again. As a result, the business establishes a bad reputation, and when a major event comes up, nobody wants to pick up their press release.

The website is penalized by Google, losing all SEO value. All efforts in getting white hat SEO backlinks are wasted, as well as the money put into promotion.

Example #2: Company B writes press releases only for big events, business expansion, new branches, special offers, official ‘damage control’ statements. Every release is well-prepared, interesting, engaging, and contains the right keywords that will be later used by journalists.

News websites pick those statements up at lightning speed to bring value to their readers and boost their traffic. People get an interesting article, showing Company B in the best light. The link is still a no-follow link, which doesn’t help much with SEO.

But!

Visitors click on the link, visit the website of the company, find it interesting, continue to explore it, share articles, tell friends about the business, buying products and services, etc.

The site ranks higher and higher, it’s easier to generate paid backlinks as a result, the business brings more revenue, and promotion goes more smoothly than ever.

All is good.

So, releasing a top-notch statement when needed is much better, costs less, and establishes your business as serious, honest, and reliable. Both Internet users and Google see that you’re using a natural growth strategy, which increases trust.

Optimizing Press Releases to Promote Your Site

One of the press release best practices is to just make them:

• Engaging
  Make it interesting enough so that both journalists and users want to read it till the end.
• Safe
  Read the article on trust. zone to find out what threats you should avoid when posting a press release. Respect your company’s and visitors’ safety.
• Containing the right language.
  Prove that you’re a professional with an adequate amount of industry-specific words.
• Containing keywords.
  They may not help a lot on-page, but journalists will use those keywords in their articles, which will increase the authority of the link posted there.
• Friendly
  Always be friendly and polite, no matter whether you’re doing damage control or writing about another brand stealing your ideas.
• Appealing
  Make the statement so appealing that every journalist would love to write an article about it.

After all, the best PR you can do with online press releases submission is to simply be the best at it. If you perfect your press release strategy, then you will generate more attention with each statement. You will always have natural backlinks and lots of visitors on the website.

Use Press Releases Wisely

Use press releases, as well as any other link-building and SEO strategy, wisely. Don’t overdo it. Otherwise, you can be placed on the blacklist of websites that gather spammy links, buy them in bulk, and use other old-school (not in a good way) optimization techniques that do more harm than good.

Hire a great team that can write an outstanding press release for every occasion. You will make the most important statement this way – that you represent a reliable company.