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Press release for local business site - is this a good idea?

by Pawprints34
14 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello

I have a local business website for a business in Newcastle Australia.

The competiton have next to no backlinks so I am hoping they will be easy to beat for my keyword.

I am wondering whether it would be a good strategy to invest in a press release such as something like what Press Release Monkey offer to get some good backlinks to my site and hopefully outrank my competitors.

I haven't done any backlinking to my local business site yet so normally a press release would be a sensible way to give authority quickly to a new site but I am concerned about relevance.

Most of the press release links would come from US newspapers and would this be seen as too much too soon and not relevant to a small business in Australia?

I haven't seen any press release distributors in Australia that will distribute to websites rather than offline media.

I am after links not newspaper coverage and I don't expect any customers from overseas... I just want the links.

Is this a good idea or can someone suggest something else that would be better?

Thanks for your help warriors!
#business #good #idea #local #press #release #site
  • Profile picture of the author Annie15
    Participate in local forum sites, advertise in craigslist, advertise on local yellow pages. Branding is very essential for local business sites, advertise your site on televisions, radios.
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    • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
      Originally Posted by Annie15 View Post

      Participate in local forum sites, advertise in craigslist, advertise on local yellow pages. Branding is very essential for local business sites, advertise your site on televisions, radios.
      Why do you people give answers on questions that are not asked, OP ask if it will hurt/benefit to use press releases and you come with TV and radio ads and branding your website :confused:

      @OP Yes you can use PR to boost and diversify your backlink profile, also if you use citations in your PR it can give a boost to your Google Places listing.

      I use this gig to submit PR's, i am not affilateded with this gig in any way what so ever

      Dave
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      • Profile picture of the author getin2learn
        Press Releases must create massive movement of information accross the internet. It is the purpose of any PR to be reprinted and republished on as many places, as fast as possible - such is the characteristic of any news. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with it - that's how the system works. The number of backlinks created this way can be counted in thousands, literally overnight, and the more the better - because you are sharing the news via PR sites, not some bogus blog comments on blog pages spammed to death

        If you analyze a bit the PR sites like PRWeb or SBWire, you will notice that news/PR publications are divided into sections, so there IS relevancy.

        The most important part is that search engines are basically "living" on these sites, listening to any bit of fresh news they could include in their search results.

        Don't worry about geographic location or "disconnection" between location where PR is published and your business. Search engines will decide if you will show up higher or lower in local search results based on 100s of other factors anyway - but from my experience, promotion via Press Releases is the most healthier way of building website reputation, especially at the beginning, that will give you initial boost.
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        • Profile picture of the author chris_87
          @getin2learn, If memory serves I believe I watched a video where Matt Cutts stated they would downplay back links gained via press releases in the future. Have you heard of this?
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          • Profile picture of the author Dustin Blevins
            Originally Posted by bluehabit View Post

            @getin2learn, If memory serves I believe I watched a video where Matt Cutts stated they would downplay back links gained via press releases in the future. Have you heard of this?
            This may be true about low quality press releases, but a high quality press release is syndicated by multiple people because of the information it contains. Why would google penalize links that are talking about a site?

            In my opinions press releases are one of the strongest forms of backlinks aside from networking and having links placed on websites within your network.
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            • Profile picture of the author nik0
              Banned
              Originally Posted by Dustin Blevins View Post

              This may be true about low quality press releases, but a high quality press release is syndicated by multiple people because of the information it contains. Why would google penalize links that are talking about a site?

              In my opinions press releases are one of the strongest forms of backlinks aside from networking and having links placed on websites within your network.
              Typical reply from someone that has probably never used a paid press release.

              I had an account at PRweb and submitted 100+ premium press releases and the results SEO wise were definitely to cry about, or in other words, zero increase in the SERPS for any of the sites.

              Some other SEO'ers that I talked with experienced the same and also considered it a big waste of money. In fact they even warned me for it before I bought the yearly plan but I always have to learn it myself

              From an SEO point of view you shouldn't buy a press release, if you want some direct visibility, as the press release it self does tend to rank easy for the target keyword and thus able to drive traffic, then you can consider it but you better write a hell of a good press release and really have something news worthy to share as the 10k impressions and few dozen visitors that it produces (if you're lucky) is really not worth it.
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              • Profile picture of the author Reese Richards
                There has been a lot of talk in 2013 about the efficacy of press releases from an SEO standpoint.

                Here's a good article that discusses that very point - and whose results DO show that press releases still help with SEO. And they use Matt Cutt's (the Google guy) blog to prove it.

                Daniel Tan Refutes Matt Cutts
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  • Profile picture of the author Pawprints34
    Well the tv and radio is definately out. There is no where near the budget for that. The local forums sounds like a good one. Thanks for that.

    So I'm guessing the press release would hurt my site or be ineffective. Is that correct?
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  • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
    A press release should not hurt your site. Sure the sites may not necessarily be related, but they should be authoritative in nature which will help you in the long run.

    Also I would not be concerned about geographic location. In terms of SEO, a strong link is a strong link, so if you can get it then great.

    You may also consider reaching out to local businesses related to yours and see if you can get links from them as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Pawprints34
    Thanks everyone. That clarifies it better. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't committing suicide for my site.

    You mentioned about citation to help google places .... What exactly do you mean?

    Should I include my physical address in the press release?
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    • Profile picture of the author YellowGreenMedia
      Originally Posted by Pawprints34 View Post

      Thanks everyone. That clarifies it better. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't committing suicide for my site.

      You mentioned about citation to help google places .... What exactly do you mean?

      Should I include my physical address in the press release?
      If you use Google places, then yes cus it helps your citation count
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  • Profile picture of the author freelanceronline
    its good if you post niche related local directory submission which have good alexa rank. It will definitely bring you leads. you can also post other local directories so it will also bring your level up in google ranking
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  • Profile picture of the author chris_87
    @Dustin Blevins,

    Thanks for your input, that would make more sense than google just penalizing for only the sake of it being a press release.

    But in regards to press releases within the realm of small business, what is the likely hood a high quality content unique article will be picked up and linked back too? I am thinking the chances are fairly slim.
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