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Right now, there is a lot of discussion about links in press releases and how Google sees them. These are important practical discussions but perhaps not the most important strategically.
An important strategic question might be "how can we get more publicity and editorial links from top media sites?"
The purpose of public relations is to generate publicity from relevant audiences and companies that get a lot of publicity also seem to get a lot of links. It seems reasonable to make a connection. The publicity generates links first from the media sites that do link and second, publicity encourages bloggers and other journalists to write and link as well.
Chasing links from media sites is a frustrating business and it's hard to get a handle on the linking policy of individual media sites. But in the UK, the BBC is funded by the television license fee: a fee that every household with a TV must pay. The BBC is therefore accountable to the fee payers and in a spirit of transparency, publishes its linking policies in detail.
These published guidelines give insight into how any quality media site might think about external links.
We'll look at what these guidelines say and how they're reflected in a story, Ben Kaufman's Quirky quest to transform invention by Kim Gittleson.
BBC Policy on Links to External Sites
The BBC Editorial Guidelines deal specifically with links to external sites. Here's what they say:
Part of the BBC's role is to act as a Trusted Guide on the web. Whenever producers are creating content on a BBC site, they should actively consider which external websites it may be editorially justifiable to link to.
Editorial Justification for Linking to External Sites
Producers may wish to offer links to external sites for a number of reasons, including:
- for further relevant information
- for further background information or other key source material
- for useful practical information
- for further informed comment
A link must never be included on the public service site or within the editorial content of a commercial site in return for cash, services or any other consideration in kind.
All links on the BBC public service site or on the editorial pages of a commercial site must be editorially justifiable.
So all links from the BBC must be editorially justifiable. Let's look at that business story and what links it includes.
BBC Business Story With Generous Links
Here's the article, "Ben Kaufman's Quirky quest to transform invention".
It's an interesting business article that contains three links to the Quirky.com website:
1. Submit Ideas – Link in the Body Text
The first link in the article uses specific anchor text, 'submit ideas':
This editorial link points to a page on Quirky.com where people can submit their ideas to the site.
This fits the bill in the BBC guidelines of "useful practical information." A significant number of people reading the story are going to be interested in inventions, and might be interested in submitting their own ideas to the site.
It's useful to have the direct link there and not have to do a Google search to find it.
2. Example of a 'Quirky' Product – Link in the Body Text
The next link in the BBC article is to an example of an invention that has been successfully brought to market – Pivot Power invented by Jake Zein, "and a team of 708 influencers, the product can now be found in big US retailers, including Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Target. It has netted Mr Zien and Quirky hundreds of thousands of dollars."
The editorial link points to a page on the Quirky site describing Pivot Power and includes a short, informative video that leaves people in no doubt about what the product does.
This link addresses the need to provide "further background information" – a nice example that explains further what Quirky.com is about.
3. Link in a Resources Box
And finally, a link to the Quirky.com home page itself. This link is included in a section on 'Related Stories' (internal) and 'Related Internet links' (external).
The article clearly follows the guidelines published by the BBC – each link has an editorial justification.
So What Does This Mean for SEO?
Google is on a mission to devalue links in press releases because they're not earned. But Google is not devaluing the genuine editorial links that those press releases generate. These are earned because the press release has to catch the eye of a journalist and the stories they write as a result have get past editorial checks.
Good publicity generates good editorial links so long as there is sufficient value in the resources being promoted. The guidelines published by the BBC – and the example we pick out - give you a good idea of where that value lies.
Image Credit: www.FreeDigitalPhotos.com
Original Article Post by
Ken McGaffin @
Search Engine Watch
Google's most recent update to their defintions of link schemes sent shockwaves through the SEO and online PR world; a real downer to link building strategists.
It's true: the world's largest search engine called links in press releases "unnatural" and is mandating nofollowing them. What does this mean to organizations using press release to gain digital visibility in search and social?
For brands publishing a press release or an article on your site and distributing it through a paid wire service, such as PR Newswire, Business Wire, Marketwire or through an article site, you must first make sure to nofollow the links if those links are "optimized anchor text."
Is This a Big SEO Deal? Yes. No. Maybe.
Google has been slowly squeezing the SEO life out of press releases for a while now.
"In 2006 online press releases were amazing for SEO. In 2013? Not so much," said Joe Laratro, SEO expert and PubCon lead moderator "Online press releases have had very little value in terms of links and content over the past few years – I would say it had been steadily declining. However, I still thought it was a good part of a large organic link building strategy until the new guideline changes."
But what about the anchor text links in past press releases? Will the ghost of Google past haunt companies with surprising penalties in the future? Will brands have to back track to older press releases to protect themselves.
"The real concern for the SEO industry right now should be backdated enforcement. If this is now considered a 'penalizable' tactic, how are companies that have been using this tactic for over a decade going to deal with the old content and links?" Laratro asked. "How quickly can the online newswires update their systems to support the rel nofollow? In my opinion this will have a fairly large effect on the online paid newswire release business."
Many more SEO industry experts agree. The clean up work with old press release content that's been spinning links across the web for years is a big SEO issue.
"There are press releases archived across the web that you will have no control over – how do you clean that up?" asked Bruce Clay, president of Bruce Clay Inc.
"Even if press release distribution companies do something to address their archives, like noindexing old pages (and this is a big if), you're still looking at the larger problem of pruning links on the many sites that have republished those press releases."
Don't Optimize Links, Do... What?
Organizations are now left wondering what they can do with press releases past, present, and future.
"If a client has real newsworthy content, an online press release is worth doing, but I would be very careful with the links at the moment, at least until the rel=nofollow options are live," Laratro said. "Companies should still include one or two links in order to get the reader over to the website or blog. This may cause a shift back to more traditional types of PR work – not necessarily a bad thing."
The Ghost of Press Release Past
The first press release was written in 1906 by Ivy Lee and actually published verbatim in the New York Times. It wasn't until the mid-1990s that wire services began releasing news direct to consumers vis the Internet. Since then, journalists have relied on press releases to help track company news and come up with story angles and sources.
Today the digital press release reaches beyond the journalist and carries company news direct to customers, prospects, bloggers, and more. The press release lifeline streams through the veins of search engines and flows into social media.
Google might have killed the link juice, but press releases are still alive and kicking according to media experts.
"While most of the companies using PR Newswire (and our competitors) are doing so to build awareness of their messages, garner media pick up and to deliver their messaging straight to their target audiences, there is a contingent that are issuing press releases for the sole purpose of generating inbound links, and this is the practice Google is discouraging," said Sarah Skerik, vice president, content marketing, PR Newswire//MultiVu. "This is not an indictment of PR."
The Digital Path of a Press Release: It's About Content Discovery
Press releases are more than a simple SEO tool. Press release content helps reach journalists, influencers, and consumers.
The AP, Dow Jones, Reuters, Bloomberg, and thousands of other major newsrooms worldwide have feeds of press releases piped directly into their editorial systems. And almost 8,000 websites, including some of the world's largest news sites, publish stories as a result of wire services such as PR Newswire.
Let's not forget the social media intersection of press releases. They help fuel the content fire and drive social interaction, sharing, and engagement – and are the launching pad for company news. Taking a drive off main street, press releases are part of the Wall Street creed, meeting financial disclosure.
In 140 characters or less: Press releases drive broad discovery of your news message in search and social.
"None of this has anything to do with link building and SEO," Skerik said. "We believe the value press release distribution provides is in discovery, not links. Driving messages deep into audiences and generating authentic reads, clicks and visibility among relevant audiences and social shares – that's where press releases add value."
Hybrid search industry vet Greg Jarboe, president and founder of SEO-PR, specializes in both PR and SEO and zeroed in on the fact that the PR industry still hasn't fully embraced the concept of public relations optimization, so they might not realize the missing link.
"This is a big SEO deal," Jarboe said. "And it would also be a big deal for PR, if more public relations people were optimizing their press releases. But most of them still aren't."
Less than 15 percent of press releases in corporate newsrooms and posted on the wire services are optimized for search, according to a PressFeed Online Newsroom Survey.
12 Things You Can Do With Digital Press Releases
- Adding links still helps drive traffic to a website. "Driving traffic is one of the primary objectives of website SEO, according to the SEMPO State of Search Report, published by Econsultancy. It can be one of the important objectives of press release SEO, too," Jarboe said.
- Improve the user experience.
- Increase visibility in search and social.
- Use press releases as inroads to more information and details on a blog or website.
- Spark a story idea and attract a journalist or blogger to do a larger story that might gain a natural link.
- Educate and inform your audience.
- Build relationships.
- Report company news or industry data.
- Use images and video to increase pageviews and attention.
- Embed video and multimedia.
- Create an infographic version of press release tell your story.
- Broaden your distribution and use social networks to report news – both paid and organic.
5 Things You Can't Do With Press Releases
- Generate inbound links.
- Add link juice to your SEO campaign.
- Use press releases as part of your link building strategy.
- Optimized anchor text links, Google now says this equates to unnatural links.
- Keyword stuffing.
Summary
Google may have taken away the anchor text links in press releases (and guest posts and articles), but there is still room for press release optimization opportunities like in any other digital content using:
- Optimized keywords.
- Headlines.
- Title.
- Description.
- Hashtags.
- Photos.
- Videos.
- Social media messaging.
Gaming the system is yesterday's news. Today's press releases still work the natural, social, and mobile way of tomorrow.
Image Credit: PR Newswire
Article Post @
Search Engine Watch
It can be difficult sometimes.
Breaking down silos and pushing teams to work together.
Encouraging departments to ignore comfort zones in favor of new ideas.
The tightrope balancing act of utilizing new platforms, while not abandoning the tried and the true.
But it has to be done. And nowhere is this challenge more apparent than in bridging the gap that can exist between your agency's public relation initiatives and its actions in social media. Instead of working in silos and repeating work, why not use one to strengthen the other?
Where can you integrate PR and social media to increase mentions, awareness and overall brand kickass-ness?
Media Relations
Media relations may not be the only component of a successful public relations campaign, but it's certainly an important one. It's also one most rocked by this social media train.
Where reporters were once confined to the depth of their Rolodex, today we have new ways of reaching out to the eyes we want to catch. By following reporters and media outlets on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social sites, we get in their line of sight.
We can spark up conversations about our favorite chocolate chip recipe and the best car seat for our kids, before circling back at a more appropriate time to mention a client relevant to their audience. We're able to form personal relationships and a rapport with people who also happen to be important to us from a business standpoint.
Social media allows us to build realrelationships over time, not the fake smiles we put on during trade shows and events. It's what PR professionals have always done, wrapped in a more accessible format.
Another way social media aligns with media relations is with vetting potential contacts. Just because John vouches for Jane doesn't mean Jane has the audience we're looking for. Or that she knows what she's doing.
We're able to use tools like Journalist Tweet, Technorati, and MuckRack to identify bloggers and reporters who are influential in our clients' verticals and who have an audience interested in our stories. We can visualize the size of their net and who is in it before making contact, making pitches both more relevant and less of a time suck.
Advanced LinkedIn Searches allow us to find influentials who are just a connection or two outside our network. We can do our homework on that reporter to verify the size of their audience, how much traffic their site gets, and the influence they appear over their readers.
Social media allows us to earn our introductions instead of fighting for them over spilled drinks and sticky tables.
Consumer Outreach
Through social media, we removed the need for the ever-present middle man. Brands (and their PR departments) can talk to consumers directly without always having to go through a reporter or a blog outlet. Through social media searches and proactive monitoring we can identify the users who would be interested in our product or service and reach out to them. And when we do, we do it through more personal connection.
We don't have to send a cold email they'll ignore or resent. We have person-to-person contact and can be a friend, instead of a salesman. [Of course, this only works if you act like a friend and not a salesman, but that's on you.] This two-way interaction between brand and customer has broken down that outside wall and changed the way consumers find products.
Use Pitchable Assets as Conversation Starters
As mentioned, the social nature of the web has changed how consumers research and discover brands. Instead of looking to the brand to sell us, we look to our friends and what the web tells us for recommendations and insight.
This is great for consumers who can now use videos, blogs, ebooks, contributed articles, infographics, published research, and animations to help in making buying decisions. But it's also great for PR professionals who now have a steady stream of pitchable assets to tell a story, grab someone's attention or validate the argument they're making.
If you work on the PR side, seek out these assets. Take a walk through your halls to find out what the marketing and content teams are doing and how you can work together.
If you're on the content and marketing side, get up and head into the PR lair. What are they pitching and how can you support that? You're both tasked with telling great stories. Make sure you're telling the same one by using a shared social editorial calendar so no one is surprised by next week's storylines.
More Measurement
In my earlier post on freeing analytics from your digital agency's closet, I spoke about how public relations professionals can tap into analytics to measure the success of media placements. Tying social into the PR equation can also offer additional analytics helping PR professionals understand overall conversation values, share of voice among competitors, how time of day impacts pitches and discussions, the placements that generate the most social conversation, and which reporters have the strongest influence over readers.
Even noting things like sudden rises in Twitter followers or Facebook fans can cause for a PR professional to take note. If 50 Twitter users have followed your brand's account in the past half hour, there's a good chance something happened. Whether it was a major media hit, an interview gone live, or a mention from a key influencer. But if you're not watching those social signals, you might miss it.
As the web puts an increasing influence on trust and authority, merging social media into PR initiatives becomes even more important, taking PR pros from a voice on the phone to a friend in their inbox. By sharing information, both PR and social are able to grow their networks and surpass client expectations.
Article Post @
Search Engine Watch
Google had issued two warnings about advertorials earlier this year, including one Google Webmaster Help video which dealt specifically with advertorials, as well as a separate video in which Google's Matt Cutts discussed upcoming SEO changes. Not surprisingly, Google has now updated their webmaster guidelines to include advertorials, along with other popular spammy linking techniques, in their Link Schemes help document.
Google Further Downplays Links
First, perhaps the most significant change is the fact that Google removed the entire first paragraph from their link scheme help article which detailed how your website’s incoming links influenced your search rankings.
Here is the original first paragraph from the link scheme help article, which dates back at least a year:
Your site's ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links influences your ranking. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity.
Could this removal be indicative of something larger? Or was it simply done to streamline the help article with the new changes?
It's no secret that links aren’t as a valuable as they were a few years ago and SEO professionals have been adjusting their linking tactics because of it. But is this another sign that Google is reducing the emphasis it places on links in the search algorithm?
Last month, in a separate change, Google began advising webmasters that high-quality sites, not links, are the best way to improve search rankings.
Keyword-Rich/Optimized Anchor Text Links
Another change has to do with heavily-optimized anchor text used in press releases and articles that are distributed on other sites. This technique is seen very frequently, particularly in highly competitive markets. Google gives a pretty common example of optimized anchor text:
There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.
Google also brings up “Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links”. This has somewhat gone out of favor, particularly mass submissions to free article sites for all but very spammy churn and burn markets.
However, guest posting is still pretty popular, although many sites that accept guest blogging, as well as those doing the writing, have begun either using nofollow, or in an optimized straight URL link.
Advertorials & Native Advertising
The final addition is advertorials. Just as Google has been stating in the recent webmaster help videos, this is now an example of unnatural links that violate the Google guidelines.
Advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass PageRank.
it is nice to see Google continue to update their help documents, especially for pages that are frequented by those webmasters to have received an unnatural linking warning from Google. However, the removal of the first paragraph will likely leave some SEO professionals pondering the change, and what exactly it means, if anything.
Article Post @
Search Engine Watch
An important strategic question might be "how can we get more publicity and editorial links from top media sites?"
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