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Should I Pay for a Press Release Distribution Service?

  • April 22, 2015September 17, 2017
  • by Gradiva Couzin

Q: We’re thinking about putting out some press releases for our B2B using a wire service. What is your view from an SEO perspective on this approach?

A: Press release distribution has become much less effective as an SEO tactic in recent years, but in some cases press releases can still be helpful for SEO. Google tends to devalue links coming from press release sites, and has discouraged the creation of low quality/spammy press releases that have been overused by marketers in past years. However, there are some cases where a press release is great for SEO: If the information being distributed is truly newsworthy, the online commentary and links resulting from that interest can help your site’s ranks. Additionally, in some cases a press release can display in Google News results, which can feed interest and drive traffic to your site. A press release may also provide a short-term band-aid for a reputation issue in search results.
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Ask the Experts: Recovering from Google’s Panda Update

  • October 5, 2011
  • by Gradiva Couzin

Q: I have an ecommerce site containing a useful library of product information that the manufacturer allows me to use on my site.  My site was hammered in Google’s Panda update, and I think it was because of this “duplicate” content.  What should I do now?  I don’t want to remove this library because it is useful for my customers.

A: Even though this library of content is genuinely helpful for your site visitors, it could be similar to the low-quality, “stub”, or content farm materials that were punished in Google’s Panda update.  To make matters worse, the product information library you’re describing is probably also present on many other sites as well.  These two factors are both likely to be viewed negatively in Google’s eyes.

To play it safe, the easiest thing you can do is to deindex all these pages using either the robots.txt file or a robots meta tag on the concerning pages.  This way, the materials can still help your website visitors, without putting your site at any risk for Panda issues.

If deindexing the content is not an option, then you should work on improving the content, with an eye toward improving the user engagement on these pages.  What can you do to make these pages more unique, more interesting, and more likely to be a satisfying experience for searchers who land on these pages?

Not interested in rewriting hundreds or thousands of pages? Here’s a hybrid approach you might try:

  • Deindex any pages that have a 90% or higher bounce rate
  • For pages that have better (lower) than 90% bounce rate, work on improving content.  Possible ways to improve content:
    • manually add your own links to related materials elsewhere on your site.  Make them intriguing or attractive enough to encourage visitors to click on them; remember your goal is to engage visitors and prevent bounces.
    • manually add commentary/analysis that makes these materials more useful.  Be sure this is unique and well written.
    • Proofread.
    • add a prominent Google +1, Facebook Like, and Tweet button
  • In addition to these steps, you should also pursue other SEO efforts, especially link-building, in order to gain stature in the Post-Panda search world.

Like any SEO effort, approach your Panda recovery with an iterative mindset.  Make some changes, watch for results over a several-week period, and repeat.  And a final word of wisdom: Keep the user experience a priority, and you can’t go wrong.

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Who We Are
Gravity Search Marketing was formed in 2006 as a partnership between Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin. Gravity’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, global entertainment brands, niche B2Bs, large and small retailers, and non-profits.
As SEO industry veterans, Couzin and Grappone co-wrote Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Wiley, 2006, 2008, 2011) and Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business (Wiley, 2014), and enjoy sharing their expertise in speaking engagements and press interviews. 
Gravity's small, talented team has expertise in analytics, paid search, social media and technical SEO. Gravity team members are located throughout California, in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

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