Back on July 21, 2014, I contributed an article to The SEM Post entitled, “It Just So Happens That Press Release SEO is Only MOSTLY Dead.” Here we are – a little more than 8 months later – and it appears that my article needs to be updated.

On March 11, 2015, Tom Bergin of Reuters reported, “Google change allows company statements to top news searches.” On March 12, Mic Wright of The Next Web declared, “Google has decided press releases belong in ‘news’ search results,” Nate Swanner of SlashGear stated, “Google search tweak may allow brands to dictate news,” and Paul Sawers of VentureBeat wrote, “Google now puts company press releases in its ‘news’ search results.” On March 13, Chris Thompson of Poynter observed, “Google News: company press releases can now come before news stories in search results.” On March 19, Sarah Skerik of Ragan’s PR Daily shared her insights on “Google’s on-again/off-again relationship with press releases.” And on March 26, James Gerber of Business 2 Community said, “Don’t Call It a Comeback: Google Just Made Press Releases More Valuable.”

The latest brouhaha about Google News and press releases reminds me of The Parrot Sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. While John Cleese insists that his Norwegian Blue parrot is dead, Michael Palin claims that it is just resting, only stunned, or merely pining for the fjords.

So, what’s the truth behind this silly debate? And, more importantly, should search engine optimizers start using press release SEO as a link building tactic again?

Well, it all started back in September 2002, when Google News was launched. Because the news search engine wanted to provide users with access to as many different types of news sites and perspectives on current events as possible, Google News included several major press release distribution services in its initial selection of 4,000 “news sources.”

This led some journalists to complain that press releases, even ones that met SEC disclosure requirements, were being ranked no differently than news articles, even ones that weren’t “fair and balanced.” Google News responded by adding special tags next to the publication’s name for articles published in a blog format, satirical content, and press releases. Later, Google News started filtering press releases so they wouldn’t appear on the news search engine’s home page. Still later, Google started filtering press releases they wouldn’t appear universal search results.

Meanwhile, the major press release distribution services started offering press release SEO features and training. I should disclose that my firm worked with three of them: PRWeb from March 2004 to October 2005, Business Wire from August 2006 to September 2010, and GlobeNewswire from July 2011 to June 2013. I should also disclose that I’m one of the inventors of a patented tool for optimizing, distributing, and tracking online content, which is now owned by Business Wire.

So, I’m well aware that Google News has been walking back its initial treatment of press release distribution services as the equals of 4,000 other “news sources.” I’m also aware that Google News has been treating the anchor text links in press releases differently than the editorially placed links in articles since at least December 2005.

That’s when Matt Cutts wrote in his Gadgets, Google, and SEO blog, “I’m not against doing press releases; press releases can be a useful part of getting traffic and building a brand. For ranking in Google, however, the main benefit of a press release is not direct links or PageRank from the press release directly; it’s primarily the people who decide to write an article and link because of that.”

Unfortunately, many SEOs continued putting anchor text links in press releases – unaware of what Cutts had said or incorrectly assuming that he was bluffing. Then, in July 2013, Google revised its definition of link schemes and stated very clearly, “Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites” are unnatural links that “can be considered a violation of our guidelines.”

Over the past 20 months, many of the major press release distribution services have adjusted to Google’s clarified guidelines. Although none of them seemed eager to make changes, they were prompted by Google’s Pando 4.0 update, which began rolling out on May 20, 2014. On May 29, 2014, Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Land asked, “Did Google Panda 4.0 Go After Press Release Sites?”

For example, in June 2014, Jason Edelboim, senior vice president of global product for PR Newswire, said, “Google’s recent algorithm update is essentially a technology-based editorial guideline for content quality, and PR Newswire is aligning our processes with those standards to ensure that press releases distributed are high-quality, authenticated content.” He added, “Google’s recent action targeting low-quality content in the Panda 4.0 update affirms the importance of ensuring press releases and other content distributed via PR Newswire’s network are of real utility and interest to journalists and bloggers, as well as the general public.”

So, does the recent return of press release visibility in Google News results mean that search engine optimizers can return to the spammy tactics that worked from early 2004 to late 2005? No. Putting anchor text links in press releases hasn’t improved a website’s search engine ranking for almost a decade.

However, creating newsworthy press releases and adding links that don’t pass PageRank can still drive traffic to your website. There are a couple of ways to do this:

• Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the <a> tag.
• Redirecting the links to an intermediate page that is blocked from search engines with a robots.txt file.

Does this still work? As I mentioned 8 months ago, we optimized three press releases for Get City Dealz and distributed them over Business Wire. We used the Google Analytics URL Builder to tag the links in the three releases. This enabled us to see that visitors from press releases visited an average of 3.12 pages per visit and spent an average of 2 minutes and 16 seconds for the duration of a visit. It also enabled us to see that 72% of the visits from the releases were new, compared the site average of 42%. After distributing three press releases, Get City Dealz saw an 85% increase in referral traffic in February 2013 over January 2013. This came from news sites like Yahoo! Finance and Reuters as well as social media like Facebook, Google+, and Pinterest.

And that’s why getting higher visibility for optimized press releases makes this a tactic worth trying again – even though you won’t improve your search engine rankings. In short, press release SEO – using nofollow links – can drive traffic to your website. So, press release SEO has been sleeping, stunned, or pining for the fiords even though using (or abusing) them for link building has passed on, is no more, has ceased to be, has expired and gone to meet its maker! This spammy tactic is a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies! Its metabolic processes are now history! It’s off the twig! It’s kicked the bucket; it’s shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the bleeding choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-TACTIC!