Do PR press release services boost your SEO?

OK I'll admit it, many years ago when I first started doing online business I thought a press release sounded like a good idea. I had cool products or services to share but nobody knew about it - I just needed visibility! So here's the thing...

Almost always, the thing you're promoting is not news. So you can't send a good press release about your new product (unless it's truly revolutionary, and even then). In other words, you have to do something interesting to be newsworthy. "X company offers new SEO service to small business" isn't news. Something a little better even though it's click-baity might be "This viral new service promises a 1000x boost in traffic, but does it really work?"

It needs to have a big enough impact to get attention; and it needs a bit of controversy or uncertainty or it will come across as biased spam. So for most things, I don't think a PR newsblast is a good idea at all.

But what about authority and prestige?

Listen, I've been featured in Forbes and CNN, I even hit the Wall Street Journal bestseller's list. You know how much that's worth? Not very much. Sure it helps attract new customers that take you seriously when you can throw out big names like that. It does a lot for that instant, one-second trust factor so they'll actually read your content.

But after that... it's your content's job to build rapport and hit emotional buttons that get them to purchase, and honestly they don't give a damn where you've been featured, they just want to know if you can solve their problem for the price they're willing to pay.

But what about SEO?

I'll admit that getting a bunch of backlinks from a bunch of sites isn't the worst idea. And it's not exactly black-hat spam; I mean big companies use press release services also, right? But I would guess, such links often end up on junk servers or sites that Google doesn't take very seriously. Sure it puts your news in front of key decision makers who might be screening topics for relevant keywords, so *maybe* it'll get picked up by someone real and shared someplace that matters. 

That could happen if you write a great press release (and it's not about the writing, it's about the story; what's your STORY - what have you done that's new, groundbreaking and interesting? Probably not much...)

Press release distribution services can be super cheap or super important. I personally feel like they're kind of a waste of time and money, unless they do them right and smart (it would be a lot better to use Haro and try to get interviewed by real reporters but who has time like that?

If you've got serious news that's worthy of sharing, a PR service campaign might work for you. And even if it doesn't, you'll get a bunch of backlinks that could boost SEO. If you *really* want to be featured in those exclusive publications for bragging rights, I'm not sure a distribution service will be as effective as they claim, though there are people and services that can help with that. The majority of the big players accept guest posts, which aren't impossible to get - if they are actually good content. 

It may be worth submitting and pitching article ideas directly to them, instead of blasting something out and hoping somebody notices. Here's an article on how to write a press release for free PR.