Blog Post to Press Release = Search Juice, But Bad News for Small Businesses

Posted by B.L.Ochman After a teenager foiled Google News with a fake press release about him being hired by Google, it seems that they have banned releases from I-Newswire, the free press release distribution service he used.

However, paying $40 to PR Web, I got an essentially bogus release top placement in Google News and Yahoo News! under several keywords for which i optimized the release. While it's fine as a blog post because it is my opinion, it's bogus as a press release because it contains no news. While I seriously doubt it will be picked up by any media, it's pumped up my SEO juice, which is a cheap thrill for $40.

My results are bad news for businesses looking for totally free press release distribution, but good news for those who want cheap distribution. I took a What's Next Blog post, re-formatted it as a press release, and sent it out. I did it to research how releases are indexed in Google News and Yahoo News!. News value is not their criteria at either Google News or Yahoo News.

PR Web says it has a free press release distribution but i couldn't find it anywhere. I was asked to make a controbution when I submitted the release, and immediately got an email telling me my chances would be better if I spent more.

I think PR Web needs to do a much better job explaining their pricing policy, which is nothing short of gobblydegook.

My $40 press release is currently Number One in Yahoo News for the terms blog consultant, blog marketing consultant, Fortune 500 blog consultant, Fortune 500 blog marketing consultant, and blog marketing and number 15 for the word blog, and 72 for the word blogger.

In Google News, it's Number One in blog marketing and blog marketing consultant; Number Three for blog consultant.

Hey B.L.,

SEOs have been using PRWeb and similar wire services for years as link building tools with medium to low quality releases. However, after reading your press release, I am a bit surprised it got through.

Your rankings for the blog related phrases is super - nice job optimizing.

Although, I'll take my rankings for those phrases on Google.com over a news search engine any day. :)

BTW, nice seeing you at SES NYC.

Agree with you, although PRWeb say "submit your press release for free" and only later (when you've gone through the whole process) request payment for distribution. It's not quite as transparent as it should be, is it?