Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Looking to increase the quality of our backlinks with a press release: Business wire or Prweb?
-
Hello all!
We are looking to increase the quality of backlinks to our new website www.unitedfitnessmarketing.com and wondering which service would be more beneficial. Care to share any preferences or advice? We have been live for about 3 1/2 months now. We are in a tough niche to find related backlinking websites. We are in the health club marketing consulting field. I just paid for a business.com listing but was thinking a quality press release would give me more juice. My competitors have used free press release services so I'm thinking I could easily one-up them and gain some ground in the rankings. Leaning more towards business wire b/c it's a berkshire hathaway company but would like more input.
Thanks!
-
Thanks Chad,
We are learning with the backlinks. I made some misteps with manual directory submissions at the beginning but I think we are building a good mix now. I'll take a look at vocus but unless I'm doing pr's on recent marketing campiagn results, I doubt the it would make sense for us. Was hoping for more input on the trust flow that would be associated from a BRKA company like Business Wire.
Thanks for the input!
Mike
-
Thanks Daniel,
Always nice to make new connections in our field and great website btw! I'll send you an email on the prweb but I was really hoping to get more feed back on Business Wire. There is another who targets some of my keywords and has used prweb but his market is more like yours. Marketing to personal trainers... I'm targeting club owners. The main purpose of the press release is to obtain quailty backlinks from trusted sites to increase my trust flow metric and all the perks that come with it. My email is unitedfitness@gmail.com
Thanks!!
Mike
-
Hi, Mike:
This is very much my niche. I am the former editor-in-chief of the CrossFit Journal and have acted as a web consultant to CrossFit gyms, the Personal Trainer Development Center at www.theptdc.com., several fitness authors and experts, and some equipment manufacturers.
I agree that press releases can be be an effective strategy -- but only as part of a diversified link portfolio. I have used both PR Web and Marketwire, and think PR Web has the edge in the fitness space due to a superior distribution list in this niche. I currently have a bulk subscription to PR Web and could offer you a very attractive price on a per release basis.
But first things first. I would suggest you consider your overall link-building strategy before jumping into press releases. There is probably low-hanging fruit -- including niche directories and guest blogging opportunities -- that could be plucked first.
Feel free to email me at Danielfreedman78@gmail.com to discuss fuirther.
-
Mike,
Our company uses Vocus( which owns PRweb) about 2-3 times per week. In the past we have used other PR release services but have found this has been the best. Vocus is a annual paid service ( a bit pricey 5K) but considering it allows you to send out 1 press release a day which I would not recommend, the largest benefit is that the service allows you to send your press release directly to new editors emails, magazine etc. This service has gotten out products in Southern Living and a few other magazines- which is priceless.
Make sure you goal is to create awareness rather than quality backlinks- make sure your press release are something people actually want to know about- then the natural process of high quality backlinks will come.
Good luck.
Chad
-
Thanks Any on the blog and catagory recommendations! This is helpful. We do offer blog on our site but never considered different sources other than health club blogs or fitness marketing related blogs. Not many health club blogs I could write on as many of our clients have just a basic website. My business.com listing will be live in 24-48 hours and its under gym equipment. I wasn't to pleased with the subcatagory at first but if your suggestion holds weight with google, it opens up more possibilities for us as far as catagories go. As far as the business.com listing I've done my homework and I just can't see how it would hurt me after analyzing my competitors backlinks. But still your business.com comment scares me.
Thanks!!
Mike
-
First, tread carefully with Business.com as I know of companies that pulled out of there after Panda hit them and reports that they had seen a drop in terms of rank. Basically, if you are going for generic directories, try and find ones in your niche.
As for which service to use, I don't actually use PR services myself so can't offer any real input here, but do hear good things about PRWeb.
One thing to also remember, if you are looking to build backlinks, you need to diversify, but not to the point where the site has no meaning to your industry. For example, you could quite happily look for blogs and sites that sell fitness equipment, fitness food, bikes, climbing equipment and even diet websites - it is all related at some level and Google will know this.
You might be surprised just what you can turn up.
Andy
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Looking to remove dates from URL permalink structure. What do you think of this idea?
I know most people who remove dates from their URL structure usually do so and then setup a 301 redirect. I believe that's the right way to go about this typically. My biggest fear with doing a global 301 redirect implementation like that across an entire site is that I've seen cases where this has sort of shocked Google and the site took a hit in organic traffic pretty bad. Heres what I'm thinking a safer approach would be and I'd like to hear others thoughts. What if... Changed permalink structure moving forward to remove the date in future posts. All current URLs stay as is with their dates Moving forward we would go back and optimize past posts in waves (including proper 301 redirects and better URL structure). This way we avoid potentially shocking Google with a global change across all URLs. Do you know of a way this is possible with a large Wordpress website? Do you see any conplications that could come about in this process? I'd like to hear any other thoughts about this please. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HashtagJeff0 -
Thought FRED penalty - Now see new spammy image backlinks what to do?
Hi, So starting about March 9 I started seeing huge losses in ranking for a client. These rankings continue to drop every week since and we changed nothing on the site. At first I thought it must be the FRED update, so we have started rewriting and adding product descriptions to our pages (which is a good thing regardless). I also checked our backlink profile using OSE on MOZ and still saw the few linking root domains we had. Another Odd thing on this is that webmasters tools showed many more domains. So today I bought a subscriptions to ahrefs and instantly saw that on the same timeline (starting March 1 2017) until now, we have literally doubled in inbound links from very spammy type sites. BUT the incoming links are not to content, people seem to be ripping off our images. So my question is, do spammy inbound image links count against us the same as if someone linked actual written content or non image urls? Is FRED something I should still be looking into? Should i disavow a list of inbound image links? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | plahpoy0 -
Submitting Same Press Release Content to Multiple PR Sites - Good or Bad Practice?
I see some PR (press release) sites where they distribute the same content on many different sites and at end they give the source link is that Good SEO Practice or Bad ? If it is Good Practice then how Google Panda or other algorithms consider it ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KaranX0 -
Backlinks from old domain
Hi, We have gone through a change of company brand name including a new domain name.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Agguk
We followed google recommendations at: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en and it seems to have worked really well, the new domain has replaced the old in the google search results. My question: Still most of our backlinks, both anchor text and links use the old brand name and domain and it´s a slow process trying to update all references. Although they get redirected fine to the new domain (also following google recommendations), I wonder if the current scenario is doing any harm, SEO wise (other than the missed visual exposure of the new brand name) ? ...since the old brand name is not present at the new site I´m thinking of including "New brand name - previously old brand name" somewhere just to provide some sort of connection to all old backlinks, would that be unnecessary? I should mention that the old brand name actually includes our most important keyword but the new brand name does not. Thanks!0 -
Blog On Subdomain - Do backlinks to the blog posts on Subdomain count as links for main site?
I want to put blog on my site. The IT department is asking that I use a subdomain (myblog.mysite.com) instead of a subfolder (mysite.com/myblog). I am worried b/c it was my understanding that any links I get to my blog posts (if on subdomain) will not count toward the main site (search engines would view almost as other website). The main purpose of this blog is to attract backlinks. That is why I prefer the subfolder location for the Blog. Can anyone tell me if I am thinking about this right? Another solution I am being offered is to use a reverse proxy. Thoughts? Thank you for your time.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ecerbone0 -
Are backlinks the most important factor in SEO?
I have had an agency state that "Backlinks are the most important factor in SEO". That is how they are justifying their strategy of approaching bloggers. I believe there are a lot more factors than that including Target Market definition, Keyword identification an build content based on these factors. What's everyone's thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AndySalmons0 -
Can a competitor close your business on Google Places?
One of my listings says it has been closed and the business is not closed. On Google + / Google places there is a field that allows users to check that claims the business is closed. Can they actually close it? Your Google Places listing has been updated Dear Google Places user, Google has updated your listing data on our consumer properties such as Google and Google Maps to more accurately reflect the latest information we have about your business. We use many sources to determine the accuracy of our listing data and to provide the best possible experience for business owners and consumers who use Google and Google Maps to find local information. Based on our sources, the following listing has been marked as closed: Company info... If you disagree with the changes we have made, please visit your Place Page to edit your listing. Note that if you are an AdWords or Boost customer, your ads will be unaffected by this change and will continue to display the listing information you have provided in Google Places. To manage your online advertisements, please sign into Google Places or Google AdWords. For more information about updates to claimed listings, please visit:http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1318197 Sincerely,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEODinosaur
The Google Places Team |0 -
How to ask for a backlink?
Everyone knows backlinks ( plus content ) is the key to good rankings. BUT, how do you ask for a backlink without sounding douchey? Does anyone have a template or something they could share?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DojoGuy0