Duplicate Content and Boiler Plates in Press Releases - Does it Matter?
-
Hi All,
We are in process of syndicating a few press releases on company news over the next few months. These aren't fluff PRs, they are actual news and can provide some value for linking opportunities (woohoo).
Anyway, we are a public company, so there are some relatively strict guidelines as to what content we publish. A great place to place some flexible links is in the boilerplate of a release. However, we can't change that content around too much on each PR.
So, question is, are there any negative implications on pushing out that kind of duplicate content on the web. Clearly, it's not our intention to spam whatsoever. But, I can see how the same type of content going out on the web multiple times in coming months good send off a negative signal.
Takes/thoughts?
-
Why the thumbs down when I said the same as Kate?:
"Ensure you have it on your site first"
-
Doubt it. Google has most syndicated press release services on a list of "don't allow these links to pass PageRank." I imagine for this very reason.
Being a big public company you don't really need to worry about penalties. Just ask yourself, "would I feel comfortable telling a search engine engineer what I'm doing to market my website." If you answered yes, don't worry about it. You're one reconsideration request away from getting out of the penalty if one were to ever arise.
-
Well, the information publicized is the kind of stuff that we have to disseminate to follow Wall Street regulation. Naturally, these things get picked up and placed on sites such as Yahoo Finance, CNN Money etc.
To my knowledge, we do syndicate through Business Wire but only after it is put on the company website first.
From an SEO standpoint, we are in need of quality links routing back to us. We have a plethora of inbound links. I am of course worried about any Panda penalties that could arise, but we aren't doing anything deliberately black hat. Our links that have been in these releases historically (prior to my arrival here in January), have all been links to social media or branded in the form of www.example.com. We also haven't seen any non-season changes in traffic.
So, lets say without syndication, reputable sites still pick up the release. In that case, should we still use proper linking?
-
I honestly think that "company news" has very tiny value compared with information about how to select products, how to use them, what can be done with them.
Nobody gives much of a crap about numbers, staff changes, store openings.... yawn... . Focus on evergreen content.
-
In my experience there are two kinds of public company news: either real-time "material information" (i.e. potentially market moving, monitored by regulators) or basically PR stuff that can be planned in advance. I'd deal with the two types differently. Wouldn't worry about widely disseminating the former in just about any manner, standard operating procedure, but would treat the latter differently as described above: establish on company website first, then press release, don't syndicate.
-
The point of press releases is to get the idea and news in front of writers to entice stories. They have since been bastardized into syndicated content on the web that does little for the end use or the company. I am with EGOL, don't syndicate releases like this. Use the stories to get the attention of journalists and writers.
If you must send them out, don't do so with the intention to link build. They are going to be copied over and over. Ensure you have it on your site first and try to get stories out of it, not just "coverage."
This is a longer and more involved process but it's the best one for everyone involved.
-
These aren't fluff PRs, they are actual news and can provide some value for linking opportunities (woohoo).
If I had content that is this good I would not be syndicating it. I would want it exclusive on my own site.
Links in press releases are a good way to get Penguin problems.
-
I would make sure if you also have the press release on your website that you have it on your site before you send it out to others. This makes you the source of the news.
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
-
How to measure the penalty of duplicate content if we populate our provider bios on WebMD?
I work for a large healthcare system and we have an initiative to populate 2,500 of our our provider bios on WebMD. The proposed method for providing content is to supply it via API, in exactly the same way provider bio content appears on our site. When my colleague and I pointed out this would be an anti-practice as it would be disseminating duplicate content, we were asked to weigh: The penalty of the duplication The time and resources necessary to provide an alternative method (i.e., is there a programmatic way to supply unique content to WebMD) A few other questions we are investigating is if we can include links to each provider bio from WebMD to our main site. If this is the case, we can include a very short intro and direct users to our site if they want to learn more. The benefit of being included on WebMD is showing up for searches pertaining to expertise/specialties, as this will open our system to new users who likely won't search our providers by name. Any advice on how to measure the potential effect of displaying duplicate content on WebMD, considering their impressive domain authority?
Branding | | Account-Owner2 -
Linkedin: Inshares - Can I see who inshared my content?
Hi All, Just wondering... since the demise of Linkedins' Signal tool, is there a way to actually see who and where my content is being shared on Linkedin? Blog posts being published at the minute are getting inshares almost as soon as they're live and I want to know who's doing it. Any advice would be appreciated.
Branding | | SanjidaKazi1 -
Are there any legitimate ways to do press releases?
In the past month, we won a "Small Business of the Year" Award and the managing partner is up for "BusinessWoman of the Year Award" for the greater Tampa area. I would like to send out two press releases, because I think these are appropriate uses of press releases. However, I'm nervous because I don't really know what all the implications of using press releases are. I don't want us to get hurt or flagged as doing something spammy. I also don't know which company to go through if they are still a good idea. PRWeb looks good to me, but then again, I don't really know. Any thoughts on either aspect of this question would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Ruben
Branding | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
What is the Best Paid Press Release for Link Building
Hey Guys, I need to do press releases for two brand new stores I'm doing work for. What are the best five press release services that one can pay for in your opinion? Thanks!
Branding | | OOMDODigital0 -
Advice on Content Publishing
Hi, I was rather hoping for a little advice on how to best get my content out there. I made a simple, and pretty poor quality (though funny I hope), guide on making homemade slippers for Father's Day - you can find it here http://appointedd.com/blog/homemade-slippers-for-fathers-day/ I guess my question would be, where would you put it up? Being fairly new to this kind of content creation (and this was only something I did in my spare time), I'm still trying to get my head around some of it. thanks!
Branding | | LeahHutcheon0 -
Press Release Company
I'm wanting to submit press releases to PRNewswire, BusinessWire and MarketWire.... but I dont want to take the time to fill out forms and fax them back, or pay the initial membership fees. Are there companies that just take the press release that you've written, and then send them out to these services? Where can I find such a company?
Branding | | JABacchetta0 -
Should we create content for a competitor?
We've got an opportunity to create video content for one of the highest authority news sites in our region. It's a great opportunity for links - PR8, DMR 7.84, DMT 8.86 and also to build our brand. However the site is also one of our main competitors in the SERPs, and we would be providing content to them that serves some of our most important seasonal and year-round keyphrase targets. So my dilemma is whether it is better to create the content and get the links, keep the content for ourselves and aim to make our site the authority for those keyphrases, or place the content with another (less authoritative) site that doesn't compete in our space?
Branding | | GBC0 -
Promoting Great Content
Say I've just created some great content on my site, what does the forum think the best way of promoting this content via. social would be? e.g. Paid stumbles, tweets, posting on reddit? We've created some good content in the past, but never really been able to drive traffic to it through social sites and networking with a great deal of success.
Branding | | PeterAlexLeigh0