Dofollow Links on Press Releases: Good or Bad?

[WebServiceConsulting.com]

Hello,

I know that Google says that you are supposed to make anchored text links nofollow on press releases, but what about just putting the site url itself (example.com) and making it dofollow?

Is that okay?

[jesse-landry]

Well said as usual, Takeshi.

Hell I'm thinkin' about skipping the PR all together now and just sending this article out to some online publications instead... we'll see.

[TakeshiYoung]

I've never heard of anyone getting penalized for a press release link. Ever.

That being said, Google has warned against dofollow links in press releases, and using anchor text links can put you at risk of Penguin. If you are just using your URL, you should be perfectly safe for now, but there is always the risk that Google may change things later.

The actual link juice that these links pass isn't very significant, so it may just be safest to nofollow the link, depending on your risk tolerance. If you want dofollow backlinks, there are much cheaper and effective ways of obtaining links that actually matter.

[Matt-Williamson]

I appreciate what you are saying - so my gut feeling would be if you looked at it from the point of someone that never read this sort of thing then you would post it and not worry about no follow but your link would most likely be www.yourdomain.com, so I think this would be ok as it is more natural - though at the end of the day this is just my opinion and your choice as no one truly knows the impact. I would still think about looking outside the box and seeing how you can push the exposure of this article to gain you more authority online.

[jesse-landry]

Excellent advice and I lean white-hat 99.9% of the time. I think this is a bit grey-hattish though.

The conspiracy theorist in me would say that Cutts would emphasize this even if it wasn't an actual target of their algorithm. I think at this point he has everyone scared and there's a chance that he could say this and not put anything into action. Maybe he'll come back and check it out again 3 months later and see if there has been progress made.. You know? Again, conspiracy at best.

The sites I'm referring to have incredibly thin content and a terrible link profile. Yet they're ranking on page 1 for pretty competitive keywords.. Best content I see on there is prweb or marketwire and it makes me go O_o

Thing is we do build links naturally and appreciate doing so. Our Press Release is actually news-worthy as far as our company goes (it's the release of a new service we've been developing) and if we never read any of this stuff we wouldn't think twice of just throwing a link to the relevant page discussing our new service offerings.. bah.

Nonetheless I think your points are sound and I'm leaning toward playing it safe as well.

[Matt-Williamson]

"I see SO so many sites ranking with nothing but press releases and garbage article submissions... What does it all mean? I don't know. But I do know we are working on a press release to go out this week and I need to make a decision on this...hmmm"

Depends how safe you want to play it and how strong the content of your press release is! How many press releases have you done in the past with followed anchor text links? Do you have a strong well balanced link profile? I see sites that are still getting away with using this practice but they are in for pain when Google finalizes how it will deal with those abusing its latest guidelines - I don't think Matt Cutts and others at Google would empathize this if it wasn't worth taking note of! As with many manipulative practices those committing them don't suffer straight away but when they do get caught it is usually painful...

I would opt to play the long game and look at using your press releases as a way of attracting more attention that will lead to links and social shares rather than using them for direct followed links to increase authority..

[jesse-landry]

"Remember the main aim of your press release is to gain your brand exposure"

WELL SAID SIR!

I really like this the most.

As for whether or not to nofollow, I'm entirely on the fence here. I know what Google says but I don't know what Google does. Tom Roberts, where are you? I saw your comment on the seland thread referenced here and am wondering if you went and built those thousand free PR links for your client??!

I see SO so many sites ranking with nothing but press releases and garbage article submissions... What does it all mean? I don't know. But I do know we are working on a press release to go out this week and I need to make a decision on this...hmmm..

[Matt-Williamson]

I think that none keyword anchor text such as your websites URL is safer if you are going to have a followed link from a press release. Although I would be careful if you are creating a press release to gain authority from the link(s) in it with the recent changes by Google. Remember the main aim of your press release is to gain your brand exposure and even if the link from it are no followed if you do it well and what you have published is news worthy you are likely to pick up followed links and social shares from other sources indirectly anyway.

Always a good recap I think - http://searchengineland.com/google-links-in-a-press-release-should-be-nofollowed-like-advertisements-168339

[William.Lau]

I'd disagree. This is obvious depending on where you release it. The new guideline does state optimized anchor text and if you are just linking to your homepage, that is fine.

As long as you are not optimizing the anchor text, it would be alright if you just link to your homepage with just the URL.

[Atomicx]

Make it nofollow. They are pretty clear with their explanation