The Pros and Cons of Using a Press Release Distribution Service | Evaluate Media

A lot of companies want to see their news releases published on a newswire or a press release syndication site.

However, we need to understand why press releases are important.

Why Press Releases Are Important

Press releases have changed a lot over the years, especially since businesses have realized the importance of online marketing.

Most major publicity, especially in top-tier media outlets, doesn’t originate from press releases. It’s the result of a customized pitch specifically for that media outlet. But journalists who are covering your story, and consumers who are visiting your website, often expect to find press releases there so they don’t have to hunt for information about your news.

Here are some of the main reasons press releases have become so important:

1. Improving brand image: because it has become so easy to publish and distribute a press release, companies can easily send out as many press releases as they want. Publishing more press releases more often is a good way to improve your brand’s image.
2. Announcing a new product or service. If you want to announce a new product or service, you can draft a press release and immediately get your news found on all major search engines and social media networks by using a press release distribution service. This also enables you to target thousands of journalists.
3. Increasing customer engagement: Thanks to online news distributors and the rise in social media, you can get your press release in front of a wider audience than ever. Distributing a well-crafted press release provides the opportunity to rank high in search, catch the attention of current and potential customers, and leads to direct engagement and sharing on social channels. You have the opportunity to reach an untapped audience that you may never have considered before.
4. Manage a crisis: the importance of a press release revolves around crisis communication. Press releases can be a useful tool when things go wrong. You get the opportunity to tell the story first. A crisis communication press release is a written communication that defines a crisis the company and its stakeholders are facing, along with a concrete plan to mitigate its damage or serve those impacted. It helps to stop speculation around the crisis definition and company response by transparently communicating the facts and establishing a central source of information from the company.
5. Build search engine traffic: having information about your company published through a press release on large news sites is not only beneficial for your company’s brand, but also for SEO. A well-written press release utilizing SEO best practices allows search engines to find, match, index and rank your press release. With 63,000 searches per second, having a high-ranking press release on Google and other search engines provides enhanced exposure to current and future customers. The importance of a press release doesn’t stop with just building media relationships, but carries throughout your marketing strategy, including building your search engine traffic.

Having identified the importance of press release, it is important to understand the Pros and Cons of using a press release distribution service.

Pros
1. Wire distribution platforms have the potential to reach close to 100,000 media outlets in hundreds of countries. Some media outlets may pick up the press release and run it verbatim to their readers, making it a guaranteed way for approved key messages to be included in stories shared in the news.

2. The wire method can be helpful for building SEO. In addition to being picked up by media outlets, press releases will also post to search engines, relevant websites, news feeds, and blogs. Many sites are programmed to automatically share a press release whenever it contains specific keywords related to that particular website. The release will post to general news sites like Google News and Yahoo News, and these press releases will often appear high in Google searches because of the plethora of backlinks and company-specific phrases included.

3. Newswire press releases that can achieve success are the stories that have relevance to a national audience. Consider using one for a national campaign launch, a merger or acquisition, or a major financial deal.

Cons:

1. News releases published through a distribution platform appear on multiple websites, and Google might penalize domains for having the exact same content on more than one website.

2. Due to Google’s ever-changing algorithms, there might be little to no SEO value in using a newswire service.

3. News releases published through press release syndication may only show up on a website for a short period of time before their direct links disappear.