Google has tightened its rules on the use of links and keywords in press releases. It is placing greater emphasis on penalising companies that deliberately try to manipulate Google PageRank through external links, in breach of its Webmaster Guidelines. That is particularly relevant if several websites reproduce your press release almost in full and it contains lots of links. In essence, Google is seeking to prevent an article from gaining artificial, sudden popularity.
If you repeat keywords too often in a press release, Google may interpret this as an attempt to manipulate indexing. Sometimes repetition is difficult to avoid. The real issue, however, arises when you repeatedly link those same words to your own website. If we wrote a press release for Nokia, for example, and repeatedly linked the word ‘smartphone’ to Nokia’s website, that could cause problems. Fortunately, that is not how we work!
Informing
Why would a PR agency do that so extensively? One of our many activities — watch out, a link! — is to inform journalists. They then write about the subject, or choose not to, and publish it on their own websites. Occasionally, but rarely, they include a link to the company or product. We only add a link when it genuinely points to more information, rather than simply directing people to a website.
In my view, PR agencies have become a thorn in Google’s side because they help companies promote their businesses, just as Google does through services such as AdWords. And, of course, the money is only supposed to flow one way: towards Google.
No problem
For now, I do not see any major problems for our PR agency. We do not use links excessively in press releases, journalists rarely reproduce them word for word, and the Dutch media landscape is not packed with websites that publish entire press releases unchanged. Above all, our job involves more than sending out press releases all day. There are many other ways to bring our clients’ stories to people’s attention.
For the time being, then, there is still room for both Google and PR agencies to work. Until Google comes up with something new.
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