Submitting press releases online is a great way to get your message out to the public or promote your latest venture on a B2B level. National and regional journalists actively pick up on stories from such sites and many sites send releases through to newsrooms directly for instant contact.
For businesses, media exposure is not the only advantage – with online Press Release distributors finding themselves the darling of the Search Engine Optimisation world. Submitting a press release containing a link to your site has a direct impact on search engine rankings thanks to Google et al’s dependence on links to determine relevance.
Below is a run-down of Custard Media’s favourite free press release distribution sites.
You don’t get to Google number one for ‘free press release distribution’ without being good at what you do, and the best part is PR Fire doesn’t charge through the nose for publicity. The free service may not include links, but with free submission to Google News the exposure is there.
There’s also a fantastic range of paid services, from £50 all the way up to £999 for the very top service. PRFire offer to write a press release for you, and all the paid packages promote your press release to over 100 top news sites. Both the free and paid services are extremely reasonable.
- PRLog.org
This simple site allows HTML links in the body of the press release, ensuring the maximum SEO value for your site. In addition, the fully-optimised site has a pagerank of 6, so from a technical point of view it is amongst the best on the market.
PRLog even supports video press releases, fantastic from an audience point of view as it allows your content to stand out and be noticed. The site may look basic, but the success of the site shows that appearances aren’t everything.
- Free-Press-Release.com
Free-Press-Release.com is more aesthetically pleasing than many of the other sites, not that this is its major selling point. The ability to use specific fonts and download a PDF version are just two of a number of nice touches – and the structured pricing policy (ranging from FREE to $30 per press release) adds a nice element of flexibility.
The major drawback is that the free service doesn’t allow users to insert an active link to their site, so not the best for SEO purposes.
This Google News-listed site has an easy-to-use submission process that allows users to distribute a press release in minutes, an important factor in the fast-paced world of internet news. A pagerank of 5 means that articles containing links will pass some considerable link juice to your site.
The site itself is user-friendly and simple, while offering plenty of options – including an RSS feed and an iPhone app. Thanks to a team of editors manually reviewing content, the site remains relevant and trustworthy.
- 24-7PressReleases.com
While 24-7 offer a free press release service, they very much like to push their paid packages and therefore impose several limitations on free submissions. These include a restriction of one per day, and a no HTML policy means no links.
Prices start at $49 all the way up to $369 per press release for the top service, which includes priority positioning and exposure to thousands of journalists and websites – and with a pagerank of 5, the service is worth considering if you’re tempted to part with some cash.
- PressBox.co.uk
Nice and simple, PressBox is a pagerank 4 site that allows free submissions accompanied by a site URL rather than an anchor text-optimised link within the content itself. All well and good, but there are better options if you’re looking for one great SEO-friendly site to submit to.
PressBox boasts all the usual journalistic contacts and promises a good level of visibility. Paid releases cost £150 and come with a full distribution management service.
- ClickPress.com
For $7 per day per company ClickPress will handle the distribution of your press release within a global network and will handle as many releases as you can throw at them. Their free service is clogged up with Google ads however, making the experience of the site a very frustrating one for first-time visitors.
- PressMethod.com
A site with real plus and minus points. PressMethod will automatically optimise your release for maximum search engine impact, but won’t submit it to Google News, so users shouldn’t expect too much of a short-term gain.
While next-day distribution seems a little miserly on their part, press method do offer basic viewing statistics for your release with the free service, and anyone looking for extra services like manual SEO and increased distribution levels can opt for the paid services, which come with an increased contribution between $5 and $74.
- NewsWireToday.com
Not the easiest site to navigate, but a pagerank of 6 makes it worthwhile wading through the text-heavy homepage to submit your press release. Free basic inclusion doesn’t allow images and backlinks aren’t guaranteed – in fact this is decided on a random basis, confusingly.
Paid services allow all this and more and aren’t overly expensive, so if you don’t mind paying anything from $129 to $475 for the best exposure, NewsWireToday is a more than adequate resource.
Another simple site with one major selling point – free press releases containing links with optimised anchor text. Despite lacking the exposure offered by the likes of PRFire, this site is ideal for budget press release distribution for the SEO-savvy marketing officer.
There is a paid upgrade – but for $2.99 and the promise of exposure on ‘Yabadabadoo’ it can’t compete with the Google News-listed sites.
