Matt Cutts Works on Christmas - Says Press Release Links Don't Count

[Linda Buquet]

Matt Cutts does not post in the Google Webmaster forum very often but he worked on Christmas day and made 11 posts. Wanted to share one post I thought may be of interest.

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Press releases have long been used as one way to build backlinks.

A user at the Webmaster forum asked about Press Release links.

On Christmas Day Matt replied:

"Note: I wouldn't expect links from press release web sites to benefit your rankings, however."

So there you have it. One more link building method bites the dust.

 

[djbaxter]

You beat me to it, Linda. I was just coming to post this.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ha! One up on ya for a change David.
Great minds think alike!

 

[David Deering]

Thanks for sharing that, Linda. And it's interesting that Matt himself addressed that question. When you think about it, press release links do not really "endorse" a site and many of them are paid anyway. So it makes sense.

But I think Matt's best work on Christmas was his Webmaster video posted on YouTube: An update on Google's webmaster videos - YouTube

The name of the next major Google algorithm update? My money's on "Dinosaur".

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

I'm not sure I can really believe that. What about high quality press releases that are distributed to local news sites? I'm sure they would still carry weight, as long as you have an actual newsworthy story.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I'm not sure I can really believe that. What about high quality press releases that are distributed to local news sites? I'm sure they would still carry weight, as long as you have an actual newsworthy story.

Yes Nick, I think that's true. And I think the issue is that it's not that all those links that go out to hundreds of funky little PR sites would count for much but IF a real story is picked up by a real media outlet then there is some value. I think Matt has even said something like that in the past.

Alan over at Search Engine Journal slammed me for tweeting this post:
Get Over Yourself - Matt Cutts Did Not Just Kill Another SEO Kitten

But all I did was quote Matt and say "bites the dust" with a smiley. I didn't make a huge deal and say stop doing PR or it does not work at all any more. To me it was just a story on a slow news day and actually I was more impressed with Matt posting at the Webmaster forum which he seldom does AND working on Christmas which very few Googlers seem to do.

The whole big image was NOT of the PR quote it was about all Matt's posts on Christmas day!

At bottom of that post Alan also posted an update from Matt which basically supports what you said Nick.

 

[djbaxter]

I read that. Not sure (a) what his point really was because the bottom line is that's exactly what Matt said - press releases won't help with ranking; and (b) why he singled you out for finger-pointing when people like Rusty Brick and many others were also reporting the story.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ya and Jim's comment:

"I think the chicken-little SEOs need to relax, as proved here, the tweet from Linda was phrased in a way to elicit clicks and increase pageviews. I encourage you not to fall into their trap. People that get paid to give feedback shouldn’t be so reckless in communicating news albeit poorly."

Sheesh, seriously? I'm not a chicken-little SEO. Plus, I don't get paid to give feedback (Who pays me? I work for free! No ad dollars or anything!) And I was not being reckless. It was a light-hearted little tweet - not meant as a doomsday prediction or the gospel. Lighten up people!

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

Ya and Jim's comment:

"I think the chicken-little SEOs need to relax, as proved here, the tweet from Linda was phrased in a way to elicit clicks and increase pageviews. I encourage you not to fall into their trap. People that get paid to give feedback shouldn’t be so reckless in communicating news albeit poorly."

Sheesh, seriously? I'm not a chicken-little SEO. Plus, I don't get paid to give feedback (Who pays me? I work for free! No ad dollars or anything!) And I was not being reckless. It was a light-hearted little tweet - not meant as a doomsday prediction or the gospel. Lighten up people!

Seems like someone is sad they were slow to the Twitters.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

I really don't agree with that article "slamming" what you said. After all, you didn't publish an article "against" press releases - just a report on what he said with a smiley.

Also, I think SEO professionals are smart enough to investigate the comment in question and adapt their methods accordingly (and if nessecary).

Keep up the good work with your reports Linda! We love them here!

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

Honestly, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal anyway. Nobody is going to rank a site on PR's alone. If that was a major part of your strategy, you have bigger problems than Linda re tweeting matt's post. I have always been told/believed that PR's should be used sparingly at best. (for my style of service sites maybe 2-3 a year with some kind of reasonable message and good nap.)

Can't really see how this is a "chicken little" scenario, its a press release.... jeeze, does that guy happen to sell press releases?