The press release is one old-media holdover that has survived or even thrived in the digital age. Even the word "press" is a bit old-fashioned, as most journalism these days is presented by pixels rather than a printing press. 
Has the press release itself outlived its usefulness, or does the ease of online distribution and potential SEO benefits make press releases more valuable than ever? The answer, it turns out, is a resounding "Well, it depends."
The Benefits of Online Press Releases
Press releases were created to get company announcements into the hands of reporters and news editors, so that the information might get published as news. The company would then benefit from the free publicity, while the news organizations benefited by getting content that they didn't have to spend time researching or writing. It was a true win-win, as long as the information really was newsworthy; if it wasn't, it didn't get published.
The Internet added another wrinkle to that dynamic by making the PR wires themselves visible to the public. Now press releases were published online whether they were picked up by a news organization or not. The resulting links back to the company's website made online press releases valuable for SEO campaigns as well.
Questions About the Value of Press Releases
Recently, though, some questions have come up about whether press releases really are that helpful for SEO. With changes to Google placing a higher importance on the quality of web links, rather than the quantity of links, it was suggested that press release websites would not count as quality links.
Simple testing has shown that press release links do still have at least some influence on search rankings. But there is still the question of whether that influence is enough to justify the time and money used to create the releases.
Press Release Quality and Impact
In the end, it all comes down to the quality of the press release.
Having high-quality content is almost always a good idea. Low-quality content, even if it is quick and easy to produce, is almost always a bad idea. That holds true whether it is a press release, on-site blog post or any other kind of content.
So press releases are still helpful tools as long as they are done well and avoid the common press release pitfalls. The goal is not to just get something out there which links back to your site, but to create a high-quality article that search engines would love and people would like to read--and which also links back to your site.
If your press release is good enough to be picked up and published by a news organization, you will get much wider publicity and get higher-quality links back from an editorial site. In fact, it may be worthwhile to take your high-quality press release and submit it directly to the most relevant local news outlets, in addition to distributing it through a PR service.
So is a press release worth the time and trouble? It definitely can be--if you make it worthy.
*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
