We had a discussion in the office recently about whether to cut back on the number of news releases we do for clients.  They were getting less magazine pickup than in the past, and the cost of the wire service distribution, while valuable, really adds up.

We decided after thinking about this that releases have become even more important than in the past because, as usual, Google told us they are!

Google’s constant algorithm changes are geared to measuring relevancy, as we know.  If you do a search for solar arrays, they want only the very best, most relevant pages to appear on the first page.  So, measuring relevancy is something Google has to find a way to convert into analytical measures.  And while Google doesn’t reveal its formula, there are a few things we know in terms of how releases drive relevancy:

• Google counts inbound links, so the more links we have from any website that posts our releases, the more relevant our site is.
  
  
• Google counts the domain authority of those sites linking to us.  Media sites typically have high domain authority, so the more media sites we can get to link to us, the more relevant our own site will appear, and therefore the higher our rankings will be for our targeted search terms.
  
  
• Google counts social shares as a measure of relevancy, so whenever we post a release, we always push it out via social media and got to those media sites and re-tweet it.
   
• Businesswire has a great new (free) service with our press release distributions called NUVI, which identifies WHO is forwarding/posting your releases on Twitter etc.  So we’re sure to follow those people on Twitter as well and strengthen our community.         

Obviously, PR is not a “useless thing” to cut out of your marketing.  Read our ebook on the 9 useless things you SHOULD cut out of marketing to boost your program’s ROI.

Written by Joel Goldstein:
Goldstein Group agency president who builds “Measurably Better Marketing” programs that create WOW experiences for clients.