Do Press Releases Still Work for SEO?

If you've been told that press releases are a good way to build backlinks, it pays to know where that advice stands with Google before you spend anything. The short version: not for links, but genuinely useful for some other things, and those other things have become more interesting lately.

Do press releases help SEO?

Press releases don't help SEO through links. Google's spam policies ask for paid and distributed links to be marked sponsored or nofollow, so they're not counted towards rankings. Releases can still support search in other ways: branded results, indexed news pages, and content that AI tools may cite.

Google is unusually clear on this. Their spam policies define link spam as creating links primarily to manipulate rankings, and a 2021 Search Central post titled A reminder on qualifying links asks publishers to tag paid placements with rel="sponsored" and distributed or guest content with rel="nofollow". When sites publish or acquire such links without proper tagging, Google says algorithmic or manual actions may follow.

Most reputable distribution services already handle this for you, which is why the links are usually nofollowed before you even see them. Some go further: Get The Word Out limits releases to a single link and notes that over-linking is a risk rather than a benefit.

So if a service is selling you releases primarily on the promise of ranking improvements or quality backlinks, that is the part to ask harder questions about.

What press releases actually do for search

The useful returns are real; they are just not the ones in the sales pitch.

• Branded search. When a customer, supplier or prospective hire looks up your business name, a dated announcement on a news site is a reassuring thing for them to find. This is the most dependable return and the easiest way to verify yourself.
• An indexed, credible page. A properly formatted release can appear in Google News and keep working as a search result long after the day it was published. It also gives you something to point at: a link for your own site, a client report, or an investor update.
• A source for AI tools. Assistants draw on news content when they answer questions, and a dated, specific, well-structured release is the kind of source they can use.
• A path to earned coverage. If a journalist picks up the story and writes about it, any link in their article is an editorial one, which is a completely different thing from a distributed link.

That last point is worth sitting with. The press release itself does not earn you links. The coverage it might trigger does.

One thing that changed recently

Publishing genuine news that AI tools happen to cite is fine. Pumping out thin releases specifically to game AI answers now sits inside the same policy that covers link spam. The distinction is the same one that has always applied: Is this actually news, or is it a technique wearing a news costume?

If you want publication and search visibility: News Today (NewsToday.au)

News Today (NewsToday.au) is built for the first two returns on that list. Releases go through editorial review, publish within 24 to 48 hours, and are formatted for Google News and search, so you end up with a properly dated, indexable page.

A single release is $39, or $300 for ten with credits that don't expire, making it an inexpensive way to test whether branded search improves for you.

Nobody can promise AI citation or ranking movement, here or anywhere else. What you are buying is a credible page that search engines can read.

If you want journalists to find you: PRWire

PRWire takes a different angle. It sits within the Influencing network and is free to post on once you register, and the useful part is the other side of the platform: journalists register, too, and follow the topics and companies they care about.

Coverage skews towards business, IT and consumer technology, which makes sense given the same network runs the IT Journalism Awards and the Tech Leaders Forum. For a technology business, the audience is more concentrated than the zero-price suggests.

Free means no editorial support, so the story has to carry itself.

If you want coverage without sending a release: SourceBottle

This is worth knowing about even though it is not a distribution service at all. SourceBottle, started in Australia in 2009 by former PR consultant Rebecca Derrington, works the other way around: journalists and bloggers post what they are looking for, and you respond if you can help.

It is free for both sides, alerts go out twice a day on weekdays, and you can filter by topic, deadline and location across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, the US and Canada.

For anyone whose real goal was editorial coverage and the links that come with it, this is often the more direct route. You are answering a journalist who already wants the story.

Tip: It rewards being quick and specific. Vague responses get passed over.

If your story is health or wellness: Sentient Being

One more option worth a thought. Sentient Being is an Australian wellness publication covering food, mental health, movement and everyday life, written in a plain-spoken voice.

Relevance matters in both search and AI retrieval, so for a health or wellness story, landing in a publication where that subject actually lives can be worth more than broad syndication across unrelated outlets.

Which approach fits your goal?

How should you write a press release if not for links?

Write it as news rather than as marketing. Lead with what changed, include a specific figure, quote a named person, and keep to one link pointing at a relevant page. Many services limit releases to a single link anyway, and a release that reads like an advertisement is more likely to be declined.

A simple test before you submit: Would this sentence survive in a newspaper? "We are excited to announce our innovative new solution" would not. "The clinic has added Saturday appointments, taking weekly capacity from 40 to 90" would.

Are press releases worth it in 2026?

Press releases are worth it when you have real news and a clear purpose for it. The reliable returns are a credible, dated page, stronger branded search, and a source journalists and AI tools can draw on. If the only goal is ranking improvement, your money will go further elsewhere.

That is not a disappointing answer so much as a clarifying one. Once you stop buying releases as merely an SEO product, it becomes much easier to tell a good one from a bad one, because you are judging the story rather than counting links.

Where to start

Search your business name and look at what comes up on the first page. If it is only your own site and a couple of directories, a dated announcement or two will give that result some substance, and $39 is a cheap way to find out whether you like the effect.

If what you actually wanted was a journalist writing about you, start with SourceBottle instead. It costs nothing, and a week of reading what journalists are asking for will teach you more about what makes your business newsworthy than any guide will.