12 Ways to Optimize Press Releases & Avoid Google Penalties

Google's most recent update to their defintions of link schemes sent shockwaves through the SEO and online PR world; a real downer to link building strategists.
It's true: the world's largest search engine called links in press releases "unnatural" and is mandating nofollowing them. What does this mean to organizations using press releases to gain digital visibility in search and social?
For brands publishing a press release or an article on your site and distributing it through a paid wire service, such as PR Newswire, Business Wire, Marketwire or through an article site, you must first make sure to nofollow the links if those links are "optimized anchor text."

Is This a Big SEO Deal? Yes. No. Maybe.

Google has been slowly squeezing the SEO life out of press releases for a while now.
"In 2006 online press releases were amazing for SEO. In 2013? Not so much," said Joe Laratro, SEO expert and PubCon lead moderator "Online press releases have had very little value in terms of links and content over the past few years – I would say it had been steadily declining. However, I still thought it was a good part of a large organic link building strategy until the new guideline changes."
But what about the anchor text links in past press releases? Will the ghost of Google past haunt companies with surprising penalties in the future? Will brands have to back track to older press releases to protect themselves.
"The real concern for the SEO industry right now should be backdated enforcement. If this is now considered a 'penalizable' tactic, how are companies that have been using this tactic for over a decade going to deal with the old content and links?" Laratro asked. "How quickly can the online newswires update their systems to support the rel nofollow? In my opinion this will have a fairly large effect on the online paid newswire release business."
Many more SEO industry experts agree. The clean up work with old press release content that's been spinning links across the web for years is a big SEO issue.
"There are press releases archived across the web that you will have no control over – how do you clean that up?" asked Bruce Clay, president of Bruce Clay Inc. "Even if press release distribution companies do something to address their archives, like noindexing old pages (and this is a big if), you're still looking at the larger problem of pruning links on the many sites that have republished those press releases."

Don't Optimize Links, Do... What?

Organizations are now left wondering what they can do with press releases past, present, and future.
"If a client has real newsworthy content, an online press release is worth doing, but I would be very careful with the links at the moment, at least until the rel=nofollow options are live," Laratro said. "Companies should still include one or two links in order to get the reader over to the website or blog. This may cause a shift back to more traditional types of PR work – not necessarily a bad thing."

The Ghost of Press Release Past

The first press release was written in 1906 by Ivy Lee and actually published verbatim in the New York Times. It wasn't until the mid-1990s that wire services began releasing news direct to consumers vis the Internet. Since then, journalists have relied on press releases to help track company news and come up with story angles and sources.
Today the digital press release reaches beyond the journalist and carries company news direct to customers, prospects, bloggers, and more. The press release lifeline streams through the veins of search engines and flows into social media.
Google might have killed the link juice, but press releases are still alive and kicking according to media experts.

"While most of the companies using PR Newswire (and our competitors) are doing so to build awareness of their messages, garner media pick up and to deliver their messaging straight to their target audiences, there is a contingent that are issuing press releases for the sole purpose of generating inbound links, and this is the practice Google is discouraging," said Sarah Skerik, vice president, content marketing, PR Newswire//MultiVu. "This is not an indictment of PR."

The Digital Path of a Press Release: It's About Content Discovery

Press releases are more than a simple SEO tool. Press release content helps reach journalists, influencers, and consumers.
The AP, Dow Jones, Reuters, Bloomberg, and thousands of other major newsrooms worldwide have feeds of press releases piped directly into their editorial systems. And almost 8,000 websites, including some of the world's largest news sites, publish stories as a result of wire services such as PR Newswire.
Let's not forget the social media intersection of press releases. They help fuel the content fire and drive social interaction, sharing, and engagement – and are the launching pad for company news. Taking a drive off main street, press releases are part of the Wall Street creed, meeting financial disclosure.
In 140 characters or less: Press releases drive broad discovery of your news message in search and social.
"None of this has anything to do with link building and SEO," Skerik said. "We believe the value press release distribution provides is in discovery, not links. Driving messages deep into audiences and generating authentic reads, clicks and visibility among relevant audiences and social shares – that's where press releases add value."
Hybrid search industry vet Greg Jarboe, president and founder of SEO-PR, specializes in both PR and SEO and zeroed in on the fact that the PR industry still hasn't fully embraced the concept of public relations optimization, so they might not realize the missing link.
"This is a big SEO deal," Jarboe said. "And it would also be a big deal for PR, if more public relations people were optimizing their press releases. But most of them still aren't."
Less than 15 percent of press releases in corporate newsrooms and posted on the wire services are optimized for search, according to a PressFeed Online Newsroom Survey.

12 Things You Can Do With Digital Press Releases

1. Adding links still helps drive traffic to a website. "Driving traffic is one of the primary objectives of website SEO, according to the SEMPO State of Search Report, published by Econsultancy. It can be one of the important objectives of press release SEO, too," Jarboe said.
2. Improve the user experience.
3. Increase visibility in search and social.
4. Use press releases as inroads to more information and details on a blog or website.
5. Spark a story idea and attract a journalist or blogger to do a larger story that might gain a natural link.
6. Educate and inform your audience.
7. Build relationships.
8. Report company news or industry data.
9. Use images and video to increase pageviews and attention.
10. Embed video and multimedia.
11. Create an infographic version of press release tell your story.
12. Broaden your distribution and use social networks to report news – both paid and organic.

5 Things You Can't Do With Press Releases

1. Generate inbound links.
2. Add link juice to your SEO campaign.
3. Use press releases as part of your link building strategy.
4. Optimized anchor text links, Google now says this equates to unnatural links.
5. Keyword stuffing.

Summary

Google may have taken away the anchor text links in press releases (and guest posts and articles), but there is still room for press release optimization opportunities like in any other digital content using:

• Optimized keywords.
• Headlines.
• Title.
• Description. 
• Hashtags.
• Photos.
• Videos.
• Social media messaging.

Gaming the system is yesterday's news. Today's press releases still work the natural, social, and mobile way of tomorrow.

Small Business SEO Tactics: Risk vs. Security

With content marketing gaining momentum in 2013, there are many cries that the "new" SEO is really no different from old SEO, it's just better quality and en vogue. This may be true, but there's no denying that Google has made several significant changes to their algorithm in 2013 and, most recently, updated their Webmaster Guidelines.
SEO professionals react to Google's statements as the financial markets react to Ben Bernanke. Why? Because the subtleties and innuendoes in what Google communicates (or doesn't communicate) are interpreted by many as signals of future policy direction. How and why Google has Federal Reserve-like influence over online marketing is another discussion altogether.

How Should Small Business React to Recent Events?

That depends. If a small business is using low-quality SEO tactics from several years ago, there is cause for concern. Many approaches that once borderline are clearly over the line now.
Even small businesses that have been keeping up on SEO changes should pay close attention to the recent changes.

• Link Buying and Automated Content Creation is Still Bad: There is no real news here. Businesses still doing these things know the risks at this point. Google has recently added that advertorials will be viewed as paid links, and will be devalued.
• Avoid Money Term Anchor Text in Press Releases: While the official guidelines now say to avoid "Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites," this has led to confusion and debate. Google suggests nofollowing all links to be 100 percent safe. For more on this, see 12 Ways to Optimize Press Releases & Avoid Google Penalties.
• Linking Schemes Are Bad: The expansion of Google's definition of link schemes is most noteworthy. Whereas Google has previously left this discussion fairly vague, they have now given specific examples such as excessive link exchanges, large scale article marketing, and low-quality bookmark sites. This justifies previous manual actions such as those against BuildMyRank and serves as a warning to companies still selling low-quality link placements.

What is also interesting here is the couching of each of these terms. Notice the descriptors:

• Excessive
• Large-scale
• Low-quality

Google knows that not all article marketing is bad. With more than 166 million active domains on the Internet, good content often goes unnoticed if it isn't well marketed.
Google also knows that it's natural for business partners to link to each other. Many social bookmarking sites have legitimate audience views and share valuable information. Yet, all three of these categories have also seen widespread abuse, with content manufactured specifically for the purpose of ranking.

Small Businesses Seek More Security

Even with the new guidelines, many wish that Google could be even more specific. Imagine them saying 10 articles in a month is OK, but 40 is too many. Or perhaps a Matt Cutts video explaining that five guest blog posts a month is OK, but 20 is too many.
But Google needs to protect their secret sauce like Coca-Cola protects their recipe, so this won't happen. In fact, I imagine that Google feels quite satisfied with the explicit direction they are now giving.

Is Link Building a Dirty Word?

Some may feel that the term link building is now a negative term, but this can't be. Google still ranks their output largely on links.
Popular SEO columns discuss how to hire and train link builders. What is clear is that the acceptable methods of link building are definitely changing.

SEO Flight to Quality

To continue the financial market metaphor, SEO is currently in a flight to quality. This is what most columnists and bloggers mean by the "new" SEO.
Sure, the new SEO is similar to the old SEO, but there is now a greater emphasis on quality. Google is highlighting concepts such as links intended to manipulate PageRank and links that aren't editorial votes given by choice. While it is hard to imagine reliable signals for such mushy constructs, it is smart to assume Google has them, or will shortly.

Conclusions

Small businesses who want to stay in good graces with Google need to heed the warnings and start their SEO flight to quality. This doesn't mean SEO has fundamentally changed.

Businesses should still produce relevant articles and newsworthy press releases, and can use bookmarks as a method for sharing. Infographics and video content are excellent for viral spread. But businesses now have been warned to stay away from excessive, large-scale and low-quality – and this will be a change for many who are still hanging on to old SEO tactics.

Time for a New Definition of SEO

The way we market, sell and deliver SEO services has undoubtedly changed. Google's algorithm updates have made content marketing and social media the core of a strong organic search strategy. So while the practice of SEO evolves, the definition of SEO ought to evolve as well.
Other digital marketing tactics such as email marketing, paid search and search retargeting have very clear, undisputed definitions. The definition of SEO, on the other hand, seems to be just as unclear as the practice itself.

Current Definitions of SEO

Even when you Google the phrase, "definition of SEO", nothing really concrete is returned.
Wikipedia's official definition is, "the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page."
Search engine optimization is about way more than this.
Webopedia's definition is, "a methodology of strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) -- including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines."
SEO is more than this too.

Is Web Presence Optimization the Evolution of SEO?

So what is an accurate description of SEO given the changes to the industry?

Web presence optimization is an all-encompassing approach to optimizing an entire web presence for organic search including the website, social channels, blogs, articles and press releases. Where strategies, techniques, and tactics are still used, but content marketing and social media are strongly incorporated.

What's Your Definition of SEO?

Here are some new definitions of SEO to consider, and I invite you to comment below with your own.

1. SEO is the ongoing process of uncovering and discovering non-branded keywords that are driving organic search traffic and conversions, then publishing content optimized for those keywords.
2. SEO is the process of producing optimized content that is discoverable by the target audience as they progress through the buying cycle.
3. SEO is about a prospect discovering a brand's content and web presence through search and social, and the owner of that content being able to understand who consumed the content and the impact of the content across the organization.
4. SEO is the outcome of a content marketing strategy that makes use of highly converting keywords that your target audience is searching on.
5. SEO is the process of enhancing the visibility of a brand's web presence in organic search.

SEO in the digital marketing mix is here to stay. Standardizing a definition of SEO will help buyers better understand the importance of it, the reason for committing to it, and the short- and long-term impact an SEO strategy has on a web presence.

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Time for a New Definition of SEO

The way we market, sell and deliver SEO services has undoubtedly changed. Google's algorithm updates have made content marketing and social media the core of a strong organic search strategy. So while the practice of SEO evolves, the definition of SEO ought to evolve as well. View.....

Small Business SEO Tactics: Risk vs. Security

With content marketing gaining momentum in 2013, there are many cries that the "new" SEO is really no different from old SEO, it's just better quality and en vogue. This may be true, but there's no denying that Google has made several significant changes to their algorithm in 2013 and, most recently, updated their Webmaster Guidelines. View.....

12 Ways to Optimize Press Releases & Avoid Google Penalties

Google's most recent update to their defintions of link schemes sent shockwaves through the SEO and online PR world; a real downer to link building strategists.
It's true: the world's largest search engine called links in press releases "unnatural" and is mandating nofollowing them. What does this mean to organizations using press releases to gain digital visibility in search and social?View.....

How to Train a Link Builder From Scratch

Over the past few years I've helped train more than 60 link builders, almost all of whom didn't know the first thing about building links. Most of them had very little, if any, SEO knowledge either. That was our intention though, as we have a specific way of doing things.
Although having more experienced people could provide some great new ideas and proven tactics, sometimes training people from scratch is better because they have no preconceived notions.
From what I've learned with my link builders, there are a few signs that someone will be fantastic at the job:
View.....

Google Webmaster Tools Updates in 2011

 We have 31 major Google webmaster tools updates in 2011 till now. Following are the list of updates were live by Sep, 2011. Following are the details:

1.  Better music snippets with rich experience in Google Search - Aug 18th
2. Sitelinks look and feel changed in Google Search - Aug 16th
3. Google Panda algorithm rolled out to additional language sites - Aug 12th
4. New videos on Google webmaster Youtube Channel - Aug 09th
5. Better reporting for webspam  - Aug 08th
6. New feature Fetch Googlebot in webmaster tools - Aug 03rd
7. Speed up website paid Service by Google in future - Jul 28th
8. Better way to handle URLs with parameters - Jul 22nd
9. Valid metrics beyond pagerank - Jun 30th
10. Google +1 Stats on Webmaster Tools & Google Analytics - June 28th
11. rel="canonical" support now in HTTP Headers - Jun 17th
12. New Instant Pages from Google - Jun 14th
13. Webmaster Tools search keywords & impressions info in GA - June 8th
14. Authors Pictures on web search with markup - Jun 7th
15. Search engines come together for richer web with schema.org - Jun 02nd
16. Check your website instant preview in Google Webmastertools - May 18th 2011
17. Better way to Remove URLS from search Engine Results - May 17th 2011
18. Suggestions to build high quality sites in the web - May 6th 2011
19. Google is supporting flash in instant previews - May 6th 2011
20. Wordpress Plugin for Google Webmaster tools verification - Apr 19th 2011
21. New Methods to verify websites in Google Webmaster tools - Apr 21st 2011
22. Google Panda Update goes Global for English Users - Apr 11th, 2011
23. Now Pagespeed online with Mobile Support - Mar 31st, 2011
24. Detecting Mobile User Agent - Mar 30th, 2011
25. Introducing Google Social +1 button - Mar 28th, 2011
26. Video Sitemaps Help - Mar 24th, 2011 
27. Google Panda / Farmer Update - Feb 24th, 2011
28. Making Websites Mobile Friendly - Feb 22nd, 2011
29. Advanced features in Webmaster tools with analytics data - Feb 18th, 2011
30. Single Login for Analytics and Webmaster Tools -  Feb 07, 2011
31. Webmaster Tools Search Queries Update - Feb 03, 2011

29. Advanced features in Webmaster tools with analytics data:

Two weeks before Webmaster tools team has released a feature to merge analytics data with Webmaster tools data. As we expected Google team started releasing more advanced features by combining data of GA and GWT.

Now we can differentiate search queries information based on search type, location and impressions vs clicks. Have a look at above screen shot for clear understanding. This kind of data segmentation will help SEO team for better understanding about search queries, so that they can deliver quality results.

30. Analytics to Webmaster Tools -  Feb 07, 2011

Another update from webmaster team that linking Google analytics to webmaster tools. Many SEO’s have a common questions that “Is it a good idea?”. Yes, it is. Linking analytics to webmaster tools will give more accurate impressions vs clicks count in webmaster tools. It helps SEO professionals to find out the best keywords which are converting well in delivering results.

In future we can expect many changes in webmaster tools relevant to analytics data. We might see like updating current sections and including new sections in webmaster tools. Let us see the future changes in webmaster tools dashboard.

Official Source: Analytics to Webmaster Tools

31. Webmaster Tools Search Queries Update - Feb 03, 2011

Google webmaster team has updated a feature in search queries section based on several webmasters feedback. Before Feb 02, 2011 webmasters are able to see the impressions count in two or three digits. After Feb 03, 2011 onwards count will be shown in one to two digits.

For example instead of impressions count 74,000 it will show 75000, instead of 146,000 it will show 150,000. Google team said that “reason behind this update to represent numbers nicely and to decrease the confusion to webmasters”. Internal ranking and impression counting systems are same, only the outer display will change.

Official Source:  Search Queries Update

How many Hats in SEO?

As per my knowledge is concern only 3 Hats matters most in SEO:

1. White Hat SEO
2. Grey Hat SEO
3. Black Hat SEO
   

1. White Hat SEO:

White Hat SEO means completely following the ethical methods to acquire good rankings in search engines for a website. If a website really providing good information to visitors then white hat SEO works very well
and gives the best results. Now you have question that “what are white hat SEO methods?” All the methods which aren’t trying to cheat or manipulate search engines or visitors are called white hat SEO methods. I hope only few sites like Wikipedia, Google etc... follows white hat SEO methods.

2. Grey Hat SEO:

Grey Hat SEO means following combination of ethical and unethical methods to get fine rankings in Search Engines for a website. Most of the SEOs use Grey Hat SEO Methods to attain rankings. Grey Hat SEO works fine most of the time and most of the professionals recommend it. Grey Hat SEO methods aren’t unethical, it includes little stuffing of keywords in the site and back links etc. Now a day’s these methods are quite common while promoting website. Most of Corporate websites, Personal Blogs etc … follows Grey Hat SEO Methods.

3. Black Hat SEO:

Black Hat SEO stands to follow completely unethical which are used to cheat, manipulate search engines as well as users. In the past years search engines aren’t able to recognize these methods and difficult to find out and filter the websites which use Black Hat SEO techniques. Search engines are became smarter now and able to find out and blocks websites which use black hat techniques. Search Engine Quality Professional are working hardly and updating regularly the SE algorithms to give the best results to the visitors.

Google Search in Color Interface - Looks cool

Google is always used to do different kind of experiments for all products and keep the best in live which are selected and voted by most of the visitors. As a part of this process Now Google is testing New Color Search Interface. We have to wait and see, whether the whole world will love it or hat it. Would you like to test it now then Here is a simple trick to make your google search colorful.

Follow the below steps:

1. Open Google.com
2. Search for the below code in Google instead of Keyword:
   javascript:void(document.cookie="PREF=ID=20b6e4c2f44943bb:U=4bf292d46faad806:TM=1249677602:LM=1257919388:S=odm0Ys-53ZueXfZG;path=/; domain=.google.com");
3. Now you will see New colored Google interface

Step 1 :

Step 2:

Step 3:

Source : Blogoscoped.com

I am using Firefox 3.5.3 Version and It's working fine for me. Just have a check guys and let me know if it's working for you people or not.

Find all domains hosted on an IP in Bing

Recently I came accross an interesting post in Labnol. In this post Amit explained about a new operator in Bing. Ofcourse we all know that Bing is a new search engine which is released few months back from Microsoft. Using this operator we can find out different domains which are hosted on an IP.

Search for "ip:(IP address)" to get the all different domains which are hosted on the same ip. For example I have taken domain www.educationinandhra.com. It's hosted on ip 66.147.242.170. Now I have searched for the all different domains which are hosted on the same ip as shown in the following screenshot.

Bing - Microsoft New Decision Engine

Microsoft is going to release a new search engine which is called Bing. Microsoft team is saying that "people would find a new search experience through Bing, so they are calling it as a decision engine. People would get world class search experience through it which has most latest features and for sure give fine results. In future people would take decisions through Bing only."

Microsoft Bing Profiles on the web :

• Introduction of Bing
• Bing Images
• FaceBook Profile
• Twitter Profile

Few people are saying that Microsoft is giving old wine in new bottle. Bing would be same as Live search. However few people are eagerly waiting for the new search experience with Bing, why because people are got bored with google. Google is Everywhere, Everyone looking for a change. Wait and see what's going to happen.