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Press Release Sites: The Best and The Worst

Introduction

Marketing executives know the importance of press releases more than anyone else does. Press release submission is one of the greatest ways to promote your blog posts. Just as social media submissions, writing press releases for each of your posts can generate a huge amount of traffic as well as build some more links.

Why Press Releases?

The two major reasons people submit press releases are building backlinks and generating traffic. In order to get high quality backlinks aiding in SEO, you need to submit press releases with anchor text links to your sites. High traffic press release sites help you with direct traffic as well.

You should know that not every press release site gives you enough benefits. Some of the sites do not even give you what you are looking for—a DoFollow link. Such sites are not good for your link building campaign. Also, there are sites which get higher traffic than others. I have checked the Alexa rankings of these sites and have found quite a few that get great amount of traffic, and some, which get high rankings for their releases.

With this information, I have organized the list into two sections—those which give you real benefits and those which don’t. I have included those sites which have high traffic into recommended sites section, even if they don’t give you anchor text benefit.

I really don’t understand why Mashable’s list recommends some useless press release sites out there, and one site (Press-base.com) is not even in existence now.

The numbers within the brackets are the PageRank and the Alexa rank respectively.

Recommended Press Release Sites

Here is the list of all the press release sites, I have found to be valuable to submit your releases to. The links from these sites are highly advantageous for SEO.

1. NPR.org (8; 1,615): NPR (National Public Radio) is a non-profit organization that gives out news in podcast form. You can send in story ideas (if you really got something big) with relevant links on your site. If selected, the release will fetch you huge traffic.

2. PRNewsWire.com (8; 5,879): This is by far the best press release submission site. However, the service is not free. If you have enough money to spend, create an account, and you will get your releases ranked quite high and get a lot of other benefits.

3. PRWeb.com (7; 5,722): Another great press release site. This is also not free to join. But the benefits are great, just like PRNewsWire.

4. BetaNews.com (7; 2,777): This is a high traffic DoFollow press release site. The news submissions are mainly on software, though you can submit any news here. It’s free to join, though releases are moderated.

5. PR.com (6; 19,800): DoFollow links are available. High traffic site. You can also place images and banners. It has a paid plan that gives you full benefits.

6. PRLog.org (5; 15,881): One of the best. The press releases submitted are ranked high in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Though you can’t target keywords through anchor, you can get direct links and traffic.

7. 1888PressRelease.com (5; 53,231): It gives you DoFollow links and Report Spam facility. Another cool feature is that the press release page displays your site live through a frame. It also has paid plan with more benefits.

8. OpenPR.com (5; 39,533): This is a high traffic PR site. You can't get targeted backlinks with link anchor text. However, you can get links directly from the URL.

9. 24-7Pressrelease.com (3; 43,115): DoFollow link is available and comments section is included for people to comment on your release. It’s not a free service, though.

10. Free-News-Release.com (5; 50,837): You can target keywords well with your specific URL from this service.

11. Free-Press-Release-Center.info (4; 84,418): You can place DoFollow links on the release with targetable anchor keywords and general contact information with your site’s address at the bottom. The releases are available to download as PDF files, which can be virally distributed. Upgrading the membership, you can target more keywords through more text links.

12. PressAbout.com (5; 101,871): WordPress-like design. You can get backlinks from the press release by putting HTML anchor code with appropriate keywords. Commenting option is also available.

13. I-NewsWire.com (PR: 3; A: 61,517): You can have DoFollow links from your release and have a more information snippet with your site’s link.

14. PRBuzz.com (4; 234,682): This one also gives you a preview of your website in a big widget just like 1888PressRelease.com. You can get DoFollow links and email links, but it seems the anchor cannot be placed.

15. PRLeap.com (6; 46,708): You can target keywords on your release with anchor text links. Also place additional links in your contact information. Press releases are well formatted without a lot of advertisements, and you can even include images.

16. TheOpenPress.com (4; 78,500): You can get targetable text links.

17. ECommWire.com (4; 134,964): Low traffic E-Commerce press release site. It gives backlink from a Related Website snippet on the top. This link can include anchor text. The site is good for E-Commerce websites.

18. Free-Press-Release.com (4; 5,928): Though the site design is rather messy, the traffic is high. Also, you can place your banners on the press release submitted pointing to your site.

19. PR-Inside.com (4; 11,457): Though you can get links, it seems that the link anchor text cannot be chosen. Since it’s a high traffic site, you can target some visitors.

20. PR9.net (4; 75,106): You can’t take links with anchor. But a contact widget can contain your website link (DoFollow) and a link to email address. This can give you direct traffic from this link, though you can't target keywords.

Not Recommended Press Release Sites

Here is a list of sites that we haven’t found quite useful. However, most of them have paid plans, which hold some promise.

1. ClickPress.com (5; 60,474): Not recommended. It doesn’t give you backlinks from the press releases. Also, the website link given at the bottom of the release is a redirect. So, no link juice whatever. Steer clear of this site.

2. PRCompass.com (3; 147,280): Low traffic site. You can’t target your keywords by anchor text in the link you get, since URL is directly linked.

3. NewsWireToday.com (5; 60,181): Links are not given. Only Premium service holds any value, and it is expensive.

4. PressMethod.com (4; 105,378): The releases can’t contain links with targetable anchor text. Also the only link given at the bottom of each release is highly inconspicuous. The general site design is not appealing, with too small letters.

5. PRUrgent.com (4; 114,549): This one gives you the ability to place only URL, and no anchor text. Also, the traffic is minimal.

6. Express-Press-Release.net (3; 119,654): Links are not activated in the free service. Only paid service has better ranking and SEO benefits.

Conclusion

A site’s ranking can be increased quite high by submission of press releases with relevant links. Also, you have great benefit through direct traffic. Please comment about other press release sites, which we haven't covered in this list. [Edit: With Ms Angie H's comment, I have included OpenPR in the list. If you have any other recommendations, please update through comments.]

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008

Comments

  1. Great resource Lenin! I use a lot of these myself. There are a few other great sites such as OpenPR and LivePR that can be very valuable if you know how to use them! There are a few here that I haven't heard of, but I'll definitely look into them. The value of this PR is priceless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello, could you please tell me how to make PR approved in Open PR





      Regards,
      Nishu

      Delete
  2. Thanks Angie. I will make a note of the sites you have mentioned and in the update to this article, which I will do soon enough, I will study and include them. Thanks for commenting.

    Lenin

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have included OpenPR into the list with your comment, Angie. I looked at Live PR and it seems to be a public Relations Site? No way to submit press releases there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. hey its really a good info thanks and i must say ur post is bookmarked ..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you very much for the list or pr sites. We were just in the process of doing something similar and researching which PR directories provide SEO benefits (especially the free ones!) We'll be sure to pass any along that we find which aren't listed here.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Any Ideas as to what makes a VALID account name for PR9.net?
    Perhaps you could add which sites are registered only on first submission of a press release, only because I went through joining up and found this out about PRBuzz, I-Newswire and Open PR.
    Has Pr leap become a paying site now?

    Great information. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  7. Why don't you use one closest to your company name on PR9.

    Yes, it seems PRLeap has gone completely paid service. However, it is worthwhile to spend some money on good press release sites.

    Good to know you liked the article.

    ReplyDelete
  8. These are pretty good tips on which sites offer the best distribution options.

    I'll be honest, I pretty much use the $200 package on PRWeb for all my releases - the amount of press and traffic you get from that channel alone makes the cost more than worthwhile.

    Of the free ones, I agree that PRLog is one of the best - you might also want to check out Information-Online.com.

    This site also give you some excellent visibility and traffic - indeed, I've seen releases at Information Online rank near the top of Google on many a search.

    Thanks,

    Danny.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks, Danny for the comment. I will make a note of that mentioned site. It should be reviewed.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great list Lenin, you put them in a great order.
    Some of them gift me some effects, some of them no effect, no traffic, no sales.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Live PR is on http://www.live-pr.com/en/ The submit link is on the top left hand corner.

    Sorry, Lenin, I didn't catch your other comment or I would have gotten back to you sooner.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Try this new Australian Free Press Release site it distribute world wide with great coverage http://www.freepressrelease.com.au/

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is a nice list of PR sites. Thanks for taking the time to not only put it together, but to put some thought in to describing each.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It's my pleasure. Thanks for the comment.

    ReplyDelete
  15. We have found that Tech Expo World http://techexpoworld.com is a good resource for posting free tech related press releases.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Lenin,

    One factor not included in your list is which sites are indexed by Google News. You can check this by going to Google News and doing a search such as site:BigNews.biz (just swap out the URL for whatever site you want to check on) this will check to see if the press releases from that site are listed in Google News. Many are not, and Google news can drive a huge amount of traffic.

    ReplyDelete
  17. BigNews,

    What you suggested is definitely in order. It's quite a valuable suggestion, and my readers will surely find this interesting. Thanks for the comment.

    Lenin

    ReplyDelete
  18. As noted above, http://www.1888pressrelease.com/ is a easy to use site that also gets some good traffic. Pay and get more benefits but the overall cost is a deal. I'll second that.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Nice post, thanks for sharing you knowledge, I shall use them for any future releases.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks for the information VJ.

    I've been researching for some quality US press release companies half the day and was going round and round in circles!

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Hey Admin

    Thanx for the great list . I just want to ask you about Sharewellnewswire.com .Sharewell Newswire offers paid press release distribution services . It will be a pleasure if you add Our Website in Your data base .

    Here are the other Details :
    Complete name : Sharewell Newswire
    Link : http://www.sharewellnewswire.com/
    Google Pr : 2

    Thanx

    ReplyDelete
  22. The two major reasons people submit press releases are building backlinks and generating traffic. In order to get high quality backlinks aiding in SEO, you need to submit press releases with anchor text links to your sites. High traffic press release sites help you with direct traffic as well.

    ReplyDelete
  23. A site’s ranking can be increased quite high by submission of press releases with relevant links. Also, you have great benefit through direct traffic.

    ReplyDelete

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