Panda and Penguin updates of 2011-12 and beyond have thwarted self-promotion efforts of several businesses. They can no longer make blatant use of SEO tactics to garner page visits. Talking about PRs, reputed syndications don’t easily publish PRs, and since it will cost a significant amount, restricted budgets may prohibit their use.

But leaving that aside, PR does still continue to dominate on-site and offsite content; here we are listing out the benefits of writing PRs:

1. Get Inbound Links from Multiple Sources

If you can produce high quality unique content on the Internet, plenty of news sources will hunt you down and be willing to provide backlinks. Yes, links will come from duplicate content websites and low rate websites as well, but one can always use filtering software in order to dash out unwanted links from less valuable websites.

2. Get In Touch With Authoritative Sources

As mentioned above, low-to-average quality free loaders will always be there on the Internet, but if your PRs are picked by quality publishers, the links obtained are more than valuable. When you get inbound links from high ranking websites, it tells search engines that someone trusted is vesting their trust in you, which puts your brand in higher esteem.

3. Build Your Brand with Keyword Linking

Press releases, if written carefully, can be a good means of brand building. Since you’ll be using your brands name and associated keywords together in a PR, search engines will be showing up your business every time the keywords are used by prospective clients and customers.

4. Get Instant Visibility

News publishers have their own dedicated readership. So when your PR is published on their websites, you also get a new set of audience to read about your business and offerings. If the content is of high quality and strikes a chord with the audience, they can visit your website and you get what we call “Referral Traffic.”

Some Drawbacks of Press Release Based SEO

• Persuading high quality PR publishers is always a hard task. They have set high standards for accepting PRs, and you will be refused if you don’t stand up-to their expectations.
• An over abundance of PRs is reducing their authority, and getting quality back links harder than ever before.
• Press releases are expensive. Good writers charge more, good publications cost a lot, which pushes the overall expense much higher.

It is therefore important to weigh your options carefully – pick a budget that meets your goals, and write PRs that have high pick-up value.