If you’ve spent any time around SEO advice, you’ve probably heard some version of this idea: “Press releases are great for backlinks.”
That statement is incomplete at best and misleading at worst.
Press releases can absolutely support your visibility online. They can help people discover your business. They can lead to media coverage. They can put your story in front of journalists, bloggers, customers, investors, and industry partners. And yes, they can sometimes lead to backlinks that matter.
But the release itself is usually not the prize.
That’s the part many business owners miss.
A press release is not a shortcut to SEO. It is not a backlink machine. It is a distribution tool for news. When it works well, it creates awareness and earns attention. When that attention turns into real coverage, mentions, interviews, roundup inclusions, or original articles, that is where the stronger backlink value often shows up.
So let’s clear this up. What counts when it comes to press releases and backlinks? And what doesn’t?
The simple answer
Here’s the practical version:
Press release backlinks usually do not carry much SEO value on their own.
What does count is what happens because of the press release:
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A journalist writes a story and links to you
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A niche blogger covers the announcement and cites your site
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A trade publication references your launch, study, event, or milestone
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A local media outlet features your business and includes a link
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An industry newsletter or resource page picks up your story
That is the difference between distributed links and earned links.
One is placed as part of the release’s circulation. The other is created because someone found your news worth mentioning.
Google and most SEO professionals have understood this distinction for years. Search engines are much better at separating broad syndication from genuine editorial endorsement. So if your strategy is “blast a press release and collect hundreds of links,” you are aiming at the wrong target.
A better strategy is this: use press releases to generate the kind of visibility that leads to credible mentions and editorial backlinks.
That still matters. A lot.
What a press release is actually good at
A press release does three useful things when done well.
First, it creates a clean, shareable version of your news. That matters because reporters, bloggers, podcast hosts, and even potential customers need something they can understand quickly.
Second, it gives your announcement reach. A release can appear in news databases, search results, niche sites, and journalist feeds. That does not mean every placement is valuable. It means your story has more chances to be seen.
Third, it gives other people something to build on. A reporter may not rewrite your release word for word, but they may use it as the reason to reach out, research you, or cover the story.
That’s where the real opportunity is.
Think of a press release like a match, not a campfire. The point is to spark coverage, not to admire the flame on the matchstick.
What counts: backlinks that can come from press release activity
Not all links are equal. Some links are basically digital wallpaper. Others can move the needle by driving traffic, building credibility, and strengthening your visibility in search.
Here’s what tends to count.
1. Editorial backlinks from original coverage
This is the gold standard.
A journalist, editor, blogger, or publisher decides your story is worth covering. They write an original piece and link to your website because it helps their readers.
Why does this matter? Because that link reflects judgment. Someone chose to reference you. That is very different from a syndicated copy of your release appearing automatically across dozens of sites.
Examples:
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A local newspaper covers your expansion and links to your company page
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A trade publication writes about your new product and links to the product page
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A reporter cites your survey data and links to the study on your site
These are the backlinks most business owners should care about.
2. Niche industry links
A backlink from the right small site can beat a backlink from the wrong large site.
Why? Relevance.
If you run a cybersecurity company, a mention from a respected security blog may be more useful than a random link on a general content farm. If you own a regional home services business, a local business journal or community publication can be more valuable than a low-quality national syndication site.
A good backlink is not just about domain size. It is about context, audience, and trust.
3. Local media and regional business coverage
Small businesses often overlook how powerful local coverage can be.
If your release announces a hiring push, new location, funding round, community initiative, award, or event, local coverage can create strong signals. It also tends to drive the kind of traffic that can actually turn into leads.
A link from a local TV station’s website, regional business journal, chamber publication, or city news site may not look flashy in a backlink tool. But it can send real visitors and reinforce your local authority.
That counts.
4. Links to useful pages, not just your homepage
This one matters more than people think.
If all backlinks point to your homepage, you are missing opportunities. When coverage links to a relevant internal page, the signal is often stronger and the user experience is better.
Examples:
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Product announcement → product page
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New report or survey → landing page with the report
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Event announcement → registration page
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New hire or leadership change → about/team page
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Community initiative → dedicated campaign page
The closer the link is to the actual subject of the news, the more useful it is for readers and the more natural it appears.
5. Mentions that bring referral traffic and secondary coverage
Some links matter because they send visitors. Others matter because they lead to more visibility.
A niche blog might not send huge traffic, but it may be read by journalists, conference organizers, podcast hosts, or other industry players. One modest mention can lead to interviews, collaborations, and additional coverage.
That is one reason obsessing over raw link counts is a mistake. A single useful mention can outperform 100 empty placements.
What doesn’t count, or doesn’t count much
Now for the part that saves people time and disappointment.
1. Syndicated copies of the release on low-value sites
This is the most common misunderstanding.
When a press release is distributed, it may appear on many websites. Some are legitimate media databases. Some are financial portals. Some are thin content sites that republish everything. Many of these copies are duplicated, lightly formatted, or buried in sections no real reader ever visits.
Do these create a lot of URLs? Yes.
Do they usually create strong SEO value? No.
Search engines understand syndicated content. They know the difference between original editorial coverage and mass duplication. Those syndicated placements may help with visibility, brand footprint, and discoverability, but they are usually not the backlinks you should brag about.
2. Links buried in duplicated release text
A link inside a release that gets copied to dozens of endpoints is not the same as dozens of independent endorsements.
That’s the key.
One of the oldest mistakes in press release SEO was treating every pickup as a separate vote of confidence. That’s just not how modern search works. If the same release with the same anchor text and the same link appears everywhere, its value is limited.
In many cases, those links are nofollowed, canonicalized away, devalued, or simply ignored for ranking purposes.
3. Over-optimized anchor text
This is where people get too clever.
If your press release keeps linking phrases like “best payroll software for small businesses” or “affordable Miami personal injury attorney,” you are not being strategic. You are waving a red flag.
Natural links usually use:
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Your brand name
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Your company name
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A product name
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A URL
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A simple descriptive phrase
Trying to stuff keyword-rich anchor text into a release is one of the fastest ways to make it look like an SEO play instead of real news.
Write for people first. Let the link be useful, not manipulative.
4. Links to pages with no connection to the announcement
A press release about a charity event should not point readers to a random service page just because you want to rank it.
That disconnect hurts credibility.
Every link in a release should make sense to a reader. Ask a simple question: if someone clicked this, would it help them understand the story better? If the answer is no, it probably does not belong there.
5. Raw backlink numbers without context
“We got 300 backlinks from one press release.”
Maybe. But what kind?
This is where people fool themselves with reporting dashboards. A backlink count without context tells you almost nothing. Were those links on real publications? Did anyone click them? Did any story get written? Did branded search increase? Did leads rise? Did referral traffic show up in analytics?
A big number can look impressive in a meeting. It may also mean very little.
So what should you measure instead?
If you want to know whether your press release helped, track outcomes that reflect actual attention.
Look at:
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Original articles written after distribution
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Quality of linking domains, not just quantity
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Referral traffic from coverage
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Branded search lift
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Demo requests, sales inquiries, or sign-ups tied to the campaign
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Media replies and follow-up conversations
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Social shares from relevant audiences
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Mentions without links that still build awareness
A real-world example: a company issues a release about new research. The release itself gets syndicated widely, but the meaningful result is that three industry publications write articles, one podcast invites the founder on, and a trade association links to the report in its newsletter. That is a successful release-driven link outcome.
Not because the wire created magic backlinks. Because the news created interest.
How to make press releases more likely to earn worthwhile backlinks
You cannot force earned links, but you can improve your odds.
Start with stronger news. Nobody links to bland announcements unless they have to. A new customer? Probably not enough. A new product that solves a timely problem, supported by data or a compelling founder story? Much better.
Make the story specific. Vagueness kills coverage. “We’re excited to announce growth” is weak. “We’re opening our third location after 18 months of 62% revenue growth and hiring 15 local employees” gives someone something to work with.
Create a destination page worth linking to. If your release announces a report, launch, event, or campaign, build a page that expands on it. Include visuals, FAQs, data, quotes, and next steps. Give journalists a better link target than your homepage.
Use one or two sensible links in the release, not five or six. More is not better. More often looks desperate.
Follow up with targeted outreach. This is where many of the best backlinks happen. The release creates the public version of the story; the follow-up email helps the right person notice it.
And keep expectations realistic. Press releases support backlink strategy. They are not a substitute for having something worth covering.
The mistake to avoid
The biggest mistake is using press releases as a loophole.
That mindset leads to weak announcements, spammy links, keyword stuffing, and disappointment. You end up chasing placements instead of attention.
A better approach is to treat press releases as part of a broader publicity strategy.
Use them when you have real news.
Use them to create reach.
Use them to support pitching.
Use them to give the media a clean source.
Use them to build the conditions for earned coverage.
That is where the payoff is.
Final takeaway
So, do press releases help with backlinks?
Yes — but usually not in the simplistic way people think.
What counts is not the stack of duplicated release URLs. What counts is the coverage, commentary, citations, and editorial mentions that can grow out of a well-timed, well-written announcement.
The release is the starting point, not the finish line.
If your only goal is to manufacture links, you will probably be disappointed. But if your goal is to create visibility that earns attention from the right people, press releases can absolutely support SEO, brand authority, and referral traffic.
That is the practical way to think about it.
Focus less on how many links appear.
Focus more on who noticed, who wrote, who linked, and who clicked.
That’s what counts.