Press Release Backlinks Work: How an SEO Ranked Google’s Head of Webspam for a Made-Up Keyword — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00We are talking about press release
2. 0:02backlinks. Do they matter? When they
3. 0:04don't, and when they do. I'm going to
4. 0:06share a brief experiment where somebody
5. 0:08used a press release backlink to get
6. 0:10Google's head of web spam's blog to show
7. 0:13up for a keyword. Then I'm going to
8. 0:15share a clip from my podcast with Kyle
9. 0:17Roof last week explaining why press
10. 0:19release backlinks could matter. Then I'm
11. 0:21going to give a very dark, very black
12. 0:24hat thing I heard somebody doing, which
13. 0:26I don't condone at all, but it is worth
14. 0:28knowing about. You shouldn't try that
15. 0:30one at home. And then I'll share white
16. 0:32hat ways to use this knowledge. This is
17. 0:35an older experiment shared on the 21 SEO
18. 0:38experiments article that I'm always
19. 0:40sharing on this show. It'll be linked to
20. 0:41in the description. Experiment number
21. 0:4413. Press release links work. Matt cuts.
22. 0:47Take note. Towards the end of 2014,
23. 0:50Google's head of web spam publicly
24. 0:52denounced press release links as holding
25. 0:54no SEO value. So Matt Cuts, Google's
26. 0:57head of web spam, said, "Note, I
27. 0:59wouldn't expect links from press release
28. 1:01websites to benefit your rankings." In
29. 1:03an ironic and brilliant move, SEO
30. 1:05Consult put Cut's claim to the test by
31. 1:08issuing a press release which linked to,
32. 1:11of all places, Matt Cut's blog. The
33. 1:14anchor text used for the link was the
34. 1:16term strepleasers.
35. 1:19So the press release says dubbed test
36. 1:22strepleasers which itself is an anagram
37. 1:24of press release. The test hopes to
38. 1:26discover the validity of this claim. As
39. 1:28we have seen the benefit of links within
40. 1:30press releases before now, so expect
41. 1:32that they do actually hold some weight.
42. 1:34We will publish our results in due
43. 1:36course. Now this term repleasers is not
44. 1:39used anywhere on Cut's website. It's not
45. 1:41present anywhere on Matt Cut's site. But
46. 1:43when this test was done, when you
47. 1:45searched strepleasers, guess whose
48. 1:48website was coming up top? It was Matt
49. 1:51Cuts. The SEO community had a field day
50. 1:53with that test. Now, the reason that
51. 1:55press release backlinks normally
52. 1:57actually don't pass weight is because
53. 2:00they're no follow backlinks. Most of the
54. 2:02time when you get a link from a press
55. 2:04release, it is a no follow backlink. But
56. 2:06here's the thing about no follow
57. 2:08backlinks. Kyle Roof showed that they
58. 2:10count if they are on pages that rank and
59. 2:13that get clicks. And I talked about this
60. 2:15with Kyle Roof last week on the podcast.
61. 2:18This is the clip. You also I mean you
62. 2:20show you've you we were talking about
63. 2:22this that that no follow links matter if
64. 2:25the page ranks and it's it's getting
65. 2:27clicks. It's getting traffic. Yeah, it's
66. 2:28getting it's getting traffic. And so Joy
67. 2:30Hawkins, she she's like, I want to test
68. 2:32this. And she did multiple tests and
69. 2:34found all the same things. And so she
70. 2:36put she put a a no follow link on her
71. 2:41forum on her on her local SEO forum and
72. 2:45it went to a page on her site. Um not on
73. 2:48the forum but like actually on uh on
74. 2:51Sterling Sky and
75. 2:54uh that page also had a YouTube video
76. 2:57embedded and this no follow link from
77. 3:00this forum site that was ranking and
78. 3:03getting clicks. This no follow link was
79. 3:05so powerful that not only did the page
80. 3:08that was linked to rank, her embedded
81. 3:11YouTube videos started ranking as well.
82. 3:14>> That great.
83. 3:14>> Yep.
84. 3:15>> That's so great. [laughter and gasps]
85. 3:17>> That was a lot of fun. That was a fun
86. 3:19test.
87. 3:19>> Yeah. And she tested it multiple times.
88. 3:20If you want that full episode, episode
89. 3:231,213
90. 3:24of the show, Kyle Roof ranked Gibberish
91. 3:26number one on Google, then Google
92. 3:28de-indexed 20 of his sites. Now, this is
93. 3:31the thing that's really bad. Warning,
94. 3:33don't try this at home. I don't condone
95. 3:35it, but it's worth knowing about things
96. 3:36like this. So, I I heard about this
97. 3:39years ago from an SEO that I had coffee
98. 3:41with back when I was living in
99. 3:43Bucharest, Romania. This SEO will put up
100. 3:45a job listing without a link in the job
101. 3:48listing, which forces interested
102. 3:50applicants to search the company name,
103. 3:52maybe careers, maybe the role that's
104. 3:55being hired for. There's a page for
105. 3:57this, but there's also a press release
106. 3:59announcing this brand is hiring for so
107. 4:02and so role. So when people search, the
108. 4:04page comes up and the press release
109. 4:06comes up. The press release is usually
110. 4:08optimized better, so it comes up number
111. 4:10one. The page title for the application
112. 4:13form is something that's not as
113. 4:15relevant, so it's not going to come up
114. 4:17number one, maybe number two. So
115. 4:19interested applicants search for the
116. 4:21brand and then the role. And this press
117. 4:23release shows the press release links to
118. 4:26a form page which links to two to three
119. 4:29other pages that the SEO wants to rank.
120. 4:32So right away that press release is
121. 4:34ranking. It's getting clicks. People are
122. 4:37clicking on the link to this form
123. 4:39passing authority to the form. And then
124. 4:41the form asks questions that are
125. 4:44answered in these two to three other
126. 4:46pages that are linked to. So applicants
127. 4:49actually click on those pages because we
128. 4:51know that internal link clicks make
129. 4:53internal links more valuable. So the way
130. 4:55that it works is the press release ranks
131. 4:57and gets clicks. Because it's ranking
132. 4:59and getting clicks, the no follow
133. 5:00backlink actually passes authority to
134. 5:02that form page. The form page passes
135. 5:05authority to the SEO pages. There are
136. 5:07also people clicking on the form page
137. 5:09directly from Google search results and
138. 5:12clicks from search results also give a
139. 5:14page authority. So, this form page has a
140. 5:16more varied profile. It has this
141. 5:18external link from the press release and
142. 5:20clicks from Google. And again, the
143. 5:22internal links pass authority to the
144. 5:24linked SEO pages. I even came across
145. 5:27this on X last week from Arab Bodnar who
146. 5:31said, "Publish job listings with your
147. 5:33brand name and no link. Applicants
148. 5:35search your brand name on Google to find
149. 5:37you. The more people search for you, the
150. 5:39more Google trusts you." That's just
151. 5:41getting branded searches and clicks on
152. 5:43your brand. But yeah, this SEO took this
153. 5:46one step further. Don't try that. But
154. 5:48there are more white hat ways to gify
155. 5:50this ways that aren't totally evil. So
156. 5:53you could do a viral promotion where you
157. 5:56have Easter eggs in valuable SEO content
158. 5:59and you have people who want to start
159. 6:01enter by googling and then they click on
160. 6:04a press release and then that press
161. 6:06release links to an instructions page
162. 6:08which in turn links to your SEO pages
163. 6:10which have the Easter eggs in them which
164. 6:12will be useful for the promotion. And
165. 6:14then the press release also links to
166. 6:16these SEO pages with exact match anchor
167. 6:19text that isn't spammy because the
168. 6:21anchor text is in the pages title tags
169. 6:24and H1s. So if your keyword was language
170. 6:26learning app, you have a page that has
171. 6:28language learning app in the page title
172. 6:30and in the H1 and it's a lot more
173. 6:32natural when you get a backlink that has
174. 6:34the anchor text language learning app
175. 6:36and then you actually have the promotion
176. 6:38of course or no tricks, you just have a
177. 6:41brand that people search. So, you put
178. 6:43out a press release with some
179. 6:44interesting news about your brand and an
180. 6:46announcement page on your site. That
181. 6:48announcement page internal links to some
182. 6:50valuable SEO pages. The press release
183. 6:52also internal links to those valuable
184. 6:54SEO pages and people are searching your
185. 6:56brand name because you just have a brand
186. 6:58that people search for and care about.
187. 7:00The press release comes up. They click
188. 7:01on the press release. They read it. They
189. 7:03click on the links in the press release.
190. 7:05But either way, when you have a deeper
191. 7:07understanding of how Google works, you
192. 7:09can do better, smarter SEO that makes
193. 7:13money. And for press releases, I
194. 7:15recommend AB Newswire, which charges $80
195. 7:18for a one-off press release. It's $6 per
196. 7:21release if you buy the 500 annual
197. 7:23package, which gives you 83 press
198. 7:25releases to use in a year. And that
199. 7:27comes down to $6 per release, but you
200. 7:30have to use those 83 in a year. So maybe
201. 7:32you want to get that package if you're
202. 7:34splitting it with somebody else. There's
203. 7:35also EIN PressWire which is more
204. 7:38expensive but the press releases stay
205. 7:40indexed longer. Those two are great. And
206. 7:42if you want to go deeper on doing
207. 7:44better, smarter SEO that makes money, my
208. 7:47SEO course, Compact Keywords at
209. 7:49compactkeywords.com.
210. 7:51It's about how to find the searches
211. 7:52people are doing when they want to pay
212. 7:54you, when they want to become customers
213. 7:56or users or warm leads. They have a
214. 7:58need. You find how they describe those
215. 8:01needs when they're doing Google
216. 8:02searches. You target these searches with
217. 8:04SEO landing pages made to convert the
218. 8:07searcher that just smoothly converts
219. 8:09them. Very little friction. The searcher
220. 8:11does their search, they see your page,
221. 8:14they click it, they say, "This is for
222. 8:15me." And then they click a big call to
223. 8:17action button that converts them. How to
224. 8:19structure your site for these pages, how
225. 8:21to build links, templates, Google Docs,
226. 8:23Google Sheets, examples of what not to
227. 8:25do and what to do. So much is in this
228. 8:28course. I hope you will check it out.
229. 8:30compactkeywords.com. And that's
230. 8:32everything that I got for this episode
231. 8:33of the show. This is episode 1,222
232. 8:36of the podcast. 1,222
233. 8:39epic days in a row doing this show. We
234. 8:43are going crazy. If you watch this on
235. 8:45YouTube, thank you so much for watching.
236. 8:47If you listened on Spotify or Apple
237. 8:49Podcasts, thank you so much for
238. 8:51listening and I will talk to you again
239. 8:53tomorrow. Bye now.