We get asked this every week, usually by a founder who has just been told press releases are either a silver bullet or completely dead. Neither is true.
Here is what we see in practice: press release backlinks help SEO, but they do a specific job. Buy them for that job and they are excellent value. Buy them expecting rankings on demand and you will be disappointed.
What a press release link actually does
A distributed release places your story on established news and business domains. Those domains carry trust that took years and real editorial operations to build.
That gives you three things:
- Brand corroboration. Search engines and, increasingly, AI answer engines look for consistent mentions of a company across credible sources.
- Indexed pages that reference you. Even nofollow mentions get crawled, and they associate your name with your niche and your URL.
- Genuine equity where the attribute allows it. Dofollow placements pass authority in the ordinary way.
Where founders waste money
The most common mistake is buying volume with no idea where anything lands. If a seller will not tell you the publishers or show you samples, the low price is the warning, not the offer.
The second mistake is chasing a perfect dofollow ratio. A backlink profile made entirely of dofollow links looks purchased, because it is. Real coverage produces a mix.
Two relevant links from publishers with a real audience beat a spreadsheet of domains nobody reads.
Nofollow is not wasted money
This surprises people. A USA Today press release backlink or AP News press release backlink mention is usually nofollow, and it is still one of the most useful things a young brand can buy.
You are buying recognition. Prospects check whether you exist. Journalists check whether anyone has covered you. Both of those decisions happen before anyone thinks about link equity.
How we would spend a first budget
- Start with one mixed distribution so your name appears across many trusted domains at once.
- Add one recognisable single outlet you can point to on your site and in sales conversations.
- Only then consider a dofollow-only backlink package to top up equity toward a specific page.
Write the release like news, not like an ad. Publishers reject promotional copy, and readers ignore it. One clear announcement, one useful quote, one link to a page that deserves the traffic.
So, do they help?
Yes — as an authority and trust layer that is cheap relative to outreach, and as a reliable way to get credible domains talking about you in one week rather than six months.
They are not a replacement for a site worth linking to. Nothing is.
If you want to see what the placements look like before buying, samples and the wider list of press release backlink packages sit inside the client dashboard.