seoArt - 4:14 pm on Jun 6, 2012 (gmt 0)

Would high quality article submissions, with a plain URL link in the footer (no anchor text), be considered an unnatural link by Google?

This is something we still do, but it is quality content written by a licensed professional in the field.

We also recently submitted a press release to PRWEB (no free PR sites), with a plain URL link and no anchor text. I'm wondering if that is frowned upon as well?

These are things that make sense to me for marketing purposes regardless of SEO, but I am worried Google might look at them as an attempt to manipulate their results now.