Can Press Release Syndication Hurt Rankings in Google?

[paladin]

Hello Everyone,
One of the sites I am working on has recentely been hit with what I think is part of the Dewey Update. Basically during the last few weeks the site went from being on the first page of Google for 2 of it main terms for years to pages 3-5 for those terms.

One theory posed by a SEO contractor that I work with suggested that it may be a result of a few press releases that got syndicated across multiple sites. A search in Google for "[BRAND NAME] affiliate program contest" with quotes returns some 18,000 results.

What do you think? Could this be the culpret?

I don't want this thread to get side tracked on to the question on if there was a Dewey Update or not. Rather just on the question: Can online press releases or their syndication hurt your rankings?

-Alon

[travelin cat]

Press releases never hurt our rankings. In fact they seem to help by spreading our brand awareness and therefore more link love.

[DannyTweb]

I think that PR's may be one of the reasons we remain
penalized and zero PR'nked after PR 5-6 and no penalty
1 yaer ago.

[CainIV]

Depends on how, where they were released and whether the content was duplicated on your website IMHO.

[Hissingsid]

whether the content was duplicated on your website IMHO

The only harm could be a dupe penalty and if you don't have it on your site how can you be affected by the dupe penalty.

Cheers

Sid

[DannyTweb]

It's just another piece in the puzzle of why our site has continued to be penalized, not the entire reason, but just a piece. We do not have the PR duped on our site either.

[paladin]

and whether the content was duplicated on your website

In our case we first post the releases on our site using Wordpress. I find it strange that this could be the cause. It is a PR5 website that has been around for years.

Could this really be it - that we are getting penalized by posting our news on our site?

[JoaoJose]

I think you always take a chance of being penalized for dupe content when you syndicate your content to other sites. Moreover if the syndicated content doesn't link to your site.