will google ding for new links?

PR Campaign and Google

[meelosh]

Hi all....some help please.
One of my sites is well ranked and does very well in search and ROI.
We want to take it to another level and do some big pr campaigns that will include SEO boosting Press releases. These press releases will be released to mass media outlets and will have links to the site. My question is that we have always grown our links at a "naturall" speed so as to not upset the big G.
If we start getting all these inbound links (which at first will most likely not carry much link weight)will google penalise and see them as purchased links?
thanks for your time
Meelosh

[graeme_p]

I did on have a drop in rankings after a press release, but one is bad statistics! Other people claim good results.

[meelosh]

thanks graeme...thats what i am afraid off...was hoping i could get some more results from others.

[ogletree]

I have seen it happen both ways. It may just be that at different times Google treated things differently. I have a few sites that have got several hundred new links in a week and rankings staid the same at first but then started to rank better.

In the past I did the same thing and the site fell down 5 pages. Google looks at so many thing and is always making changes. One day something is bad the next it is good and vice versa.

I have tested all kinds of linking strategies and I have yet to see something put a permanent penalty. I have never tried the thousands of links for very off topic though or from bad sites.

Press releases can help you if done correctly. Make sure that whoever does your press release has experience in getting high quality ratings from the pr distribution companies. Do it on a Monday and pay to be in the top 3. Make sure it is a real press release that somebody will pick up. If you don't you will just get tons of links that have very little value. Your goal is to get a person to read it and then give you a link. Don't just write a press release about a new product or service or some minor award you got. Make it interesting. Have unique information with some graphs. Provide interesting data. News people love stats.

[meelosh]

thanks for your insight ogletree.....it is very confusing on so many different levels with these google rules. i appreciate your input and i think i will think about it a little more as i do not know if i am willing to take the risk at dropping 5 pages as this site is on page 1 for most its keywords.
maybe i will look at a campaign with press releases that have no links (embedded in the content)and let the sites that pick them up link in if they want? i really am not trying to get more links (well wont say no if they come in)as my link quality is pretty good..i really am just trying to capture a larger audience and generate more awareness of the "product". allot of pr companies are offering these "seo" press releases that are link loaded and i think it could get or look spammy even though it is a good content release. will think about it and would appreciate any other input or experiences with this type of thing..thanks

[ogletree]

If you are already ranking and have some authority you don't have to worry so much about this. I have done many press releases with links and have never seen a penalty for it. When you hear about the penalties it is mostly when somebody gets thousands of links overnight. It is very hard to get a penalty like that by accident. I would still do the PR and put a link to your site.

[cassine]

i am agree with ogletree

[Engago_team]

One of our press releases managed to get up to 192,000 links, which decreased to 9,000 3weeks later.

Over the same time span the website referred in the press release went from 11,000 links to 24,000 links and has decreased now to 14,000 links on Google.

[edited by: jatar_k at 7:15 pm (utc) on Feb 11, 2010]
[edit reason] no specifics thanks [/edit]

[meelosh]

I am not too worried about link numbers fluctuating but being penalised by google for them....the campaign is for exposure and not for link building....so if google will honour the sites current position that would be good..
it looks like we will goahead and give it a shot.
thanks for the feedback