Press releases remain one of the main tools for public relations. They are the first line of communication to inform the public about an organization’s products and activities. Press releases can also pique the interest of journalists and prompt them to interview one the organization’s leaders for an upcoming article or even to write an in-depth article about the subject of the release.
Deciding how to distribute your news release can be challenging. Many PR pros use media directories to build their own media lists of news sources and journalists. Larger businesses use the established news release distribution services such as Business Wire, especially for financial reporting and major product announcements, believing the paid services provide the widest coverage and best placements. Some publicists, especially small businesses, hope to save costs by using free online press release distribution services.
To help small businesses and others hoping to promote their organizations, we’ve ranked free distribution services and selected the best based on page rank and Alexa traffic ranking, a figure that estimates website ranking based on a combination of unique visitors and page views.
| Service | Page Rank | Alexa Ranking |
| PR.com | 6 | 16740 |
| PRLog | 6 | 7611 |
| Pr-inside.com | 6 | 51150 |
| OnlinePRnews | 5 | 14593 |
| Newswire | 5 | 51779 |
| PressReleaser.org | 5 | 74510 |
| TheOpenPress | 4 | 69768 |
| OpenPR | 4 | 38483 |
| MyPRGenie | 4 | 11991 |
| FreePressRelease.com | 3 | 92353 |
SEO Value of Press Release Sites
The value of press release distribution sites for SEO has diminished following Google’s revisions to its search results algorithm. After finding that some businesses were inundating press release sites with releases stuffed with spammy backlinks in an effort to boost their website ranking, Google limited their SEO impact. Google recommends that links in press releases be “no follow” links. If they are not, extensive use of press releases could prompt a search engine penalty.
Press releases still have value, but Google recommends disseminating them to get media attention, not for SEO points.
Opinions vary about the value of free press release distribution sites. Some PR experts say they aren’t worthwhile, citing the phrase: “You get what you pay for.” Free sites may only post the release on their site and may not include photos, videos or HTML-formatted content. They may not post submissions immediately, may not always be reliable, and require you to do more work. PR personnel should balance any benefits against the time involved in submitting the release.
The core purpose of a press release is to get placement in legitimate news and social media sources. Each free press release distribution service should be judged against that standard.
Paid Press Release Sites
The major fee-for-service press release distribution services maintain comprehensive databases of news sources and social media influencers. Their clients choose appropriate categories of sources to receive a news release; the service sends the release to all sources in their media database within the client’s selected categories. The system assures businesses that their releases reach the appropriate news and social media outlets. It does not assure that the press release will be published – or even looked at by a journalist. (That’s where a compelling headline works its magic.)
The Truth about Free Press Release Distribution Services
The major paid press release distribution services have also arranged for automatic placement of their clients’ news releases in hundreds of online sites. The automatic placements depend on industry, topic and location. Depending on the level of service you choose, the services may also include meta-data editing options, social media posting, analytics, and grammar checking. The major services all use human editors to check releases for errors before distribution. (Considering the extensive internal review press releases receive in most businesses, it’s surprising how many errors those editors catch. They’ve saved many PR pros.)
Besides, or in addition to, using press release services, many publicists submit releases and pitch directly to journalists.
To make the releases available to other journalists, social media influencers and consumers, most organizations also post their releases in the corporate newsroom on their websites and in their social media accounts. That strategy allows the company to target its audience directly, as opposed to going through the media. Sometimes, the news release placement in the corporate newsroom receives the top placement in a Google News search.
Track Releases, Measure Results
Whether you use free or paid services, tracking press release results with a media monitoring service is a crucial part of public relations. The paid services provide reports of placements for all releases. Some of those placements – especially the automatically published placements –may be difficult to find with a manual search.
A news and social media monitoring service like Glean.info, formerly CyberAlert, will clip the releases that outlets publish, monitor conversations about the company or products following the release, and measure the reach and reader sentiment of the press release — enabling public relations and marketing personnel to measure the reach and effectiveness of their press release efforts.
Bottom Line: This ranking of free press release distribution services can help guide your PR and marketing plans. Whatever service you pick, employ a media monitoring service to track your results and gauge the success of your publicity efforts.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts below on the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods to distribute news releases.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
Great list sir.
Some of the links are now pay.. FYI
Rod
Here is another free and instant approval website: http://epressrelease.org/.
Enjoy sharing your Press Release
Good sites with high PR….
You can also submit here http://epressrelease.org/
I’m still dubious about the long term effectiveness of Press Releases, but nevertheless thank you for this list. It will be interesting to see how these pan out over the next few months
Thank you for this great list of free PR sites, bookmarking for future reference!
Thanks for the list, appreciate your work.
Dear Blogger,
i am new owner of thepressrelease.org thepressrelease.org, and wanted to inform your readers that it will be launched soon,and surely there will be discounts for your readers
Good sites with high PR, but many of the links are paid.
Hello,
Thank you for sharing this amazing list of sites.
I have one more site which you would like to add in your list.
wesrch.com/top-press-releases-latest-upload-date-desc-1
Hi,
Thank You for Sharing the great sites.
Thanks for such a great list.
One of my facebook friends shared these two websites. hope people will like these:
http://www.freepressreleasesubmit.com/
http://www.newsrepos.com/
Instant approval press release sites
pressrleasepoint.com
prlog.com
newsbox.com
marektnewsrelease.com
free-press-release.com
I have noticed the last two PRs I’ve submitted have not had the same impact on backlinks like in the recent past. I’m going to test out free vs paid PR sites and see if there is a difference in impact.
Many Website in this list are now paid so plz share some other lists.
Hi There,
Thanks for sharing this awesome list of Press Release Sites. All sites are live and comes with High Page Rank, Domain Authority and Page Authority. Going to submit press release on some sites to get high quality backlinks.
Actually I just tried getting my latest press release for my web & graphic design company listed on PR.com and I noticed it’s much like GoDaddy is for hosting. It offers low cost (or free) service, but then requires you to pay for basic things like links, additional listing categories, regional distribution, and file attachments. So I ended up spending $90 for something that I wanted to really be able to do for free. Hopefully the distribution and quality of it will be worth the money. I’ll be tracking link backs and doing google searches to find out soon. Thanks for the helpful article!
Thanks for sharing so many high PR links in one place, i used the links and it really good links.
This is really useful list of high value PR sites. I was considering for releasing few press releases and this article has helped me in deciding the PR site.
Thanks
Come on, all these people looking for free press release services, lets keep it real simple, you get what you pay for, there is no free lunch. The free services offer almost nothing in terms of any value added or SEO. Promoting your business goes far beyond tossing out a few PRs and hoping to see results. Hard work and effort will lead to its own reward… that being said, very nice list of sites, but upgrade to their higher end services offered.
Many Website in this list are now paid so plz share some other lists.
Good list, But unfortunately most of these are now paid, Please add a few more free listings.
This websites are NOT free. I can publish a press release on one of this website but I have to pay $29.90 for each link! All unpaid links are not real links and not click able. Was not helpful and wasted my time…Sorry
myprgenie.com is now a scam. free offer takes you to a chinese marketing site.
Most of the sites are not useful. Sorry to say that these are paid sites and are not useful.