🔍 Why This Matters for Your SEO
When you distribute a press release through Search Atlas, your story gets picked up by a network of news and media sites. A common question is: why do these links show as nofollow instead of dofollow? This article explains how PR link attributes work, what you can realistically expect, and how press releases still deliver genuine SEO value.
📋 What Are Nofollow and Dofollow Links?
Every hyperlink on the web can carry an instruction that tells search engine crawlers how to treat it:
- Dofollow links pass link equity (often called "link juice") from the linking page to your site, directly influencing your domain authority and rankings.
- Nofollow links include a rel="nofollow" attribute that tells crawlers not to pass link equity. They do not directly boost domain authority in the same way.
- Sponsored / UGC links are additional attributes used for paid placements or user-generated content, and are treated similarly to nofollow by major search engines.
📰 Why Press Release Links Are Almost Always Nofollow
This is a deliberate, industry-wide practice — not a bug or an error. Here is why virtually every legitimate PR distribution network publishes nofollow links:
- Google's own guidelines require it. Google explicitly states that links in press releases and other distributed content should be marked nofollow or sponsored. Sites that publish dofollow PR links risk a manual penalty for selling links.
- Media outlets protect their authority. High-authority news sites (AP News, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, etc.) apply nofollow to syndicated content by default to comply with Google's policies and protect their own rankings.
- It has been the standard since 2013. Following Google's Penguin updates, the SEO industry universally recognised that dofollow links in mass-distributed press releases are a manipulative link-building tactic. Reputable networks stopped offering them.
Because of this, receiving zero dofollow links from a press release distribution is completely normal and expected — it does not indicate a problem with your campaign.
💡 Do Nofollow PR Links Have Any SEO Value?
Yes — and this is an important nuance that is often misunderstood. Nofollow links from press releases contribute to your SEO in several meaningful ways:
- Brand visibility and referral traffic. When your press release appears on high-traffic news sites, real users click through to your website. That traffic signal is valuable.
- Brand name mentions. Even unlinked brand mentions are processed by Google as implied associations. A press release that places your brand name on authoritative domains strengthens brand recognition in search.
- Natural link profile diversification. A healthy backlink profile contains a mix of dofollow and nofollow links. A profile with only dofollow links can look unnatural to Google's algorithms.
- Indirect authority signals. Google has confirmed it uses nofollow as a "hint" rather than a hard rule. Some nofollow links from highly authoritative domains may still pass partial equity.
- Earned dofollow links downstream. Journalists and bloggers who discover your press release may write their own articles and link to you with a dofollow link — a natural outcome that carries significant SEO weight.
🚀 How to Maximise the Value of Your Press Release
To get the most out of every press release distribution, follow these best practices:
- Link to a high-value page. Point your in-content links to a landing page, product page, or cornerstone blog post — not just your homepage.
- Use natural anchor text. Avoid exact-match keyword anchors. Use your brand name or natural phrases like "learn more about [brand]" to keep your link profile clean.
- Write genuinely newsworthy content. Press releases that cover real news — product launches, partnerships, data studies, awards — attract organic coverage from journalists who may add their own dofollow links.
- Track referral traffic, not just backlinks. Measure the success of a press release by the traffic and leads it generates, alongside its backlink count.
- Combine PR with other link-building tactics. Use press releases as one part of a broader strategy that includes guest posting, digital PR outreach, and HARO to build dofollow authority.
⚙️ What Search Atlas Delivers with PR Distribution
When you use the Press Release Distribution feature in Search Atlas, your release is submitted to a curated network of news syndication partners. Here is what you can expect:
- Publication on a network of recognised news and media sites
- Links that comply with Google's webmaster guidelines (typically nofollow or sponsored)
- Broad brand exposure across high-authority domains
- A distribution report showing pickup sites and link details
Dofollow links are not guaranteed and are not a standard deliverable of press release distribution, in line with industry norms and Google's policies. If your campaign report shows all nofollow links, your distribution has been completed correctly.
❓ Still Have Questions?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.
Additional Notes
There is no setting, upgrade, or workaround that changes press release links from nofollow to dofollow. Any tool or service claiming otherwise would put your site at risk of a Google manual penalty.