## **🔍 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:

1. **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.
2. **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.
3. **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.