Press Release Spam
I sign up for Google alerts on topics that are important to me and my business. I create a lot of topic alerts, but I also create alerts on my competitors to keep an eye on what they are doing. Much of the time I find out they are doing stupid things like press release spam.
These cheap techniques to try to improve search engine positioning often work pretty well in the short run. That is, until Google figures it out and starts to downgrade the value of it. In some cases, you could get penalized for participating in this type of spam scam.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with publishing content that is valuable to the public and that will serve a need among a search engine’s customers. You cross the line when you generate tons of garbage that are just re-iterations of the same old, “we create the best X product…most effective…truly amazing…” blah blah blah.
Frankly, anyone using free press release services is putting themselves in the company of low-brow SEO folks. You are better off using quality services that monitor for junk press releases. If your service lets you put out any kind of garbage, journalists are not taking there releases seriously. Face it, how many people take TransWorldNews seriously anymore?
