Ok. Maybe lent isn’t a verb, but I see it all the time. A Google Alert pops into my inbox on some keywords of regular interest. Unfortunately, it turns out to be an irrelevant press release across the continent that is re-published from a local “news” station.
No journalist wants to rubber stamp your press release. It’s definitively not news and the formulated template couldn’t pass for real writing: intro of a leading whatever from where ever, some new product or award, obligatory quote of an authority, filler with a couple of unverified facts, end with a value statement, and 4 bland sentences about the company afterward.
The whole thing is simply a brag and about as sexy as your grandmother’s girdle. It’s tired duplicate content that only has a link to your website by the company name or URL, rather than any keywords. Duplicate content means SPAM and noise. Sure you get links from a lot of places, but Google doesn’t place much value on those paid links to the press release services. Oh and unless you make time machines for Martians, USA Today will not be inspired to do a puff piece about your company.
Instead of doing a press release, make an article about what your announcement means to customers. The title will likely draw more interest, you have a great timeless give for your audience, and you can link by keyword. The article link may be publicized to a dozen high value sites versus copied verbatim to 100 different unknown and potentially damaging, garbage web outlets.