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My lovely marketing department have started publishing press releases on PRWeb. Whilst opinions on this service differ wildly I have a SEO question which I would like to garner some input on. They have asked if our own website can be updated based on the XML feed from PRWeb, to save having to update multiple sites at once.

If the PRweb content was then published on our own site the content "origin" would be PRweb - who has it's own canonical tag pointing to itself.

  1. Would our own site therefore be penalised by Google/Bing for being duplicate content?
  2. If we added a canonical to the PRweb on our own site version, our page itself would be flagged as being less important than PRWeb?

My thoughts are the the article should be posted directly onto our site and the PRweb should have a canonical pointing to our site. Posting to PRweb first with a canonical pointing to our own site would require some time paradox/manipulation.

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  • The question I would asking your marketing department is, Is it wise to give your power/content away? Or is it wise to retain your power/content and share it wisely? It is extremely foolish what your marketing department is doing. The content they create is not theirs to give away. It belongs to the company. As well, PR sites have been used to manipulate rankings and Google is not playing that game. Google is specifically looking at PR sites with a keen eye. Some have been severely penalized. Do you want your content on these sites? I wouldn't. Cheers!!
    – closetnoc
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 14:25
  • Hi @closetnoc - that is my opinion too! It seems like doing it the wrong way round to me
    – Jon Holland
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 14:30
  • Here is a link to show them: searchengineland.com/… Create the RP on your own site. Then think about how to distribute it. Remember that marketing folks are wired differently. That is not an insult! Their immediate goal is expediency in getting the word out. Anything that is not immediate or direct seems counter intuitive to them. You have to explain that they are actually doing the company significant harm that exceeds any good work they do by being bass ackwards.
    – closetnoc
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 15:02
  • PRweb have crept back up since then though (that article is nearly 2 years old). However I do agree. Thanks.
    – Jon Holland
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 16:00
  • @closetnoc actually, sadly PR still works insanely. You use national newspapers for example, these are still untouched by Google in any shape or form... one article could cost between £1000 to £10000 for example. For example theguardian.com/uk one of the UK's most popular newspaper works, and you get a story online and in there newspaper... Google, sees this as national news and doesn't punish for it, the news story (PR release) will also be indexed within Google's News... which gives insane authority. PR works... just pick good 'EXPENSIVE' platforms.
    – Simon Hayter
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 16:23

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