During yesterday’s Facebook question of the week, Kate Finley asked if news releases have SEO value when distributed via a newswire.

This has been a long internal battle for me. I know the “coverage” isn’t really such, but it always seems to help search engine optimization.

Clients sometimes like to show their bosses the number of places that ran the news release so we don’t always fight the battle.

And, sometimes, it’s okay with us because the site needs a little SEO oomph.

But here’s the thing: It doesn’t help in the sense that the release in your newsroom ranks higher in search results. Rather, your home page does…or a page on your site where the keywords are used does. (more…)