Press Releases for Local SEO?
| Quick answer: Yes, press releases help your local SEO, but not for the reason most people think. The links usually don’t pass any ranking power. What helps is the steady stream of mentions, news coverage, and clear facts about your business that Google and AI tools can pick up and repeat. |
| Key Takeaways: * Press release links are almost always nofollow, so never pay for a release just to get backlinks. * The real win is steady business mentions, coverage on trusted sites, and the links reporters give you on their own. * AI tools like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT read those mentions and use them to decide who to recommend. * Announce real news: a new service area, a seasonal tip, a community project, or a milestone. * A few good releases a year, on top of solid local SEO, add up. |
Mention a press release to most contractors, and they picture a big company announcing its earnings.
That’s not what this is about.
A simple online press release is one of the easiest ways for a local home service business to get noticed: in regular Google results, in the map pack, and now in AI search like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT.
About 75% of people use Google to find a local business, and how they search keeps changing. A good press release helps you show up at the right moment. Here’s how they work, what’s worth announcing, and how to do it without getting your site flagged by Google.
What a Digital Press Release Actually Does
A press release is a short, newsworthy announcement you publish online and send out to news sites and search engines. Unlike a blog post on your own website, it shows up on other people’s sites, and that’s the whole point. When your business name, address, and phone number land on trusted sites next to a real story, you get three things at once: more people recognizing your name, better visibility in search, and proof to Google and AI tools that you’re a real, active business.
Why Press Releases for Local SEO Still Matter (Even With No-Follow Links)
Here’s something a lot of agencies won’t tell you. The links inside a press release usually don’t help your rankings at all. Google treats a press release like an ad and recommends that those links be tagged “nofollow,” which means they pass no ranking credit. So if anyone tries to sell you press releases as a backlink strategy, save your money.
So why do them? Because for local SEO, the value was never in the links. It’s in everything around them.
Steady mentions of your name, address, and phone
Every time your exact name, address, and phone number show up on a reputable site, that’s one more signal to Google that you’re a real, established business. These mentions, called citations, are factors Google weighs when ranking local businesses. One release can create dozens of them at once.
Coverage on sites Google already trusts
Releases get picked up by news and industry sites that Google already trusts. That fills page one with results about your business and pushes down anything you’d rather people didn’t see when they look you up.
The links and traffic you earn naturally
The best outcome is the link you never asked for. A reporter or local blogger reads your release, decides it’s worth writing about, and links to you in their own article. Those links do count, and because you earned them honestly, there’s no risk of a penalty.
How Press Releases Help You Show Up in AI Search
More and more, people ask a chatbot or read Google’s AI summary instead of clicking through a list of links.
Getting your business named in those answers is sometimes called AEO, or answer engine optimization.
It already matters.
Google’s AI Overviews show up in roughly 15% of all searches and about 1 in 5 local searches, like “best roofer near me.” When that summary appears, it replaces the usual list of links with two or three sources it decided to trust. If your business isn’t one of them, customers may never see you, even when you’re ranking number one underneath.
These tools build their answers from whatever they can read about you online: your website, your reviews, your Google Business Profile, and news coverage, including press releases.
A release that plainly states who you are, where you work, and why people trust you gives them easy, accurate information to repeat. The same press release that helps your local SEO also feeds the AI tools deciding who to recommend.
What Home Service Contractors Should Announce
You don’t need some big corporate event. You just need something your community would find worth knowing. A few ideas that work well for contractors:
- A new service area or location. “We’re now serving the next town over.”
- A seasonal tip or warning tied to local weather: storm damage, frozen pipes, ice dams.
- A community project, sponsorship, or charity you’re part of.
- An award, certification, or license you earned.
- A new hire, an expansion, or a big new truck or piece of equipment.
- A real milestone, like your 500th driveway or ten years in business.
Quick gut check: would a local reporter care even a little? If yes, you’ve got a press release. If not, it’s really just an ad.
How to Write a Press Release That Helps (Not Hurts)
Keep it short and stick to a few basics:
- Write a real headline, not one crammed with keywords.
- Cover the who, what, where, and when in the first paragraph.
- Include your full name, address, and phone number, worded exactly the way they appear on your Google Business Profile and website.
- Use one or two links, mark them nofollow, and skip the keyword-stuffed link text.
- Add a short, genuine quote from the owner.
- Write it for a person, not a search engine. Plain, clear language is what gets rewarded anyway.
It’s the same approach that makes your website and content marketing work. Say it clearly, and you won’t need any tricks.
Where to Distribute (and What to Skip)
Services like EIN Presswire, PR Newswire, and Business Wire send your release out to hundreds of sites. As a local contractor, you don’t need their priciest package.
You need:
- A solid service that reaches local and regional news sites.
- Your own site. Post the release in a news or blog section too.
- A few personal emails to local reporters and community pages, which often do more than the wire service itself.
Steer clear of anyone promising “1,000 dofollow backlinks.”
That’s exactly the kind of thing Google cracks down on, and it can wipe out the progress you’ve made. If your website needs work before any of this, start with a technical SEO audit.
Putting It All Together
One press release won’t change your rankings overnight. But a few good ones a year add up. Each one brings more mentions, more coverage, the occasional earned link, and clear information for AI tools to pull from.
Put that together with a fast, well-built website and steady local SEO work, and press releases become a dependable part of how customers find you.
Need help writing and distributing your digital press releases? LocalBizGuru is here to help!
We provide services creating real press releases, written by real people, built to help your business get found. We optimize every release for search engines and AI platforms so your brand shows up—whether someone’s Googling you or asking an AI assistant for recommendations.
Contact us today!
Press Release vs. Blog Post: Quick Comparison
Both belong in your marketing. They just do different jobs. Here’s how they compare:
| Feature | Press Release | Blog Post |
|---|---|---|
| Where it lives | Other people’s news & wire sites | Your own website |
| Main goal | Awareness and mentions | Depth on a topic and rankings |
| Link value | Usually nofollow (indirect) | Direct value, plus links you earn |
| Best for | Newsworthy announcements | Answering customer questions |
| How often | A few times a year | Regularly, weekly, or monthly |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do press releases actually help SEO?
Yes, but not directly. The links are almost always nofollow, so they won’t boost your rankings on their own.
The payoff is the business mentions, the coverage on trusted sites, the visitors who click through, and the natural links you get when a reporter writes about you.
How often should a local contractor send press releases?
There’s no magic number. A few times a year, tied to real news like a new service area, a seasonal push, or a community project, work well for most home service businesses. What you announce matters a lot more than how often.
Can press releases help me show up in AI search and AI Overviews?
They can. AI tools pull from news coverage, your website, and your business listings to build their answers. A clear, factual release gives them solid information about you, which makes it more likely they’ll mention your business.
Are press release backlinks bad for SEO?
Done right, with nofollow links and no keyword-stuffed link text, they’re perfectly safe. They only become a problem when a release is created solely to build links, which violates Google’s guidelines and can hurt you.
What’s the difference between a press release and a blog post?
A blog post lives on your website and builds up your expertise on a topic over time. A press release is a piece of news you send out to other sites for attention and mentions. They work best together.
Press releases are one way to get found locally. If you’d rather spend your time running crews than chasing mentions and AI rankings, that’s our job. Take a look at how our local SEO services and content marketing work together to keep the phone ringing.
