Press Release vs Guest Post: Which Gets You the Link?
For a followed link, a guest post. Every link we read inside 28 wire-service press releases was nofollow. A press release gets you news coverage and visitors, and a journalist who writes about you may link on their own.
Guest post: of 30 publishers whose guidelines state a link policy, 20 promise a followed link.
Press release: 157 links in 28 releases on 7 wires, 0 followed.
MentionAgent read 39 recent releases on 7 press-release wires and 198 publishers' guest-post guidelines on 10 October 2026, and recorded how each one handles links.
Method and the wires we couldn't read are at the end.
Side by side
| Press release | Guest post | |
|---|---|---|
| Who publishes it | A wire service, on its own site | The publisher, on their own site, if an editor accepts it |
| Link in our sample | 157 of 157 nofollow | 20 of 30 stated policies promise a followed link |
| Where links really come from | Articles by people who cover the news | The post itself |
Press release links, wire by wire
We opened recent releases on each wire and read every link the release made to another site:
| Wire | Releases with company links | Links | How they're coded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newswire.com | 6 of 6 | 69 | nofollow, through a tracking redirect |
| PRWeb | 4 of 5 | 38 | nofollow, through a PR Newswire redirect |
| 24-7 Press Release | 5 of 6 | 19 | nofollow |
| EIN Presswire | 4 of 4 | 13 | nofollow |
| PRLog | 5 of 6 | 9 | nofollow |
| PR Newswire | 2 of 6 | 5 | nofollow |
| PR.com | 2 of 6 | 4 | nofollow |
Not one of the 157 links was followed, and 107 also went through a redirect URL before reaching the company's site. Business Wire, GlobeNewswire and openPR refused our request, and ACCESS Newswire, IssueWire and Newsfile didn't return readable releases, so they aren't counted.
The link value of a release comes later, if at all: when a reporter or blogger covers the news and links to you from their own article. That's PR link building, and it's a different thing from the release itself.
What guest-post guidelines promise
We read 198 "write for us" and contributor-guideline pages linked from our guest posting sites list. 30 state how a contributor's link is coded. The other 168 don't, and a few of those weren't a publisher's own guidelines at all. Of the 30:
- 20 promise a followed link, usually one or two, in the article or the author bio.
- 8 say links are nofollow, or that promotional links will be.
- 2 sell followed placements for a fee, which makes them paid links, not guest posts.
So a guest post can carry a followed link, and a press release on the wires we read can't. Since most guideline pages don't say, ask the editor before you write.
What Google's policy says about both
Google's spam policies list as link spam: "Advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit, or links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases distributed on other sites."
Two things follow. A paid article whose links pass ranking credit is exactly what the policy names, so the 2 sites selling followed placements are selling that. And in a guest post or a release alike, the policy names links with optimized anchor text, so use your brand name or a plain description as the link text. The same page says paid links are fine "as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value to the <a> tag", which is what the wires do.
When to use each
- You have news (a launch, funding, a study): send a release, then pitch the reporters who cover your field. The coverage is where links come from. See how to submit a press release.
- You want a link from a site in your niche: pitch a guest post to a publisher whose guidelines allow one, and confirm the link policy in your first email. Our guest posting guide covers the pitch.
- You have original data: a release can announce it, and the articles that cite it can carry the links.
Pitch the publishers who'll actually link
MentionAgent finds blogs in your niche, pitches each one your best page and tracks which replies turn into a live link. From $99/mo.
Start Getting Mentioned On AutopilotMethod
- Releases: up to 6 of the newest releases linked from each wire's newsroom page, fetched on 10 October 2026. We recorded every link that pointed off the wire's own domains, excluding the wire's own site furniture (share buttons, social profiles, regional sites, parent-company and footer links), and read its rel value and whether it went through a redirect.
- Not counted: Business Wire, GlobeNewswire and openPR (403 responses), and ACCESS Newswire, IssueWire and Newsfile (no readable releases from a script). A browser might see something different on those.
- Guidelines: 222 publisher pages linked from our guest posting sites list, fetched the same day; 198 returned a readable page. Every sentence mentioning nofollow, dofollow or sponsored was read by hand. Pages that weren't a publisher's own guidelines (agencies, articles, lists) were set aside.
- Limits: a guideline is a promise, not a measured link. Check the live post after it's published.
Frequently asked questions
Do press releases give backlinks?
Not followed ones, on the wires we read: all 157 links in 28 releases were nofollow. Links come from journalists who cover the news afterwards.
Are guest post links dofollow?
Often. Of 30 publishers whose guidelines state a policy, 20 promise a followed link and 8 say nofollow. Most guidelines don't say, so ask.
Is a guest post better than a press release for SEO?
For a direct followed link, yes. For news reach, a release is the tool, and the coverage it earns can bring the links.