How Press Releases Can Boost Your SEO and Get Your Business Cited by AI

Key Takeaways

Press releases that rank on Google also get picked up by AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, giving your business a citation advantage that most competitors haven’t figured out yet.
A well-distributed press release can generate backlinks from dozens of authoritative news and syndication sites, directly strengthening your domain authority.
You don’t need a PR agency or a big budget — distribution services start from as little as $6 per release, with annual packages available for businesses publishing regularly.
The SEO value comes from keyword placement done naturally: in the title, subheading, and opening sentence — not from cramming terms in throughout the body.
Press releases work as passive credibility builders. When a prospect Googles your business name, finding news articles creates trust before they even contact you.
Repurposing your press release content across your blog, social channels, and email list multiplies the reach of every single release you publish.

Most business owners hear “press release” and think it’s something only large corporations do when they’re announcing a merger or launching a product to thousands of customers. That thinking is costing you.

In 2026, press releases are one of the most underutilised tools available to small and medium businesses in New Zealand — and the reason they matter now more than ever has everything to do with how Google and AI tools like ChatGPT are deciding what to recommend.

Why Press Releases Still Matter for SEO

When you publish a press release through a distribution service, it gets picked up and republished across a network of news and media sites. Each of those republications creates a backlink pointing back to your website. Backlinks from credible, established domains are still one of the strongest signals Google uses to determine how trustworthy your site is.

More backlinks from quality sources means higher authority. Higher authority means better rankings. Better rankings mean more traffic.

But here’s what’s changed in the last couple of years: it’s not just Google you need to think about anymore.

The AI Connection Most Businesses Are Missing

When you type a question into ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews, those tools don’t generate answers out of thin air. They pull from sources they’ve indexed — and press releases that rank well on Google are absolutely among those sources.

If your press release appears on an authoritative news site, and that article ranks for a relevant query, an AI tool searching for information about your industry, your location, or your area of expertise may cite it directly. That means when someone asks “who are the best digital marketing agencies in Auckland?” or “what should I look for in a web design company?”, your business could be part of the answer.

This is the LLM visibility play that most businesses aren’t making yet. It’s not complicated, but it does require publishing content that’s genuinely worth citing — not thinly veiled advertising dressed up as news.

How to Write a Press Release That Actually Ranks

The structure of an SEO-optimised press release is straightforward, but the details matter.

Start with your keyword in the title. Search engines give significant weight to the beginning of a headline. If you’re targeting a phrase like “Auckland web design services” or “SEO agency New Zealand,” it should appear as early in the title as possible — not buried at the end.

Use it naturally in the subheading and opening sentence. Your subheading (the short line under your headline) and the first sentence of the body are the next most important places for keyword placement. Don’t force it — write a sentence that would make sense to a human reader first, then check that it includes your target phrase.

Write something genuinely newsworthy. This is where most press releases fall apart. If the only reason you’re publishing is to get a backlink, that will come through in the writing — and distribution editors may reject it, or it simply won’t get traction. Journalists, editors, and AI tools are all good at detecting content that exists purely to game a system.

Keep the tone factual and professional. Press releases have a specific format for a reason: third person, factual, with a quote from someone at your business and a boilerplate about the company at the end. Stick to that structure. It signals legitimacy to both readers and algorithms.

Include a clear link back to your website. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget in the rush to get something published. Every press release should include at least one link to a relevant page on your site — ideally not just the homepage.

What’s Actually Worth Announcing?

The most common objection I hear is: “We don’t have anything newsworthy to announce.” That’s almost never true. Here are topics that make perfectly legitimate press releases:

New service launches or expansions. Adding a new service, moving to a larger premises, or expanding into a new region is absolutely worth announcing. Keep the focus on what it means for your customers rather than what it means for you.

Business milestones. Winning an industry award, reaching a company anniversary, or hitting a significant growth milestone are all worth publicising. These also work exceptionally well as social proof — which we’ll come back to.

Industry insights or data you’ve gathered. If you survey your customers, analyse trends in your industry, or have access to data that would be interesting to your target audience, publishing a press release around those findings positions you as a credible voice in your field. This type of content gets cited by AI tools more often than almost anything else.

Community involvement or partnerships. Sponsoring a local event, partnering with another business, or supporting a community initiative shows that your business is active and invested in its region. Local media tend to pick these up readily.

Customer success stories. With your client’s permission, a well-written success story framed as news can be effective. Focus on the measurable outcome rather than the general sentiment — “Local tradie increases website enquiries by 60%” is far more compelling than “Client says they’re happy with the results.”

Distribution Services and What They Cost

You don’t need a PR agency charging thousands of dollars to distribute press releases. There are several services that will syndicate your release across a network of news sites for a fraction of that cost.

AB Newswire is one of the more established international options, with packages ranging from around $80 per release for standard distribution up to premium packages for wider reach. They have New Zealand-specific options and are recognised by Google News.

PRLog offers a free tier that’s surprisingly useful for building basic syndication, with paid upgrades available for broader distribution.

For the New Zealand market specifically, platforms like Scoop and Voxy are worth considering. Scoop in particular is widely read by journalists and has strong Google News integration — a release that lands there can generate genuine local media interest, not just syndication pickups.

If you’re planning to publish regularly — say, once a month — look at annual packages. The per-release cost drops significantly, and consistency is where the cumulative SEO benefit really starts to show.

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: press releases work even when your potential customers don’t know they’re reading a press release.

When someone gets a referral to your business, what’s one of the first things they do? They Google your name. What they find in those first few results either builds their confidence or raises doubts. If they see news articles mentioning your business — even from syndication sites they’ve never heard of — it reads as external validation. Someone else thought this company was worth writing about.

That perception is powerful, and it happens passively. You publish the release, it gets indexed, and from that point on it’s working for you every time someone runs your business name through a search engine.

Amplifying Your Press Release

One press release should never just be one piece of content. Once you’ve published and distributed it, use the material across your other channels.

Turn it into a blog post. Take the key points, rewrite them in a less formal tone, and publish it on your website. This gives you a second piece of indexed content on the same topic and lets you go deeper than the press release format allows.

Share it on social media. Link to the press release on the distribution site rather than your own site — the external source adds credibility. A quick LinkedIn post or Facebook update takes five minutes and extends the reach considerably.

Include it in your email newsletter. Your existing customers and leads are warm audiences who are already interested in your business. A brief mention of a milestone, new service, or piece of industry news keeps you front of mind and reinforces that your business is active and growing.

Mistakes That Waste Your Effort

A few things will undermine an otherwise solid press release strategy:

Keyword stuffing. Cramming your target phrase into every other sentence doesn’t help your rankings and actively makes the release harder to read. Use your keyword where it makes sense — typically three to five times in a 400-500 word release — and write the rest naturally.

Writing about things that aren’t newsworthy. “Our business exists and we offer great service” is not news. If your release wouldn’t be interesting to a journalist with no connection to your company, it’s not ready to publish. Rethink the angle.

No call to action. Every press release should include somewhere for an interested reader to go next. A link to a relevant page, a phone number, or an invitation to get in touch. Don’t assume readers will hunt you down — make it easy for them.

Press releases are one of those tactics that look deceptively simple but have real compounding value when done consistently. Each release builds on the last, and over time you end up with a portfolio of indexed content, backlinks, and brand mentions that quietly does a lot of heavy lifting for your search rankings and AI visibility.

If you want to put together a press release strategy for your business — or get a clearer picture of what’s actually driving (or limiting) your search performance right now — get in touch with the team at Lucid Media. We work with New Zealand businesses to build SEO strategies that create lasting results, not just short-term traffic spikes.

Talk to us about your SEO strategy