Part 5 - Online Press Releases
This will be a relatively short chapter, because many of the lessons you've learned previously in this book can be applied to press releases.
How to write an enticing title for articles ... how to research key phrases and topics ... how to insert keywords into hyperlinks for SEO benefits ... all of these lessons can be applied to online press releases as well. So in this short chapter, I'm going to skip the introductions and get right to the nuts and bolts of submitting a press release online (and what it can do for your web presence).
Public Relations, or PR, is often the forgotten tool of small business marketing. That's unfortunate, because an online PR program can generate a wealth of exposure for a minimal cost. It's also a key component of the comprehensive web presence I've been preaching about in this book.
For instance, a lot of business owners don't realize they can submit press releases online for less than $100 — and possibly have that release distributed to hundreds of relevant websites. PRWeb.com is one of several resources you can use for this purpose. Using a website like PRWeb.com, you can distribute your press release across the web and have it indexed by Yahoo News, Google News, Topix.net and more.
Publishing releases online can help you grow your web presence in two primary ways: (1) PR visibility and (2) search engine visibility. By having your press releases appear on other websites and blogs, you can get the attention of humans and search engines alike.
A business press release submitted online will often get picked up by respectable news websites, RSS feeds, blogs and more (especially when it's newsworthy in some way). If you hyperlink some of your key phrases, all of those blogs and websites will be pointing toward your website with key phrase hyperlinks. This increases your link popularity, which, as we've discussed, improves your website's search engine visibility.
So online press releases give you direct exposure, as well as SEO benefits.
Write it ... Optimize it ... Publish it
To get the most out of this strategy, your press release should be (A) newsworthy in some way, (B) written to appeal to your target audience, and (C) optimized for search engines. By incorporating keywords and hyperlinks into your press release, you'll increase your website's search engine visibility as well.
The end goal, of course, is to increase the number of ways people can find you and learn about you online ... ideally through noteworthy coverage of some kind.
The Optimized Press Release
I use and recommend PRWeb.com. I have other press release channels (listed below), but PRWeb.com is my primary method for distributing news online. You can submit a release through their service for as low as $80, and they'll allow you to hyperlink some of the key phrases within the body of your release. Remember, links to your website with key phrases in them are the brass ring of search engine visibility.
If your release is newsworthy and interesting, you'll also get a surge of web traffic from each press release you publish. So once again, the benefits are two-fold ... direct traffic and SEO benefits.
When posting a release, pay close attention to the notes in the right column of the submission form. That's where they tell you the rules for headlines, summaries, body, etc. It's also where they tell you the linking formula.
PRWeb.com also has a rule about spreading your links out. Here it is verbatim: "To avoid having your release placed on editorial hold please limit your links to 1 link per 100 words of body text. This policy is in place to protect the link value of the links that you include in your release and the value of links within the PRWeb Network."
Direct Exposure
With this approach to press release distribution, you are writing directly to you key audience. You are not writing to journalists, who would in turn rewrite your release in their own words (although this may happen as well). You are writing directly to people who are seeking the kinds of products or services you provide. This is a significant difference, and you should keep it in mind when writing your press releases.
How is it possible to write directly to your audience? Because your audience will find your press releases directly through search engines and news websites. This, combined with the SEO aspect of press releases, is what makes them a useful addition to your overall web presence.
Press Release Resources
Why use PRWeb.com?
http://www.prweb.com/whyprweb.php
Optimizing your release for search engines:
http://www.austinseoguy.com/optimized-press-releases.php
Writing SEO press releases:
http://www.pandia.com/features/pressrelease.html
Press release distribution sites:
http://www.prweb.com | http://www.prlog.org | http://www.prleap.com
Part 6 >> Website Conversions