Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Offsite SEO: Press Releases

Press Releases are an essential part of offsite SEO and are a great way to establish your company brand and your website.

Press release writing is one of the least advertising methods of online marketing; however, it is one of the most effective methods of marketing. It offers short and long term benefits.

A press release is something that is written to be read by the news media about an upcoming or past event for them to turn into an article. Another words, a press release comes from you or someone that is writing about you.

However, people tend to mistake press releases as part of the actual news. Most people do NOT know the difference. If you are writing about you or your company, do you think that you might be able to control what is “said” about either?

Press release marketing can be powerful.


It works similar to a classified ad, given that, like a classified ad, they tend to rise to the top of a search really quickly. They tend to only stay in their high position for a short while and settle further down the list, but they give a lot of quick visibility quickly. They help by providing immediate traffic to your site.

It also works similarly to an article, given that they provide a long lasting backlink to your website. Often the websites that allow you to submit press releases are considered to be high-authority sites, which make the backlink from their site to yours that much more valuable.


What can press releases do for you?

While you need to more than just press releases, they are an incredibly important part of your marketing campaign. They do so many important things for you:
  • Build Your Credibility: Since people do not know the difference between a news article and a self-submitted press release, they think that what they read is an authoritative information source, and it is about you or your company. Your “official” exposure improves your credibility in many people’s eyes.
  • Brand Your Company (or Yourself): Talk about a free or cheap form of advertising. Write press releases that showcase different things that your company is doing. Sometimes, your company just simply has a tiny connection to something happening somewhere else. That is called free advertising of your brand.
  • Improve Your Company’s (or Your) Image: Press releases are action-oriented. They are an opportunity to show the world how active you or your company are within it. How many other companies just simply exist without really interacting with the surrounding community? You can show the world just exactly how you make things happen.
  • Build Industry Awareness: Sometimes, you are just reporting about something that relates to your industry, but since you (or your company) are doing the work, you can give yourself the credit for bringing the industry happenings to the public’s attention. Again, it’s another form of free advertising, and it makes you seem better connected to what is happening within your industry.
  • Persuade People: This is similar to building industry awareness, except that you are trying to compel people to take action, even if that action is nothing more than visiting your site or calling you.
  • Develop Customer Base: People like to refer other people all of the time, but the person hearing the recommendation doesn't always know whether to fully believe the recommendation. Write a few press releases (which many people will think are articles), and you make it really easy for someone else to recommend you. They can just simply point you to a few of your articles. How much of an impression do you think that will make?
  • Create Backlinks: There more ways there are for Internet searchers to find your website, the better. When you write an press release, you can leave a backlink to any website. Why not your own? Plus, the more of these you have, the more search engines tend to value your website (and rank it higher on the search engines).
  • Generate Immediate Traffic: Press releases work similarly to a classified ad, given that, like classified ads, they tend to rise to the top of a search really quickly. Even though they tend their position tends to drop quickly, they give a lot of visibility quickly and bring traffic to your site. After all, isn’t that really the idea in the first place?
So I get that writing press releases are a good idea, but I don't know what to write.

I realize that everyone is not a natural writer, but with a little practice, you'll be amazed how quickly you'll get the hang of it. In fact, if you're writing about a topic that you really enjoy, you'll find that you will actually look forward to writing press releases. You will see that it is sort of a game.

This probably won't happen, at first, though.

First, you need to realize that, unlike articles, press releases surround an event.

Here is a short list of ideas for writing press releases to help you get started:
  • Website
    • Website or Launch
    • Website Updates
  • Company
    • New Products or Services Offered
    • Upcoming Sale
    • Employee Promotion
    • Company Gathering
    • Charitable Event Sponsorship or Involvement
  • Industry
    • Industry Updates
  • Customers/Vendors
    • New Accounts
    • Event Involvement
    • Product Developments or Improvements
You can write about nearly anything. This list only is meant to help you get started if you don't know where to start. Just make sure that it is about an event that DID happen or WILL SOON happen.

How should a press release look? What are the different parts of a press release?

Despite what textbooks tell you, there is not any way that you MUST write a press release. However, here are my suggestions:
  • Title
    • Keyword: This needs to include your main keyword
    • Be Catchy: Ideally, you want them to WANT to read it.
    • Topic Glance: Give the searcher some idea about the press release event topic.
  • Summary
    • Keyword: Definitely include your main keyword here. If possible, add one or two supporting keywords, too.
    • Grab Attention: Give the reader enough to want to read your press release but not so much that he or she knows what you are saying before they read it. This is called the "teaser."
    • Summarize: Give a quick summary of what you will cover. People like familiarity; so help them become familiar.
  • First Paragraph
    • Keyword: Include your main keyword. Often, you can restate your summary, and then have a transition into the main body.
    • Backlink: Include a backlink to the main page of your website or somewhere else within it (or another related article that you wrote).
    • Summarize: Answer the basic 5 W's: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How
  • Main Body
    • Keyword: Use your keyword, again, but don't overuse it. If it feels unnatural to write it, it will probably feel unnatural to read it. Also, include other keywords and words that are related to those keywords, even if they are not the phrases you are targeting.
    • Length: Generally, the overall article should be 250 - 400 words, but that is a guideline--not a hard rule. My suggestion is to give enough information to be valuable but not so much that people get bored. Some topics need more attention (and can be longer) than others.
    • Quote: This is not a requirement, but if you can have one or more of these, it will help separate your story that you are submitting from many other people. Sometimes, you might just be quoting yourself.
  • Last Paragraph
    • Keyword: Use your keyword once here.
    • Backlink: This is a good place to guide the reader wherever you want him or her to go. This could be your home page, or it could be another landing page.
    • Advertise Yourself: Even if it was to inform them about an event, it never hurts to remind them about who wrote the article. Maybe you can even include a selling point about you, your company, or one particular product that relates to the event.
    • Contact Info: If you want the reader to contact you, leave them the information they need to do this.
  • Resource Box: This is where you can write a quick blurb about you or your company. This is sort of like a classified ad style advertisement. You can have a generic one, but I suggest that you tailor it to the type of reader you expect to look at your press release.
  • Image
    • Filename: If possible, have your image filename include your keyword.
    • Clarity: Make sure that the picture is clear. Otherwise, you can lose almost as much credibility as you stand to gain from leaving a picture.
In fact, several online locations will ask you to submit your press releases using these categories to shape your answers to their questions. However, each might be a little different, but this should position you to submit your press releases without too much difficulty.

Where can we submit them so other people can see our press release?

I just finished suggesting that you submit your press releases, but where do you go to submit them?

There are many places online. You can type article submission into a search engine and find several.

However, two (2) places that I like are

PRLog: www.PRLog.org
Online PR News: www.OnlinePRNews.com

Now that you know why it's important to write press releases, it's time to begin brainstorming your topics, write, and submit your press releases.

Good luck!

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