The power of SEO-optimized press releases (or why I love PRWeb)
I hate writing press releases. I'm terrible at putting words in someone else's mouth (my term for the task of creating quotes someone else supposedly said, usually the CEO) and equally as bad writing in classic press release style.
Frankly, in this age of conversational media, I don't see that they have much relevance. I mean, if I can reach consumers directly using, say, a blog, why should I have to write something expressly targeting the media? After all, journalists reference blogs as source material anyway.
Can you tell I'm not a PR guy? Tho't so.
Someone who is a PR guy, David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, says that "mainstream media and the trade press must be part of an overall communications strategy." (Yea...well...OK)
He goes on to assert that the primary audience is no longer "just a handful of journalists. Your audience is millions of people with Internet connections and access to search engines and RSS readers." (Now, he's talking my language.)
David suggests the "new rules" of news releases are:
- Don't limit new releases to "big news" items; find reasons to send them regularly
- Create news that appeals directly to buyers
- Make release copy keyword-rich
- Place links in releases that lead to specific landing pages
- Optimize news releases for searching and browsing
- Add social media tags for Technorati, Digg, del.icio.us and others
That's why I love PRWeb so much; it gives me the ability to do all that right inside its interface. While it won't write the copy for me (and, oh, how I wish it would), PRWeb enables me to add relevant keywords, Technorati tags and provides outlets for sharing via social media.
None of this comes free, or even cheap depending on the size of your budget. A "social media visibility" level release costs $120. Here's what you get...
"Create additional online buzz by adding distribution to industry-specific news and blog sites to the offerings from the Standard Visibility package. PRWeb TrackBacks, social bookmarking and Web 2.0 site links are also added to your press release page providing traction in the blogosphere."
My favorite is the "SEO visibility" level release which costs $200. In addition to what you get with the social visibility release, this level adds "keyword discovery and analysis, add anchor text links, monitor distribution with advanced SEO statistics and select up to ten industry targets."
There's even a higher level, the "media visibility" release at $360, but I don't even think about that one.
Even the very basic level release gets you in front of 1000's of journalists and bloggers, as well as syndication on Google and Yahoo! news.
I've used PR Web for a number of years. At my present company, Bizzuka, we've done two releases using PR Web at the $200 level and I've been very happy with the results. Here's a screen shot of the stats on a recent one:
These numbers impressive, considering we are a small business, and I'm quite certain we would never have achieved them simply by syndicating the release using traditional methods. However, the thing that's most impressive is how quickly the release made its way to a Google front page SERPs using the search term "bizzuka."
Sure, we post releases to our Web site's news room page, but it took PRWeb to get the release this kind of attention. This is one of the best reasons to use PR Web, in my estimation -- link love and Google juice. You just can't beat it!
Now, I'll admit I'm not guru when it comes to writing SEO-optimized press releases (I'll leave that distinction to Lee Odden's company Top Rank Marketing.), but one can't argue with the results.
Part of our online marketing strategy now is to write one such release per month and syndicate it via PRWeb.
So, while I hate writing press releases, I love using PR Web to syndicate them.
Check out Lee's SEO press release tips post at the Top Rank Marketing blog.
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