PR SEO: CREATE POWERFUL ONLINE PRESS RELEASES
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Before the internet, public relations came down to who you knew in the mainstream media and how much you were willing to spend to build visibility and awareness. Back then, marketing promoted your products and services to consumers while public relations was far less controlled by you and relied heavily on media filters and contacts. With the advent of the web, that has all changed.
The History of Press Releases
Prior to the proliferation of the web, public relations primarily dealt with press releases and media outlets such as television, periodicals and the like. These were the most common vehicles of the time in which your prospective customers could be conveniently interrupted with announcements of your services. Over the past decade or so, customer behavior started to change and instead of being interrupted by TV’s, billboards and the like, they started to turn to the web as part of their daily lives. With the help of search engines, an amazing transformation started taking place – people starting looking for products and services on their time without interruptions. If they have a need, they now look online for the products, services and information they want, on their own time.
The Convergence of Marketing and Public Relations
All of these changes have now clouded the once separate functions of lawyer marketing and public relations since technology now allows them to cross some very important paths – chiefly having to do with press releases. In the past, press releases were sent from the company and/or agent to the “press” for the “press” to release through their own channels. This in effect served as a filter to the consumers to which many companies had little control. But three important technological changes happened to dramatically change all of this. First, press releases can now be published to the web by anybody at anytime at very little costs. Second, press releases are now indexed in the search engines just like websites and blogs for people to search for and find. Finally, many traditional media outlets are increasing relying on web content for their news and research - or they are simply dying off like dinosaurs with other print media.
What You Now Need To Know About Press Releases
- Online press releases are easy to create and distribute. Thanks to the web, press releases can be created and distributed by anybody at anytime. A typical press release should be 300-800 words in length. If you can’t think of what to write about, take a moment to think about the questions you commonly receive from your customers and prospective customers and write down your responses to them. This is a great way to come up with new topics for each of your press releases.
- Press Releases should be published on your websites and blogs – in addition to the submission services. Many press releases, especially the free ones, have a limited shelf-life – in many cases two years or less. Since you want the search engines to index these press releases to your benefit, why run the chance of losing the content and links into your website if they expire? To help avoid this, publish your press releases on your website and blog as well – it will add to your visibility and create more inbound links to your website.
- Each Press Release should contain your SEO keywords in the subject line and the content. The search engines index words and phrases in press releases in the same way they index the content of your websites and blogs. So take the time to discover your SEO keywords beforehand and incorporate them into your press releases for maximum visibility - this is the premise of good PR SEO
- Create as many inbound textual links from your press releases to your web properties to improve your website visibility. Depending on the distribution services used, a single press release can create hundreds of powerful inbound textual links that will lead to increase visibility and improved rankings of websites and blogs. Some strong PR SEO services will allow you to create a textual link for every 100 words so try to strategically place your links and use them wisely. If the service will only allow one link from your company’s name, be creative in how you name your company by trying to use SEO keywords in your naming.
- Make sure that the press is aware of your press releases. If you have something important to say and want to become a thought leader in your field, you should make the relevant press contacts and outlets aware of your press releases. Remember, if your goal is increased awareness, visibility and business generation, than leveraging your current PR SEO efforts to bigger outlets should always be welcome. Do some research into the major press contacts who have written about your area of expertise and gather their contact information. When you have a press release you think may be of interest to them, send them a personalized email to their attention about your work and do so on a frequent basis for each release. At the same time, make sure to invite them to your blogs if you have one as well. You never know – they may just have an interest in what you are writing about which could lead to bigger and better things!
- Include compelling offers in your press releases to drive more business to your website. It is great to inform the world about what you know but also turning that information into new customers is the greatest reason of all to create press releases. Give readers a reason to want to contact you and visit your website – especially a page of your website that creates a call to action for your visitors.
- Publish your press release online through strong PR SEO press release distribution services. Once you have your press release ready to go, you now need to distribute it through a press release distribution service (or news wire) so others can read and index it. The cost to use these services range from free to hundreds of dollars per release. The benefit of using the good paid ones are that then can often reach hundreds and thousands of websites in a single release. The more expense press releases will typically include more inbound textual link options and better distribution to the news wires and search engines. The free ones are good to – just understand that with most forms of business, you get what you pay for.
Here is a list of the most commonly used press release distribution services today:
Paid:
www.prweb.com($80/release:1 link, $200/release:1 link per 100 words)
www.marketwire.com (Good for very time sensative distribution, but expensive)
www.PRnewswire.com
www.PRleap.com
www.jdsupra.com ($95/mo: inbound links, legal articles only)
www.officialwire.com ($20/release: unlimited links)
Free (Or almost free):
www.prlog.org
www.free-press-release.com
www.clickpress.com
www.pr.com
www.24-7pressrelease.com
Getting Started
The challenge for most companies who want to send out press releases is they don’t typically have the resources and expertise needed to compete with the big dogs. A good SEO consultant can help guide you through the process from the creation, optimization and distribution of your press releases. Experienced SEO consultants tend to work with their clients’ press release strategies on a regular basis and save you time and money by leveraging their expertise to create optimal results.