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Press Releases are Great for Online Publicity

Tommy Humphreys

| August 23, 2010

Image by: IMDB.com

You don't need a full-time publicist to dominate search results

Harness the power of news wires for SEO.

Though it may seem obvious to public company executives and PR professionals, creating and submitting press releases is a great way to boost your online and offline credibility. Yet I hardly see any small and medium sized businesses actively engaging in this type of in-the-trenches PR work.

Even if you're not at a large corporation, the reasons to submit a press release are many. Apart from the fact that they're read by journalists and can result in genuine press coverage, the backlinks to your site from major news sources are great for SEO.

Here's my proof: two months ago, our firm received an award for one of our projects, and for the first time, we sent out a press release announcing the good news. To my pleasant surprise, that announcement now accounts for 7 of the top 30 results for searches of our company name on Google, including multiple results on the first results page.

So, the next time you have some good news, a personnel change, or an upcoming event, follow these simple steps for creating some effective buzz online.

Write it

As with web pages (and news articles), the most important element here is the page title or headline, since it's the most important factor in search results, and it's what will capture readers' attention. In this case, a "reader" may be a journalist, an existing client, or a prospective one. So say something flattering (and honest) about yourself, be sure to include some good keywords, and chances are this will show up on the first page of search results for your company.

Optimize it

Press releases submitted to larger news organizations are syndicated throughout the Web. The press release my company submitted was picked up by hundreds of smaller news sites, all of which linked back to our site. Backlinks from credible news sources (as opposed to link farms) are amazing for SEO, so make sure your press release includes links to your site, along with keywords relevant to your industry and location.

Publish it

We used Marketwire and were pleased with the results. It cost about $300, though this can vary depending on distribution levels and word count. Other credible options in Canada include CNW Group and BusinessWire.

If you submit a lot of press releases, consider a service like Pitchengine as a way to centralize and distribute them across multiple channels, including social media. Be sure to share these links on your own LinkedIn and Twitter profiles too.

Finally, keep in mind that just like classified ads (remember those?), most of these press-release services price by word count. So it's up to you to decide what this type of publicity – and SEO – is worth to you, and how frequently you want to do it. But as the saying goes, "if you don't toot your own horn, there is no music!"

PS: Check out these great press-release writing tutorials: