Online Press Release Tips – Our Top 10
Our top 10 online press release tips are for businesses that have never explored the use of online press releases before.
A good press release can deliver SEO benefits as well as reaching a much wider audience and driving more traffic to your website.
- Make sure you have something newsworthy to say
Your online press release needs to have something new to say or a unique angle. If you’ve dropped your prices by 10% for a month that’s not interesting enough for a press release. You could use a press release to announce a new member of staff or a partnership with another company. The more interesting your press release is, the more likely it is to be picked up on by lots of different websites.
- Get a professional to write your press release
There is a real art to writing a good press release and if you don’t have any experience in this area it’s best to ask a professional to do it for you. A poorly written press release will have a negative impact on your company and achieve the opposite of what you set out to do.
- Use an embedded image
Many online press release distribution sites such as prweb.com allow you to embed an image into your release. This can help bring it to life and make it more interesting for the people who read it. Just make sure you choose a suitable high quality image to be used as a poor image could detract from the rest of the press release.
- Choose your anchor text carefully
With online press release distribution you can also have an anchor text link back to your website. It’s important that you pick the right keyword or phrase for this in order to maximise the SEO benefits for your business.
For example, if you are an independent recruitment agency in Blackpool choosing “recruitment agency” as your anchor text link is unlikely to have any real benefit as you’re competing against national and global recruitment agencies for that particular term; in this case “recruitment agency Blackpool” would be a better choice.
- Use your own contacts too
As well as distributing your press release online through a 3rd party, you should also use your own contacts too. For example, your local newspaper may not be on the list of industry contacts that your distribution company has, but by sending them your press release direct, you may be able to get more exposure in your local area.
- Check online for other recent news results
If you’re not sure what press release distribution site to use, you can do an online search for your main keyword or phrase and then look at the news results on Google. You should look for any press releases on that topic and see which site has distributed them. This will give you an idea of how effective that press release distribution site is at getting news indexed by Google.
- Press releases and social media
There are many online press release distribution packages available that will automatically submit your release to Twitter as well as their subscribers and industry contacts in order to gain maximum exposure.
- Analyse the statistics
A good press release distribution package will allow you to analyse the statistics once it has been sent. This allows you to see things like increases in your search engine traffic and what keywords people used to find your news online.
Analysing these statistics is invaluable to measure your ROI and make any necessary improvements for future online press releases.
- Don’t waste your time with multiple free distribution sites
There are plenty of free press release distribution sites out there but it’s a waste of your time to manually submit your release to all of them as you may inadvertently end up bombarding the same people with your release multiple times.
- Publish your press release on your own website
This may sound like an obvious tip but it’s amazing how many businesses distribute a press release and never publish it to their websites. Your current customers will most likely be interested in your latest news so make sure you don’t forget them.
Thank you for this information, I have just recently started a blog on my website and it was like wandering around in the dark until I found your site thanks.
I am just about to start training on a new oriental rug cleaning course in America . I will be the first in England to undertake this course and was looking at writing a press release for my blog, but your site has lifted my sites. Better keep reading and try and learn how to do it.
Many Thanks
Eric
Hi Eric, thanks for your comments and I’m glad you found the article useful. If you’ve got any questions, just post them here and I’ll do my best to help you. Jamie
Hi Andrew, Just wrote up a press release, where would post other than your contact list, blog and website. Not sure if I should paste it here, so you can see.
Many Thanks
Eric
Eric Horsfall recently posted..Red wine Spill
Jamie my apologies typing the wrong name, I should leave the multitasking to the wife.
Eric Horsfall recently posted..Red wine Spill
Hi Eric, no worries about calling me Andrew! With regards to where to post your press release, have a look at this link which lists 10 free press release submission sites – http://www.seobyhand.co.uk/seo-blog/link-building/top-free-press-release-sites.html
Thank you Jamie for the info, I have submitted to a couple of sites. This is much harder than cleaning carpets, but your making it easier. I have also put the press release up on my blog. Take a look sometime, you may be able to use it as an example of how not to do it.
Eric Horsfall recently posted..Oriental Rug and Fine Fabric programme for Fleet, Church Crookham and Camberley