I have a confession. In just about every Search Engine Optimization eBook I’ve read there has been a section on Press Releases. And yet despite this I have pretty much ignored the power of press releases until just recently when I chanced across a free email course on the topic.
Now I didn’t even read the first email I got from the course for several days. I guess my mindset was that press releases were for big corporations and earth shattering news. I remember the bad old pre-internet days when a press release was usually tossed away as soon as it was received – if it didn’t have clear and obvious immediate news value. Today, in the internet era, these press releases live forever, and can drive traffic to your site years after the fact.
Once released they travel the world at internet speed, and can result in new traffic from a worldwide audience. Better yet, you can set up a section of your blog or web site to archive past press releases. Since a good press release also needs good keywords, this archive will be another source of on site keyword content that can be picked up by the search engines.
As I learned in the first lesson from the email course, there are at least three major benefits of press releases.
While you may think of the news media as the biggies on TV and Major newspapers, there are tens of thousands of small niche media publications that also search the press releases looking for something new and different. The gold in a press release comes when one of more of these guys picks you up and mentions you or your business or perhaps even contacts you for a follow-up interview.
Additionally, and worthwhile even if you do not get picked up, is the weight search engines appear to grant press releases. Since they are fresh and timely content, the search engines seem to love the press release outlets. A good press release can raise a ranking in hours, its claimed.
Finally, press releases tend to get aggregated and distributed via RSS feeds multiplying the potential exposure of your release.
Now the downfall of the press release approach is that many of the premier press release distribution services are a bit too spendy for the casual player. The big guys charge a fee for each and every release. However there are a handful of free services and perhaps even better a couple of one time fee services that permit access to the press release world without the repeated costs. Of the three options this third is probably the best choice in terms of effectiveness for most micro businesses.
The free course I got came from one of these one time pay services. It’s run by Rod Beckwith and Jeff Alderson and is called Press Equalizer.
I recommend you sign up for their free press release course, and reacquaint yourself with the power of the press release. Then if it’s for you, you can decide whether or not you want to use their service or one of the free and or more expensive alternatives.
One thing for sure, you will want to add the press release to your standard marketing approach. It’s too powerful to ignore.
[tags]SEO, Search Engine Optimization, press release, marketing tactics, [/tags]