Online Press Release Tips

Online Press Release Tips

Well-written, informational press releases can enrich a web site with incoming traffic and provide a solid boost to company sales. Not only do press releases draw attention to your products and web site, they can provide valuable inbound links that are keyword rich. Yes, press releases should be a part of any web site marketing campaign.

A well-written press release

To make the biggest impact on the reader and to encourage the reader to perform the most desired action (MDA), whether it be to call or click, here are some tips to make your press release really stand out.

You want to get noticed. Here's how:

1. Use a professionally-designed banner to catch the readers' attention. An all-text press release may be mundane, and some eye-bling at the top of the page will break up the white space.
2. Be sure to include embedded links to your company's web site with keyword-rich text that is relevant to your industry. That's one of the reasons you distribute the press release – to drive traffic and increase inbound links to your site. In fact, provide a couple of links back to your site. Place one at the top of the page so it can be easily seen by readers. Then, embed a link back to your site within the author's resource box at the bottom of the page.
3. Provide an RSS link to your company blog and a podcast link so that other site owners can pick up the PR as they sort through the mass of morning news. One click and you can be picked up by RSS aggregators for broadcast over numerous RSS feeds, which can provide inexpensive marketing that could go viral.
4. Include quotes instead of testimonials. There are many fake testimonials on the web and people have learned to tune them out. A direct quote, on the other hand, adds credibility and is a real trust builder. Get quotes from credible sources willing to lend their names to your projects.
5. Build your press release to be print-friendly and allow readers to print out your press release. Make the file available in Word doc and Adobe pdf files on your web site. A note of caution, however, be sure to save these additional files in a folder that is blocked from being crawled and indexed by search engines, otherwise you could get dinged for publishing duplicate content on your web site. For more information on how to "block" a folder from being crawled and indexed by search engines, refer to robots.txt documentation on the web.
6. Encourage and enable readers to leave comments. This converts your press release into a blog post. This motivates bloggers to comment and allows others to comment on your opinions or other content, which also increases the effectiveness of your press release. The whole point is to have the release read by as many people in as many different formats as possible – from directly through a browser to a print out on the refrigerator of a few hundred homes. The more accessible the press release, the more it will be accessed, used and shared.
7. Encourage sharing of your press release. Social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, digg.com, reddit.com, stumbleupon.com and other sites can take a ho-hum press release and quickly turn it into a web phenomenon. It is not unusual for an article or press release to get pinged hundreds, or even thousands of times. With a single click, a reader can share or recommend your content, encouraging others to take a peek.
8. Add a tag cloud with keyword-rich text to your press release. A tag cloud reveals how readers describe your article in terms of content. WordPress offers many modules or plug-ins that make installing tag-clouds easy. A tag cloud performs a couple of important functions. First, it helps you refine your keyword list by getting direct marketing data from PR readers. Second, it provides links to other content, some of which may be contained in your site's article archives, which drives more traffic to your pages.
9. Provide detailed contact information at both the beginning and end of the press release including: contact name and title, telephone, email address, web site URL, the company's physical address, Skype user name and any other helpful information that enables web reporters quick access to quick answers. Many times, a press release will be rewritten by a web reporter (perfectly legal) and run as an article or blog post somewhere else on the web. If you provide complete contact information for these web reporters, you stand a much higher chance of getting a mention or even an embedded text link back to your site.
10. Specify the date of the press release. It is common for press releases to reach a webmaster's desk several weeks before the anticipated release date. This gives site owners a jump-start on your new content to be released so that they have time to prepare and decide what to do with your valuable information.

There are other things you can do.

• Add pictures
• Edit the content so it is informational, not a sales piece.
• Always proof read your press release (over, and over again) before it is distributed. Nothing says a lack of quality control than a press release loaded with typos and poor grammar.

How do you choose the company that distributes your press release?

There are many to choose from, but sorting through the good and not-so-good distribution services can be a mind twisting experience. Start with the services that rank highest on Google for "press release distribution". Because after all, if no one can find them in Google, then they do not stand much of a chance at getting your press release noticed. And you can certainly ask the company representative for examples of recent releases distributed by their company. You can also verify to confirm if these press releases are having the desired viral effect by utilizing Google Analytics to see how the site performed before and after the release to the media.

Online press release distribution is spotty at best, but the gamble is well worth it—especially considering the fact that Google "press release" and the search engine will account for up to 1.3 million links. The press release syndication service that you choose to distribute your news is only as good as the extent of its online database.

Viral is important, but it's not all that matters.

The topics of most press releases have limited interest within a very narrow vertical market. So, the company releasing the press release will tell you that it can reach one hundred thousand web sites. But, only a few hundred sites will actually pick up the release and publish it. Now, that's not bad, don't get me wrong. That is a few hundred valuable links back to your site (inbound, one-way links are the best). You will see a spike in site traffic, though it's unlikely that they will be beating down the digital doors after your first few releases. But continue distributing PR's that are professionally-written, and in time, you will see a significant increase in traffic to your company web site.

Build a press release with eye appeal, quality information, multiple formats and links back to your site. A well-written press release will stand out from the digital deluge of garbage that crisscrosses the web each day. That's what a press release is supposed to do—draw attention to you, your products and your web site.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/online-press-release-tips-5522116.html

Ms. Rosendahl has over 19 years experience in systems analysis, hosted applications, and management as well as 13 years experience in web hosting and Internet marketing. Ms. Rosendahl has a Bachelors from Houston Baptist University with a double major in Computer Information Systems and Business Management. Stephanie is the founder and CEO of website hosting firm - GreenHostIt.com green hosting.