Go live by press releases! It's in the top 10 traffic attracting techniques.

I cannot agree more jhmattern,

Your article links are excellent,

PR is to be used to attract the press that is the what the purpose is, sure incoming links has some weight, but at the end of the day you should be focussed on attracting readers who will write about you.

Great post

 

I did them before & didn't get much traffic.

Wondering, anyone out there got an example of one
'done right'?

Traffic #s, etc. Love to hear it...

 

Hello jhmattern,

Thank you for your tips and the links to your articles.

I also realized that I was not understood correctly.

What I write about in the tips is not how to write a Press Release and what are the part of the press release as you list them in your first article, BUT

to think if a Press Release can be SEO optimized.

This is a new overview of the whole topic.

I try to stress that we can see the Press Release as any page that we are optimizing. We use the known on page optimization techniques and add a little bit more on the top of it. As much as we are aloud to do it. But, if we can do that, why not to use it's advantages?

Concerning your questions

A) and B)

In your article "Choosing a Newsworthy Angle for a Press Release" you write about company launch.

My comment: So, if I am launching a new company why not to stress my main mission. In my example the idea is to show that you can use your keywords in the title. I was not informing about title creation!

C)

In your article "How to Write a Press Release" you mention the following things:

1. "Headline - You should write a catchy, yet informative, headline..."

My comment: Why not to write a catchy and informative headline with your keywords included? That's the idea, to think not only as a Press Release writer, but also as webmaster that does SEO.

2. The body of every press release that you write should answer the questions of who, what, when, where, and why

My comment: I agree with the above. But I want to stress not only to write who are you and what do you do, but think of your goals (attract customers, more traffic, make your name more valuable) and than write who are you and what do you do. The same stands for the next two quoted paragraphs from your article.

"This can be a simple paragraph talking about the business, organization, or individual presenting the news found in the press release. It’s your opportunity to give background information and statistics about who you are and what you do."

"Summary - This is an optional 1-4 sentences briefly summarizing the news angle of a press release. This is traditionally added to news releases when the company plans to utilize online press release distribution sites or newswires."

I hope my standings are now understood.

Regards

 

Because your company mission isn't news, and frankly no journalist is going to give a damn about what your mission is. If you want your mission in the release, it belongs way at the bottom in the boilerplate; not in your headline.

If you believe that's the idea behind press releases, you're buying into a myth that completely perverts their intentions (like most webmasters do). Press releases are NOT an SEO tool; they're a media relations tool. Can you just happen to optimize them to a degree by adding links and keywords? Yes. But if that's your focus, you'll not once get the best results out of one (the real quality traffic and backlinks don't come from the press release; they come from the legitimate media and blog coverage). Like I already said, headlines are designed to be short. There's no room for keyword-stuffing. If you submitted a release with one of those headlines you mentioned, you'd either have it rejected by the distribution sites as press release spam, or you'd simply have it tossed aside if it actually made its way in front of the eyes of anyone that matters.

Attracting customers and getting traffic are NOT press release goals, and if they are to you, you have no business using them, b/c you don't understand how they work. Those things are natural side effects of a quality release. They're not the focus, and if you try to make them the focus, your release will fail miserably compared to its actual potential if targeted properly (why so many webmasters say they get lousy results even with professional releases... they don't know how to measure the results, b/c they're only looking at things like links and traffic.) Your only real goal with a press release should be to attract legitimate media and blog coverage from relevant outlets whose stories will be put in front of your real end target audience.

I'm not quite sure what you're referring to with the last two quotes from one of my articles. The first references a boilerplate, which is simply a backgrounder (short "about us" style paragraph). As I've already mentioned, if you plan to list a mission or any other fluff information, that's the only place where it's acceptable, b/c it's understood by the journalists that it's not a part of the actual news story. That paragraph also generally remains identical in all of a company's press releases. The second one is detailing a summary for online releases. That's not an acceptable place to talk about your mission or your goals. You have 3-4 lines or so to VERY briefly summarize, the who (company name, etc.), what (general news happening), when (launch date, event date, etc.), where (the Web address in the case of most people here), and why (why you're doing whatever you're doing... this is usually the aspect that justifies its value as news). Nothing else belongs there.

 

Just to clarify, the purpose of a press release is to act as link bait? This doesn't sound much different from article directories. Also, what are you referring to when you say "legitimate media"? Thanks and I apologize for being so naive in this topic; will be reading through those linked pages eventually

 

No John, the purpose of a press release isn't to act as linkbait (although you'll see them being misused in that way). They're about getting exposure in media outlets and authority sites to build your image, raise awareness, etc depending on your audience and site.

Legitimate media would mean newspapers, magazines, trade publications / sites, TV, Radio, and online media such as relevant (the key word) blogs, authority websites in the niche or industry, podcast or Internet radio interviews, etc. Those are in contrast to the places where a lot of the direct press release backlinks actually come from (and what a lot of webmasters mistakenly consider "success") such as from the PR sites themselves, their associated newswires, news engines, scraper sites, non-authority sites and blogs completely irrelevant to the subject matter (who publish releases just to add content to their sites), etc.

 

Hi,

I agree. They are a media relations tool. But from my clarification I stressed out that:

So, I am not trying to sell a "myth that completely perverts their intentions".

What I am saying, as I already explained in my previous thread:

You are writing a Press Release.

First step: You go through all the background. You find what are the parts of a Press Release.

Second step: You write down the Press Release and also find a place to post it.

Third step: You do not post it yet!!!

What you do is the following:
You check if it can be optimized and up to what extent.

Sub Step 1: Think keyword-rich!
Did you put all the necessary keywords in your text? Did you also bold and underline the main keywords? Can add more keywords?

I took the "keyword-rich" phrase from your article where you say:

I would add on that: Also make your text keyword rich.

Sub Step 2: Check the options available in your posting site!
How many links can I include in my Press Release? Can I have headings? Which style formating can I use in my text?

Sub Step 3: Rewrite your Press Release
Rewrite parts of your Press Release to include or modify using your keywords!
Rewrite/add links to your text.
Restyle some parts of your text. If you can use headings, use them wisely!

Conclusion: After you write down your Press Release, than you can think of optimization. So just reword parts of your Press Release and optimize it as much as you can so that not only people, but also SE will see your Press Release! The idea is just to play smart in that sense.

After this post I am posting the second and third tip: styles and linking.

Regards

 

Hello,

As I said before, here is the second tip:

Tip2: Inside the Press release use bold and underline.

If you are allowed to use H1 in the press release - USE IT!

If not, see if you can use the bold and underline tags.

As we know, the search engine will pay more attention to bolds and underlines than the normal styled text. So, in our text we should use the bold and underline tags for the chosen keywords. So, after the search engine lists the Press release, when people search for our targeted keywords, we have a chance to be seen through our Press release. If people find it, than people will follow the links and visit our web site.

Follows up the third tip.

Regards

 

Tip3: Use links to your pages in the Press release

We can use your Press Release as a back link for our site.

For example: If we are writing down about the advancing of our business: opening a second branch that covers different business category, than in Press Release we will use links to our main web site, and also put linking to our sub page where we have explanation on our work.

Or, if some of the topic we are discussing in our Press Release is already discussed in our blog, include a link to the specific blog page.

Like that we are making more back links to our site – to our main page and also to our sub page/s. If we achieve success with our Press Release and it gets a good SE ranking, our site’s pages will also get votes from that ranking.

Conclusion: using links in your Press Release might add votes to your SE rankings.

That’s the basic idea.

Reps are appreciated!

Regards

 

SKxprt
Dude, you're getting it all wrong. Press release websites are meant for journalists, not public. You publish a press release so journalists from newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, etc. can make a story of it. You get it? This is why you have to pay for it, so the agencies then distribute it to the media. Forget about SEO, journalists don't give a _ about it.

Press release sites are not article submission sites.

 

With rumors Google cracking down paid links, there would be less interest on directories. At least until people figure whats going on. In that case I guess press release will get more importance.

 

jhmattern I requested for a press release service from you months ago. You said you will get back to me, never did. Still in business?

 

Yes, I'm still in business. Occasionally my emails get buried as I get so many requests. If you need a release, I'll be working again Tuesday after the holiday weekend, and I have a handful of spots still available next week, starting around Wednesday. If you want to move forward send over the details (via email please, and not PM - my PMs don't always get a response if I run out of time), and I'll extend you a 20% discount due to not getting back to you previously.

Thank you mj for finally getting the point!

Press releases are not about SEO. If you make SEO a major focus, you'll likely get crappy results, just like 90% or more of other webmasters misusing them.

Can online press release distribution get directly in front of your readers? Yes! That's one of the main benefits. But it WON'T happen for the vast majority of users using distribution sites. Why? Because the general public doesn't go to a site like PRweb to look for news stories. They go to news sites (why the media still matters), blogs (why you need to target niche outlets), and sometimes news engines (which oftentimes end up returning those same results already mentioned).

People who use press releases effectively to reach not only the media (the primary audience of any release), but also their direct end target readers do it by issuing their news directly, driving traffic to their own sites. That's why I'm always telling people to archive their releases on their own sites or through a company blog. That's how you get the direct reach on top of the media relations focus.

Do NOT bold and underline keywords in a press release.

Do NOT try to jam keywords into a headline more than once (or twice if it's extremely short - otherwise, you'll just look pathetic, and not many journalists are going to read beyond it), and only if you can do so without sacrificing the informational value of the headline.

Do NOT rewrite your press release to add in keywords. Write it to effectively target the appropriate audience, which is not the search engines, and if you know how to write well your release should be naturally well optimized. Cramming in ANYTHING that's unnecessary to the release is a major no-no in press release writing, and will get your news tossed in the scrap pile.

Do NOT add ANY links to your press release that aren't DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO YOUR NEWS!!! Don't use them just for link value (I remember hearing recently that Google isn't counting press release links, or at least valuing them as much, anyway). I don't know for sure how true it is, as they show up for a few clients' releases anyway, but if it's a deterrent to misusing them and adding to the press release spam problem, good for them.

That's really all you're encouraging here... more press release spam. Stop.

Jenn

PS Don't ask for rep in your posts. It's pretty lame... especially when you're giving bad advice to begin with.

 

I've had great luck with http://www.prlog.org/
I used to be a prweb.com fan until they started charging. I think this one is just as good. Certainly fast, that's for sure!