PR Tips | How to Distribute Press Releases
I received an email this morning asking for some advice on distributing a press release. (Thank you, Ryan, for this blog post’s inspiration.)
Here are a few points I gave to him (and then some) on submitting and optimizing your press releases:
- It’s best to publish the press release to your site, as well as submitting it to be dispersed though press release distribution sites. The sites that you submit your press release to may not keep it on their websites forever, whereas you have control over your news/media room on your website and can keep the content there for as long as the news is relevant. This helps the keywords you use there to continue generating traffic, and it also helps if someone is to search for the news your release, well, releases.
- Google will begin to give less credibility to content if it is syndicated many, many times. I’ve personally been able to syndicate press releases and articles on a few of our websites and still had it rank well in Google. If the press release is first found on your website, however, that will be the site that ranks the best.
- Send the press release out to a few distribution sites. (There are many free ones listed here.)
- Really optimize your press releases with keywords; this will help the press release to generate more traffic.
- Pay special attention to the long-tail keywords as they will generate the most content over time; a general keyword like “Public Relations” will rarely get traffic to your blog since there are so many pages with that general term. But, a a phrase like “How to Create Your Own Public Relations Plan”, will generate more traffic and rank better when people search for “how to’s” and “public relations.” (You can read more about SEO and long-tail keywords here, if you hadn’t already read that blog post.) It is vital to remember the long tail keywords. There’s also another blog post from Brad Shorr, social media and SEO specialist, that talks more about SEO as well.
- Link to your website in your press release and give a call to action for consumers there; offer a white paper to download, an eBook for free, or reference a page on your website that has more information, anything that offers something else of value to the reader. This is another great way to generate traffic and get consumers started in the sales funnel, as they may see you as a more reliable source of information, especially when given something for free.
Any other tips I may have missed? Click on the post title and leave some feedback!
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