Press Releases and Your Site

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In the "old days" of the Web, you published articles and waited for search engines to come and index your pages. Nowadays powerful syndication techniques will bring your content to readers, search engines and respected news sources. One of the most effective ways to syndicate site content is through online press release distribution services.

With this article I will highlight online press release etiquette and structure, as well as best practices that will drive traffic and result in a valuable, long-term linkbuilding campaign for your site. To see the most favorable results, be prepared to invest some money but don't let that scare you. It's worth every penny. To offset costs, consider moving a percentage of your PPC budget over to press release distribution. In the long run you'll be glad you did!

• Press Release Format: Your press release should consist of three segments including the title/headline, summary and body (300-350 word count). As with any effectively structured content, think hard about your title/headline. Get keywords in the headline as well as in a concise summary that outlines your article in two or three sentences. Keyword density in the article body itself should not exceed 5 percent.
• Article Structure: Start with a paragraph or two dedicated to introducing the news as something novel, unique and exciting. What new products or services are you offering? What content or technology feature has been added to your web site? In addition to the introduction, you should also add a few sentences quoting a company representative on the benefits of the service or technology. Bullet lists are also powerful elements you might consider using.
• Your BackLinks: Links to your site can be embedded and optimized very effectively. With PRWeb for example, you have the option of anchoring the link text you want from the context of your article if you pay for their SEO Package (minimum $200 contribution fee). This is far and away the most effective link- building strategy, so don't let that $200 scare you off. The backlinks you can include in both the summary and the first paragraph of the body using keywords you're targeting justifies the expense.
• "About" Paragraph: After you have emphasized your company news, added a few quotes praising your new service, product or technology and included a bullet list of any remaining power points, add a brief paragraph for the readers describing your company or site. Three or four sentences on your company background, location and goals are sufficient.
• Traffic Optimization Campaign: Once your press release is published, many news and related websites will pick up your article. Don't be satisfied with just this. Blog about your press release, linking directly to the news source with a trackback URL. You can also post your news to different social bookmarking sites and social networks. Finally, add a Press Room to your site where you can feature the article.

It's important to remember that the link you'll get from the online news syndication service is worth the cost of a press release alone. Add to that the benefits of the distribution channel, where your content (and backlinks that come with high-level packages) will be featured across an array of relevant websites, and you can't go wrong. An effectively formatted news article will not only drive traffic to your site in the immediate short term, but it will give you a powerful link-building strategy for long-term search engine optimization.

Gary Marcoccia is co-founder, marketing director and network representative for AvantLink.com.

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