24 replies to this topic

[toprank]

Has anyone employed search engine optimization techniques with writing and distributing press releases?

We started using that tactic in the past few months and with some fine tuning see some great opportunity as a service to clients and also for self promotion.

[Scottie]

Press releases are am excellent way to promote your site and your business. PRWeb has a free press release service that is excellent. I'm sure there are others, but I do typically send a press release to them.

Once you've got the release written and a media list created, it's easy to send them out on a regular basis. When news is slow, we get mentioned in the local papers, radio, and tv. It also raises awareness of our business so that if a reporter needs a quote, they'll remember us!

[toprank]

Thanks Scottie,

We have a PR practice that send releases through Newswire and others. But for our SEO practice, we've started creating a more search engine friendly variation of the same release and sending out through prweb.com. Webwire.com is another I've looked into, but not tried yet.

Do you distribute releases directly to local media or do you rely on a distribution service for that?

[Jill]

eReleases is another good Press Release Service. They've been around for a very long time. They'll also help you write them, if you're looking for press release writing services also.

Jill

[fixed URL (was missing e between r & l)]

Edited by Haystack, 23 August 2003 - 03:20 PM.

[toprank]

Thanks Jill. Does PR leads do distribution as well? Or just the media calendar type stuff?

Edited by toprank, 23 August 2003 - 12:02 PM.

[Jill]

You mean ereleases? They do press release distribution.

PRLeads is to get people leads with the press. I don't believe they distribute releases, but you can check and see.

Jill

[RayGonzalez]

I have been optimizing our press releases as well as our clients releases for about 4 months.

Some of the releases are generating a decent amount of traffic and have produced a few new clients for both us and for several of our clients.

I really started doing it to develop more back links. We were already sending out the releases but I figured we should treat it like everything else do, meaning we should optimize them.

We typically throw on or two releases in as a value added service.

We have been kicking around the idea of charging for it but honestly I am still unsure as to what we should charge.

[lorenbaker]

From monitoring search engine rankings I've noticed that PRWeb gets pretty good treatment by Google. I think that using it as an SEO/Pr/SEO tool is an interesting concept.

Problem is, you cannot link back to your site in the release itself

Of course, participating in Yahoo and Google Groups is good PR.

You should also try blog PR, that is, contacting bloggers with news or a product.

I run the Blog Search Engine and there are some quite targeted lists of business blogs (marketing and pr ones too) listed.

This has worked well for some of my clients and myself.

Cheers,
Loren

(first post!)

Edited by Jill, 31 October 2003 - 12:05 AM.

[Debra]

Problem is, you cannot link back to your site in the release itself

Really? I would have thought you could add your URL to the signature or you have to reference your site in the release for something.

Not sure I follow this. Help?

[Debra]

Oh..... and welcome Loren!

[prweb]

I just want to share a few bits of information about the PR Web service. (In full disclosure I work there).

At any rate, you can include URL links back to your site. Many people include them in the body of their release. We also have a special field that you can use when submitting your release.

PR Web also has a trusted feed agreement with Inktomi which helps to get your release in the search engines much faster. It costs us a lot, but its good for our users.

In addition we submit to Yahoo News and Google News. Releases generally make it into these sites the same day.

I will continue to monitor this thread if there are additional questions.

Sincerely,

[Scottie]

Thanks for dropping in, David!

Hope you'll hang around. I'm a big fan of your service.

(You can make up a signature file under MyControls so you don't have to type your info in each time.)

[toprank]

Hi David,

We're also big fans of prweb! Thanks for an excellent web site and tool!

[toprank]

As a follow-up to my original question about using search engine optimization in conjunction with online press releases, I can say the tactic has worked so well it's become an important component in our overall mix of SEO services.

It's important to note that for anyone who uses optimized press releases should keep in mind these releases must be topical, relevant and newsworthy. That seems obvious, but we've seen a lot of releases going out that are just copies of content from existing client web pages. This is of little value to anyone since the content already exists on the web site.

Writers and editors are already bombarded with releases and pitches, it will do little good to add releases of little value to readers.

Anyway, thanks for the replies to the original post.

[lorenbaker]

This is all great information. I would now, more than ever, also suggest contacting relevant blogs (which are SE friendly) with PR information about your site or company.

A good SE friendly placement should work well and many bloggers are open to republishing PR information, that is... if they like what they hear.

A recent study by the Blog Search Engine helped back this up:

Have you ever been approached by a company or organization asking you to blog about them or their product?

Yes 9.3%
No 90.7%

Summary: An overwhelming amount of bloggers, 90.7%, have never been contacted by a company or organization with product or service information, asking the blogger to blog about them. This may be because the public relations industry has yet to direct a large amount of its efforts towards bloggers.

Would you blog about a company’s product or an organization if they emailed or asked you?

Yes I would 5.2%
Yes, if the product or organization was relevant to my blog content 26.9%
I would review their organization or product and blog my thoughts on them, good or bad 41.8%
No, I do not blog about companies that email or contact me 26.1%

Summary: Although the majority of bloggers have yet to be contacted by a company or organization with blogging info related to a product or service, 73.9% off all bloggers are open to receiving and blogging about such information.

This is in vast contrast to advertising where only 29.4% of all bloggers surveyed are open to running ads (run advertisements or would like to).

However, 41.8% of bloggers may be open to PR contacts, but are willing to post a negative review in their blog if they do not like the product.

The PR industry has to be extra careful with bloggers by first reading their material, likes and dislikes, and then, pitching product or service information customized to the blogger.

Bloggers are more open to public relations efforts than the are for running advertising.

More survey info here: http://blog.blogsear.../index.php?p=92

If you'd like to contact bloggers which are relevant to your business, please PM me and I can help with some targeted channels.

I'd also suggest Blog Directory listings at the BlogSearchEngine.com, DayPop and the Open Directory Project.