Press Releases are a great way to get quality, lasting links to your website. But just like a lot of marketing methods, press releases are only worth doing if done right (links aren’t that valuable if they’re never clicked). So, I recently attended a new user orientation for PR Web (a leader in online press release syndication), and here I’m going to share a summary of that 1-hour presentation. Of course these tips will work just as well for other article publication sites, too. Here it goes:
Press releases have three types of audiences, which you should keep in mind:
- individuals / organizations looking for your products or services to make their products or services better
- media (online and offline) looking for the latest and greatest products and services
- search engines looking for relevant content to share with searchers
The single most important part of your press release is the headline. It could be the only part “sticking out of the ground” in many cases – meaning it should be catchy enough to get people to click on it, to view the rest of the release. Here are a few tips for writing a good headline:
- keep it to 80 characters or less
- make a statement (don’t use rhetorical questions)
- use your primary keyword(s)
- use action words to give the “movement” to the press release (like an announcement)
Once you have your headline written, you’ve got the meat of the document left to write. PR Web suggests these pointers for the body of the release:
- keep between 300 and 800 words to maximize readability
- be sure to include hyperlinks to your website (once or twice in the body, once in the summary (the couple sentences at the end where you give yourself credit)
- make sure to put at least one of those links “above the fold” (so users don’t have to scroll down to see it)
- use your primary keword or phrase 4 to 9 times, or once every 100 words
Those tips alone will put you well on your way to getting some quality traffic from your press release. But here are some advanced options that PR Web offers, too:
- Technorati Tags can be assigned to the Press Release
- You can embed a framed page of your website at the bottom
- You can attach files to the release – to be available to readers on the right hand side
- You can assign press releases to a specific Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) to target a particular geography
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