Press Releases Used as an SEO Strategy – Build Strong Backlinks
ByAaron Garcia
Website Promotion RSS Feed
Press Release History
For over 100 years, the common press release has been used by public relations companies and professionals to promote the companies they represent. The typical press release can focus on a new product announcement, the hiring or promotion of an influential executive or can be used to act as a "tarp" to cover the fall-out from bad press. Historically, the first press release ever, was submitted to help shield the Pennsylvania Railroad after a horrible accident. The release was delivered before the news media could react and create their own versions of what might have happened. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_release)
Using traditional methods of distribution, a press release's target audience is the media itself - those influential writers and news media outlets that would be capable of turning a “nobody” into an overnight sensation. By targeting national newspapers, magazines and media outlets, a company or individual would have a much better chance of getting the story distributed the way they wanted to (versus the media's interpretation).
Press releases are typically written by the company which the release is promoting (or who the story is about). A lot of critics have argued that this one-way point of view is misleading and contradictory to the types of honest stories that the media would report through research and interviews (Ya right, huh?).
Moving forward to the late 1990's and early 2000's, the Internet has played an ever increasing role in the purpose and method, with which press releases have been utilized. A new generation of "optimized press releases" has emerged, much of it due to the high-demand of SEO companies and fledgling online businesses looking for an edge.
Optimized Press Releases
So what exactly does an optimized press release look like? Before we jump to that, we must first define “optimization” for those not familiar with the art of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It's basically building up a theme and authority for a given site, with the sole intention of improving that site's search engine rankings (results from a search query). This is done using a variety of methods, including using the keywords on the website, building incoming links to the website and others.
An optimized press release takes the idea of SEO to another level. During a time when most webmasters focused on optimizing the content on their own site, the first originators of the optimized press release had one goal in mind - to increase the number of "one-way" links to the website of the release's focus.
By optimizing a press release for the keywords and phrases that your website is targeting, and then submitting it for global online distribution, one can quickly build up the number of incoming links (backlinks) to their website. Of course, the more backlinks you have, the better you should rank for the keywords that you've targeted.
Backlinks from Press Releases
A lot of companies that submit press releases for online distribution fail to take advantage of the optimization opportunities that are available. I could show you hundreds of press releases that are submitted each day without any hint of optimization -How much money are they spending for virtually no benefits to their online business (& revenue)?
The key to optimizing press releases for distribution is the use of "anchor text links" within the body of the press release. Anchor text is the keyword or phrase that is linked to another page or website; anchor text is typically identified by the blue font and underline. It's possible to submit press releases with your URL in them, but if you're not using the anchor text, you're wasting your money. By implementing the anchor text links, you'll get a free link from every site that picks up your release.
That begs the question; how does a press release get picked up online? The answer: RSS Feeds… These are the keys to distributing an optimized press release quickly and effectively online. You choose the optimized RSS feed categories and topics that your release is about, and once approved, your release gets distributed via RSS/XML to hundreds, sometimes thousands of other relevant websites who've chosen to display those category news items. Not only do you get the backlinks from the press release distributor, but you also get links from the sites that pick-up your release and distribute it on their website. In some industries, this could be thousands of websites - and it all happens very, very quickly.
Cory Howell is an SEO Strategist at MorePro Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing company in Phoenix, Arizona. With over 8 years of SEO experience and hands-on training in all facets of online marketing, including press release optimization and distribution, Cory and his team consistently deliver improved search engine rankings and qualified traffic for online businesses.
Related Articles, Information, Products And Links
Related Articles on Website Promotion
- What Is Web 2.0?
- 10 Reasons Why Analytics Software is a must in your marketing campaign
- Ways To Maximize Your Adsense Earnings
- What is a Web Visitor Worth to you?
- Seo Services - Are There Company Benefits?
- Why Adsense Is Essential For Content Sites
- The Power To Make Site Visitors Stay
- How To Avoid Link Frauds
- Role of Meta Title Tag in SEO.
- Site Indexing - Great Eight Tips.
- SEO & Meta Tags
- Search Engines or Web Directories.
- 101 FREE Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website
- MyTino- For freelance learning
- How To Sell Your Homes With Catalogs
- Convince Your Readers To Buy Using Your Graphics
- Play Your Business Cards Right
- To Get More Response, Make An Irresistible Offer
- Saying The Right Message
- Promoting Your New Products To Your Target Market
- 3 Basic Custom Poster Gifts
- Defying Postcard Printing Conventions
Latest Articles on Website Promotion
-
5 Cool Ideas To Make People Pick Your Catalogs Up
Are your print catalogs not getting picked up? There are plenty of things that can go wrong in catalog printing that could spell failure to your print catalogs. However, in most cases, it is your concept design and message that has people ignoring the catalogs. If you want to prevent this from happening again, here are five cool ideas that should increase people interest in your catalogs.... -
Achieving Expectations With Direct Mail Marketing
Direct mail marketing like that with your print brochures is all about getting your target audience to respond to your message. But it is really frustrating how you have poured so much of your time and energy writing the best copy and still get a lackluster response that could have been way better. So how do you make your direct mail marketing exactly the way you expected it to be?... -
What Is The Need For Link Building
Quality link building is very important in order to achieve the increased overall Search Engine Results Page position. At first it helps to get inbound links to increase the search engine results page position for your websites homepage and automatically for your deeper URLs.... -
How To Layout Designs For Large Posters
Making the layout for large poster printing is typically almost like normal poster printing. The only difference really is that you will be working with bigger images with all the care and consideration that comes into printing them. In this article I will give you a few tips on how to layout your designs for large poster printing.... -
Do You Need A Booklet Color Scheme?
The color scheme is not usually the first concern in booklet printing, but it is still however important when you shift from the content phase to the layout phase of your development of color booklets. Having a workable color scheme will be beneficial for your booklet printing in many ways.... -
Crucial Warning Signs In Poster Printing And Design
Many people are forming bad habits in terms of poster printing and design. This happens most especially to professional artists who are tasked to print posters all the time for advertising, promotions and other business necessities. It is important for you to know these bad habits and the warning signs which will lead to bad poster printing.... -
Adaptive Plans For Marketing Brochures
When you print brochures for business, do you prepare for all eventualities in your industry? Most successful companies have good and adaptive brochure printing plans that cater to business opportunities and disasters. This adaptive plan in print brochures allows companies to be flexible about their advertising and public relations, ensuring success in both.... -
Catalog Printing Right On The Budget
Need a way to print cheap catalogs? Looking for resources on saving money for catalog printing? In this article, I will give you all the information you need on how to produce cheap catalogs. This should serve as a nice reference guide for you on how to keep the different aspects of catalog printing cheap.... -
Be Smart When Promoting Your Business
There are many ways by which you can promote your small business. Whether you choose to have cheap postcard printing because you are on a shoestring budget or you have money to spare for TV or radio commercials, the key to having an effective marketing campaign is to take advantage of all the tools made available to promote your business.... -
Compelling Poster Design That Gets Results
Poster printing is one of the most effective and ever popular marketing tools that many business owners and marketers use to promote their business. As print posters are real, they do offer concrete results more often than a banner made for online sites. But a poster printing can only work the way you want your print posters to if you can provide them with a good design....
