SEO Recap- Press Releases 101

Submitting press releases can definitely help improve your search ranking. How do they work? Press release distribution can help you get high quality one-way links to your website, which is one of the fastest ways of getting indexed in each of the major search engines; Google, Yahoo and Bing. There are hundreds of press release distribution sites, and if you submit press release articles to these sites with the links to your website, you will get one way links pointing to your website.

You should use press release distributions in every possible situation; send them out when you launch your new website,  a new service or when you announce a special offer. You can issue a press release about plans for expansion, goals you have achieved, special business recognition like receiving an award or certification, or when you upgrade your service setup or infrastructure. There are endless opportunities you can take and turn into a press release.

All press release distribution sites are very picky about not only the quality of the press releases submitted for distribution, but the content and the angle, They do not accept blatant self promotion – they want real news.  This means that when you submit your press releases, you should not use heavy marketing language or a sales pitch. Your press release submission will be rejected if you break this cardinal rule; also if you do not tie in your business well enough with the newsworthy event. However, if successfully submitted, your press release can circulate in Google news rooms and Yahoo news rooms, and be picked up all over the web! This will bring highly valuable one-way links for your website.

Press release submissions is a 2 part process. The first part is writing high quality press release article that is newsworthy; as mentioned this newsworthy article should abide by all the guidelines of the press release distribution sites, and the press release article should also be optimized for the targeted keywords. The heading of the press release article is very important, as it is the title that will get visitors’ attention. You must come up with a title that includes your keywords, and has a hook!

Your press release article should have a minimum of 350-500 words. Some of the press release distribution sites use character count rather than word count, particularly for the title, description, etc.  To ensure that your press release is accepted in the newsrooms, make it a point to review the submission guidelines for the site you are trying to submit to, as they vary in the sepcifics.  If you don’t follow the rules, you will be wasting a lot of time in submitting unsuccessful press releases.

Once the press release is successfully submitted and published on the web, it will get picked up by search engines and can also feature in the search engine’s news rooms. This will attract highly targeted traffic to your website – and since press release sites are flooded with fresh content, they are indexed fast. If you properly include links to your website in the press release content, they will be followed by search engines and your new websites/web pages will also get indexed much faster. In addition, if the press releases are well optimized, they too can feature in the search results.

If you hire out your press release writing and distribution, ensure that you are getting the best one way links possible.