How to Generate Website Traffic and Business with Press Releases
From Willie Crawford.
Most Internet marketers struggle to get enough website traffic, yet ignore one of the most powerful tools that would help solve this problem. Most of them completely ignore the venerable press release or „news release.”
Here’s why and how you should start using press releases in your marketing mix today.
If you use start using press releases today, you’ll probably zip right past your competitors who don’t use them - grabbing major market share. That’s reason enough to actually learn to use this very simple tool.
Those who don’t use press releases assume that they are complicated, or some tool that only PR firms would understand. In actuality, they are generally just a 1-page summary of some newsworthy event that tells the media why and how they should contact you to get the full story. To get the preferred format for a press release, you only need to „google” the term „press release template.”
The press release is really just suppose to grab the media person’s attention and entice them into contacting you. That means that it absolutely must have contact details that will be valid any time. You need to include a phone number that will be answered, because otherwise you might miss your BIG opportunity.
One good press release can get you hundreds of thousands of dollars in free publicity. A decent-sized ad in an industry magazine could cost you $50,000 or more. Yet, let the editors at that magazine know that you have a story that would interest their readers, and they could give you a free five to ten page spread.
Free publicity in the media is even generally more effective than paid advertising. The reason is that when the media features you, they are also indirectly endorsing you. They are telling their audience, „Here is someone that we think you should pay attention to!” That can be very powerful, and doesn’t raise the reader’s defenses like reading an ad does.
Press releases can also be used for search engine optimization. The major search engines crawl all the major press release sites. They often crawl them almost continuously. They know that this is the place to find the latest information on topics that are HOT, and that their users are actively searching for.
Many search engines often list items found on press release sites first, before listing any other type of content. That means that if you have a search engine optimized press release on one of the popular press release sites (or on all of the top free press release sites), you will instantly rank for some of your most important key words.
The secret to using press releases for search engine optimization is to make sure that you do have your most relevant keywords in the title of your press release, as well as sprinkled throughout the body. If you submit the press release to sites that allow it, and the press release is primarily for SEO, you should also have your most important keywords as anchor text in your hyperlinks.
After you’ve written your press release you can submit it to any of hundreds of paid or free press release sites. For most purposes, you probably don’t need to use a paid site. Just submit to the top 10-20 free press release sites and your press release will be syndicated all over the Internet.
Since media personalities often search for sources/experts on the Internet, if your press release is in enough places, it will get noticed.
Now that you know press releases are a very effective tool, start using them today. Publish press releases often. Do it before your competitors discover them