Press Releases for Increased Web Traffic

One of the great things about press releases is that they get your URL's all over the search engines IMMEDIATELY. Yes, Immediately. No waiting 3-6 weeks. Your releases could get indexed within 24 hours.

Top 10 search engine listings are very common.

Submit your releases Thursdays and Fridays, so they are released on Saturdays and Sundays in the media. There is a two day delay if you use PR Web. Your strategy is not for media publication, which might include a release being put in magazines, or newspaper, but mainly for Search Engine Optimization. You want an online audience to find you, not an offline.

When using a service like PR Web, the competition for #1 or a top 10 listing on page one of PR Web's MAIN website is LESS on weekends too, as people are not paying top dollar to be there on Saturdays and Sundays, when media people are not working traditional 9-5 jobs.

The Elements you need to include in Your Press Release are:

Title
Subhead
Body
Keywords
Contact Info

TITLE

Your title should be keyword rich, with the specific niche you are marketing to. Try for the first 5 words to be your keywords you want the press release optimized for. Do some keyword research, using www.goodkeywords.com to see what people in your niche are most looking for and also buying. Add those popular keywords into your title.

Use good copywriting headlines of the past, and modify them to fit your situation. Many great long copy style "direct response" sales letters have wonderful titles and headlines which you can modify and borrow.

SUBHEAD

Your subhead should also be keyword rich, repeating some of the main keywords found in the title, but telling a little more info in 2-3 sentences. This is where you summarize what your PR is going to talk about.

BODY

Your body must contain a great story, which makes readers want to read it. It can be short or long, but add relevant keywords and keyword phrases to it which will help optimization. You might want to have your keyword or key phrases mentioned 4-7 times in your release.

The length of your release should be 100-500 words. Some services take more words than that, but if you can do a power punched release with all the goods in it and make the media take notice, do make it short.

Include the basics in your body which one would find in everyday newspaper articles.

Who
What
When
Where
Why
How

Tell a story and speak to the news media, don't sell to them. Don't make your press release, "Press Release Spam or PRSpam." Don't make it an ad and try to sell the product or service in your release. The idea is to make them curious, and want to go to your sites, find out more, where you can collect a lead or make a sale there.

Don't use words like "You can make money". Use words like "One can make money..." Speaking in the right "person" makes it legit. Watch how you use, "I said, you said, or he/she said."

Also ad your website URL in the body if you can, and if it is relevant.

KEYWORDS

Usually you can select 5-10 keywords, depending on which services you are using, which are the ones you used in your press release content, which helps get you listed for them with Search Engine Optimization, and that will bring you targeted niche traffic.

CONTACT INFO

Your Contact info should be a website, or phone # where you can capture a lead's contact information.

CAUTION:

Beware of getting in trouble with the companies you represent. Some do not allow press releases to be published with out permission. If you are lucky, you will get off with just a warning but you could be risking your whole business relationship.

So, be sure what you are writing about is okay and always get permission first from a compliance department if you are not the owner of the company or representing something or someone else.

If you would like to write about a newsworthy event of another company and use their publicity to get you publicity, ask permission first.

How to Write Press Releases

Do a search for keywords similar to yours and read how others have written their releases to get more of an idea how to write yours. www.prweb.com has a search box, which you can type in your keywords and see the patterns, flows and styles of similar press releases.

Have fun establishing yourself as an expert!