Internet Marketing: Press Release Primer, Part 1

There are 17 great ways to drive traffic to your Internet marketing website. Of those seventeen, one of the most powerful is the press release. Writing a press release and uploading it to some of the top press release sites online can bring massive traffic to your site. But you may be wondering, What's a press release?

Any important event happening in your Internet marketing business will benefit from the use of press releases. Announcements, such as new websites opening or products launching, or welcoming a new employee to your company are all worthy of press releases because that's really what they are--structured announcements. The event that you're reporting should be important, though. Your most recent blog post won't qualify.

What makes press releases so powerful for Internet marketing is that they're easily spidered by the search engines and listed in the results pages quickly. Google loves press releases and we worry most about Google because it brings the most traffic and the best conversion ratios. When you optimize for Google, which is the toughest, the other search engines respond, too.

All search engines like press releases because they're mainly text and the search engine spiders can easily and quickly scan them to see what they're about. Just be sure to use keywords that apply to your Internet marketing business in your release, and keep to a density of about 2%. That way, the spiders will quickly see what your release is all about.

Here's another advantage... search engine optimization. When you can hyperlink your keyword back to your website, it counts as a one-way link pointing back to your site. Google sees those as votes for your page, and the more one-way links you have pointing back, the better your page reputation, the higher your page rank, and the higher your page will rise in the search engine results. (Find a page's rank by downloading the Google toolbar or by getting the add-on "Search Status" for your Firefox browser.)

But in addition to search engine traffic, press releases are also scanned by people in the media, even when they're outside the Internet marketing space. Because the news is so hungry for new material, your press release could generate a call from a newspaper, radio, or even television reporter to discuss the announcement you've made.

Just keep in mind that not all press release sites will be as beneficial for you as others. Look for sites with Google page rank 4 or above and that have an Alexa ranking (check this at Alexa.com) of 100,000 or less. Otherwise the site doesn't get much traffic, and your release won't be seen.

These press release guidelines can be applied to any Internet marketing business niche. In our next article, we'll teach you how to write one to get your Internet marketing business noticed.