The Press Release

I just received my monthly issue of Website Magazine. Hard to believe that I started in this industry over 10 years ago when there was literally nothing but a bunch of online geeks - now we have 2 industry magazines! But I digress . . .

This month there was an article about press releases and although I find myself telling people that press releases are a good way to promote their business, I usually don't go into why and most people don't understand how or why to use the internet for press releases. So I thought I would share this great little list with you including my personal thoughts on each idea.

1) Press releases show up in organic search results. If you have something new, exciting, newsworthy happening in your company, posting the press release on your website gives the search engines and searchers another way to find you.

2) Links. Use your online press release to link to other relevant pages of your site. These internal links give search engines a better way to organize your pages and a stronger ranking for linked pages based on the link text description.

3) Manage your company reputation. If you've ever had a disgruntled employee or very unhappy customer you may find your site negatively listed in a blog or review site. By using press releases to talk about the great things happening at your company you'll be in better control of your company's image.

4) Catch the blogger's interest. With social media becoming increasingly important on the internet, your press releases are food for the fodder! A good media area (press releases) within your site give bloggers and other interested parties something to talk about - you! And the more they are talking about you in blogs, the more links and traffic are generated.

5) The old stand by - Traditional media. Putting out a press release to journalists is still a good idea even in the internet age. While you may not always get coverage, it certainly keeps your name in front of them and they may consider calling you for a quote when writing about something relevant to your business.

There are several ways to get your press release out there when it comes to the web, from free to spendy. But the best thing to do is to get the ball rolling and start telling people what your company is up to!