As most people are aware, quality incoming links are valuable in boosting your sites rankings. There are a large variety of methods and sources for link building. One of my favorite sources is optimized press releases.    There are a variety of press release services available, costs of a press release range from free to several hundred dollars.   I have tried at least a dozen press release services with results ranging from no results to extremely good.   The press release service I use the most is PRWEB, they have a $200.00 SEO press release option that I have had very good luck with.

A SEO press release with newsworthy content gives you a lot of “bang for the dollar”. Consider some of these benefits:

·         A good press release service pushes releases to a lot of outlets – chances are pretty good that your press release will show up on a number of Google searches (particularly news searches)

·         Press releases go to a number of “news” outlets. Reporters and bloggers and others are always on the lookout for things to report on or blog about. I know that several news releases that I have launched have initiated follow up news stories by local reporters and a blog posting on a couple of blog sites. In one case a follow up story was published in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, this story actually got my client a very large .   One of my clients got an invitation to get interviewed on a podcast, based on a press release. 

·         When your company name is “googled” most likely any of your press releases  done in the last several months will show up on the first page.   You want stuff about your company to show up on as many spots as possible on the first page, when your company name is searched.

·         Press releases can provide inbound links to your site – these links can have keyword rich anchor text which will help your rankings. You can also point the link to a page inside your site thus giving you a “deep link”. It is suspected that a deep link is valued more than a link to your home page.  

In short press releases can help your SEO efforts as well as give you great PR.  There are some considerations that may tamper ones enthusiasm:

·         The overall benefit of the press release is proportional to the “newsworthiness” of the release.   I have found that press releases on exciting new products can get a great deal of attention.   A press release on your trade show attendance has minimal benefit (but still worth doing).

·         Most press release sites have very low page ranks, so you are not go to go from a ranking of 100 to top ten on a real competitive search term.   You will need to be very strategic.

·         Also, there needs t o be an overall SEO strategy in place for your PR to be effective. Press releases have almost zero SEO benefit as a standalone strategy.

 

You can enhance the effectiveness of a good press release by sharing it with your followers via facebook, twitter or a variety of other social media sites.