Press Releases – Good For SEO, Not So Good For Media Coverage
By Anna Johnson on April 14th, 2010Ah, the humble press release. Long used by marketers and public relations (PR) companies to get the attention of – and hopefully a news story by – journalists, it is now used extensively online. But not so much for getting mainstream media coverage…
That’s right, these days, press releases are not so good for getting coverage by the major media. You can write the best press release in the world, but if you think sending it out via a press release distribution service or even sending it to a few hand-picked journalists will be enough to get coverage in the popular media (including the blogosphere)… think again.
The reality is that journalists and bloggers are drowning in press releases these days. I know: I get tons of them! The higher their profile, the more press releases a journalist or blogger gets… and the less able they are to look at those press releases, no matter how well written or compelling is the story.
That’s not to say journalists and bloggers don’t use PR distribution services or that they don’t read press releases. Nor is it to say you shouldn’t write press releases when seeking news coverage. It’s just that you can’t rely on simply pumping one out and – without doing more – expecting to get a front-page story on TechCrunch!
At the same time, a strategy of just sending out press releases via PR distribution services such as PRWeb can still be beneficial.. but for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, rather than high profile media coverage.
A lot of sites and blogs WILL publish your press release, or maybe even a news story based on your press release, and thereby give you valuable ‘backlinks’. Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. Search engines, such as Google, take into account the quantity and quality of backlinks when ranking your website in their search engine results pages (SERPs). All else being equal, the more backlinks to your site, the higher will it rank in the search engines for a given keyword.
By including links in your press release, and having your press release or news story published on other websites, you increase your odds of having those links published on other sites and thereby having your site rank higher in the search engines.
In this case, you might get a lot of backlinks from a ton of relatively low-profile websites. Over time, the search engines will tend to discount a lot of these backlinks – i.e. where the links come from webpages containing duplicates of your original press releases – but if you continue sending out other press releases you can maintain a certain momentum.
This approach of using press releases for SEO purposes is a bit like aiming to hit singles or doubles in baseball. Over time, the SEO benefits should translate into more traffic to your site which, in turn, leads to more sales and profits.
All well and good… but what if you want to hit a home run? What if you want the kind of direct traffic influx that comes from being covered by a major media publication, blog, or radio or TV show?
Well, just as in baseball, it takes much more effort – and the acceptance of a bit more risk – to try to hit it out of the park by getting your news covered by the likes of TechCrunch, The New York Times or even your local TV news.
In this case, you better have a story that is truly newsworthy – i.e. it’s inherently interesting to the audience of the publication or show you’re targeting – and you better get on the phone with the journalist or blogger you are trying to court.
Yes, ‘court’. You want to court – build a relationship with – a handful of journalists and bloggers who have an interest in your kind of product, company and/or industry. And start off by giving THEM something before expecting news coverage in return. Zig Ziglar’s famous advice that the way to get something you want is to first help others get what they want applies as much here as it does elsewhere.
Oh, and don’t forget your press release. In addition to building a relationship with a given journalist, you should still be prepared to send them a well-written press release. Why? Because it’s part of giving them something they want.
One of the things the average journalist or blogger wants is for their job to be made easier. You can help make it easier by writing a news story (i.e. press release) that gives them an angle and framework they can work off in constructing their article or news report.
Truth be told, the best journalists and bloggers won’t just rehash your press release. You might give them your story on a platter only to find that they come up with an entirely different story where your contribution is nothing more than a one line quote… or you may not be mentioned at all! But don’t be put off. If a journalist uses you as a source you can build on that relationship to the point where you do get quoted and ultimately become the ‘go to’ person for all articles or reports on similar issues.
So, as you can see, there are many good reasons to use press releases in your Internet marketing strategy. Press releases are great for SEO purposes and are still useful for getting major media coverage. Just don’t rely on a ‘write and send’ approach to get the results you want!
April 15th, 2010 at 3:26 am
All great points – press releases (not sure how long that name will hold up) are no longer effective in reaching media or bloggers. It’s a grerat SEO tool to generate optimization and search for your brand, products and services. What marketers have to understand is that press releases or social media news releases have evolved to help generate SEO and link backs to your content and offers. It’s still a great tool to promote events, whitepapers, ebooks, speaking, thought leadership, etc. but not to generate media interest. I wrote on this topic a while back on Press Releases are Dead http://cindykimblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/press-releases-are-dead-or-are-they/. It’s important how to utilize press releases but set the right expectation. Those PR pros who don’t learn the new tools of the trade will fall into the category of irrelevance.