Sunday, January 4, 2009

Online Press Releases and SEO

SEO is a hot tool that many companies are trying to take advantage of, and ofcourse, the competition is fierce. In that, Google is the goldmine that many companies want to maximize exposure on. Google attracts over 75% of web searches worldwide.

How can you take advantage of this powerful search engine? Well, aside from basic SEO setup and techniques on your website, popularity is king. Google wants to know how popular your website is and measures this on its online visibility. That is, how many websites link in to your site, and how many websites mention your site URL. The latter is achieved by many smart online marketers using online press releases.

Online press releases allow you the power to link an article back to your website by entering your URL throughout the press release. It is wise to include the full URL instead of just your name.com (ex. http://www.rgpacific.com). When you send out your press release, your goal is to have as many sites, directories, and blogs pick up your press release and publish it. Alas, you will have several dozen, even hundreds, of links to your site that can tell Google your website is creating a buzz!

The best online PR service is PRWeb.com, since it gives you the most exposure depending on the price you are willing to spend. It can get quite pricey, but even the minmum package gets you on blogs and permanently online. Your article will be published on yahoo and aol, but only for a limited time, so do not assume Yahoo News will have an article on your site forever! Some people think that it does and even post a review link on their site, and after a few weeks the link is dead. Don't feel that embarassment! The worst thing you can do is tout your website with dead links!

If your budget is small or you want to feel out how Online PR works, there are several PR sites that post your press release for free. Some are freePR.com, pr.com, Prlog.org, and others. Doing a quick Google search can lead you to them if you want to use others. Be careful though, and be smart in what you publish. Alot of PR wires review each press release, and a few are charging for the use of URL's since the practice is becoming quite popular. Also, your press release must contain some kind of content and purpose. Use it to review a new feature, service, or product of your company. Remember, the goal is for someone to post the press release permanently, and to do so they need a reason to. Just making press releases for the heck of it eventually becomes repetitive and can lead to minimal impact on your website SEO plan.

For more info about online press releases, feel free to post questions here and I can get back to you when I can. Visit my website www.rgpacific.com if you need more advanced services. Remember, your article copy, or content, is vital for online success. Always have a plan!!