Press Release Optimization:
The Biggest PR Advance in 100 Years?
by George McKenzie
Did you know that the public relations "game"
is 100 years old this month?
Yep, the first press release was sent to newspapers
by snail mail a century ago, aimed at helping control the PR damage
a railroad company sustained when one of its locomotives crashed.
The company offered to transport reporters free
of charge to site of the accident to witness the scene themselves.
The company hoped squelch rumors and exaggerations that were spreading
about the severity of the wreck.
Things are a little different now aren't they?
And maybe the biggest PR development in 100 years
has been quietly taking place fin the last 12 months or so.
Do you know what it is?
It's the marriage of PR and the Internet.
PR in general, and press releases in particular,
have become the "stealth strategy" in the highly competitive
battle for search engine ranking.
Greg Jarboe, President and co-founder of SEO-PR
recently did a comparison study for one of his clients, WineZap.com
The results were verrrry interesting.
Jarboe provides press release optimization for
companies seeking publicity and search engine positioning for
their websites.
He can show you side-by-side views of a "before-and-after
optimization" press release for WineZap.com, an online resource
to research and price wines.
The changes to the press release were relatively
minor, but he made several significant changes to the headline,
and he added some wine-related search phrases.
The "optimized" release, submitted through
www.prweb.com also included a call to action and a discount coupon
for those who clicked through from the press release to a special
landing page. The landing page offered a newsletter sign-up form
qualifying the visitor for substantial discount on wine purchases.
Jarboe showed ranking results from both Yahoo
News and Google News, where the release turned up in the top 5
rankings.
Such a ranking is stunning in the highly competitive
wine industry, especially since WineZap is a new site. Jarboe
says WineZap had paid for tracking, and results showed the release
got more than 90,000 views on the PRweb.com site alone, with 1400
views by journalists!
Jarboe pointed out that his research shows 98%
of journalists go online daily, that 92% go online for research
purposes, and -- maybe most remarkable of all -- 73% of those
journalists go online to search for press releases, which are
typically indexed within three days because they're considered
"time-sensitive." That's much faster than a standard
web page gets indexed.
It beats the daylights out of those press releases
that were distributed to journalists by snail mail 100 years ago
doesn't it?
And it's also a good way to beat the daylights
out of your competition when it comes to getting the free publicity
you need to take your business to the next level.
To learn more about Greg Jarboe and his optimization
services, go to http://www.seo-pr.com
Also visit http://www.prweb.com
George McKenzie offers a free
7-day mini course to anyone who subscribes to his free weekly ezine.
During his 31 year broadcasting career, George's TV reports have appeared
on ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN
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“How to get listed quickly in the best search engine (Google)
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