New York, NY (PRWEB) February 10, 2005
Press releases are often one of the main ways a business attempts to get its message out to the public. Companies, organizations, and institutions spend thousands of dollars each year on the crafting and distribution of press releases containing information about their recent achievements and innovations to a wide range of news outlets in the hopes that the authoritative voice of the media will deem the information newsworthy and share it with the general public, who, if the information bares enough relevance to their lives, will hopefully respond to free brochure and product offers. Now, with press release optimization popularity on the rise press releases have gone hi-tech, allowing businesses to more accurately target their message to specific segments of the population, become less dependent upon the sometimes finicky media by getting straight to the qualified leads, and most importantly increase consumer response rates.
According to the Middleberg/Ross survey and Pew Internet and American Life Project, on an average day 68 million American adults go online with 30 percent of them using the Internet to find information and 27 percent to get news. Additionally, more than 27 million people use Google News and Yahoo News on a monthly basis. The fact that Americans are relying more and more on the Internet for information on everything from prescription drugs to dating is nothing new, but the growing number of ways in which businesses can use the Internet to click with consumers is always newsworthy. From search engine optimization to pay-per-click and even linking services, some online businesses are tapping into the wealth of different and emerging Internet marketing methods to secure their success on the World Wide Web. What many companies dont consider or are unfamiliar with, however, is the vital role optimized press releases distributed via news search engines can play in bringing qualified traffic to their website.
Press releases can serve a number of functions for a business: garner publicity, position a business as an authority in its industry, disseminate relevant information about a particular problem while highlighting how a businesss products or services can serve as a solution, and in the motivation of consumer response through the use of free offers of information, or product. Optimized press releases do all of these things in addition to: increasing a businesss ranking when searches for its relevant terms are conducted, increasing the number of visitors that give their email address and other contact information, increasing the number of consumers that fill out an online form, and overall, increasing the generation of qualified leads.
How does it work? For many online businesses, whether they are vets or newbies, search engine optimization is still a relatively foreign concept and press release optimization is even more so. Press release optimization works very much in the same way that search engine optimization does crafting and placing certain key terms relevant to the topic in the title and body of the text to target the specific audiences or groups who are most likely to search for and respond to the information. The optimized press release is then distributed through a number of online circuits or electronic wires which get them in front of editors and journalists searching for keywords relevant to that particular press release. With a reported 98 percent of journalists going online daily and 73 percent of those searching specifically for press releases, the possibilities for exposure are great. Optimized press releases go even one step further. Unlike the traditional press release which relies solely on the discretion or desire of the news media to feature the information and free product offer in a thirty-second spot or brief mention in an article read by a wide audience of unqualified prospects, the optimized press release is available to the general public who can simply log-on to a news search engine, type in the terms relevant to the information theyre seeking and access press releases with information specific to that topic. The major benefit of the optimized press release is that links to the businesss website, usually in the form of keywords relevant to the topic of the press release, are imbedded within the body of the release allowing users the ability to click right through to that businesss homepage or designated landing page where they can access more information on that businesss products or services. This means that the users who respond to an optimized press release by clicking through to the website are actively seeking the information provided, are more likely to respond to product offers, and are more likely to make a purchase on the website. There are even tracking tools available which will allow the business to see exactly where the respondents to the press release went while on the site, how long they stayed, and where they exited allowing the business the opportunity to test keyword relevance and landing page success rate and make the necessary modifications.
Optimized press releases even contribute to other online marketing strategies. An optimized press release increases a businesss inbound non-reciprocated links. While having relevant, quality, reciprocal links is beneficial for a website, accomplishing that end is difficult and many online businesses are penalized by search engines by way of poor page ranking when theyve made bad linking choices. That is why as part of any linking strategy, it is important to include links that search engines view as one-way recommendations from other highly ranked sites. Having an optimized press release on a newswire service with links back to the businesss website serves this function. An optimized press release can further help a businesss search engine ranking when they are placed on the businesss website thereby increasing the websites size and content which will of course be noticed by search engine spiders known for loving big sites and rewarding them with higher rankings in kind. Furthermore, creating additional web pages specifically for press releases and spider crawling will also provide the search engines with more pages to index and users more ways to find a businesss website.
According to Chris Winfield, Internet marketing expert and President of New York-based search marketing and website development firm 10e20, LLC, Its amazing the results weve been able to get for our clients; one client in particular, Harbour Village Beach Beach Club, a vacation hot-spot, was just approached by producers about being featured in a segment of a luxury travel show on the E! and Style Networks as a result their finding one of the optimized press releases we wrote for them. While reader response is the ultimate goal of any press release, press release optimization allowed Harbour Villages press release New Features at Harbour Village Beach Club Make the Island Getaway a Prime Caribbean Vacation Destination to bypass the sometimes discriminating media outlets and land straight in the hands of people who were actually interested and actively searching for related information. Winfield says, Press releases are a vital part of business, it was only inevitable that the online business world would adapt it to fit their needs and go beyond the traditional methods.
For more information on how press release optimization can work for your business call, 1-866-921-4330 or log-on to http://www.10e20webdesign.com for a free consultation.
About 10e20, LLC
10e20 Website Design is The global search marketing and web development company. Clients include Virgin, Ford, SoftwareCEO, and 350+ others. As seen in the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, the LA Times, CNET, Boston Globe and many more. 10e20 is headquarted in Brooklyn, NY and has a second office located in West Palm Beach, FL. Effective and affordable 10e20!
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