SEO Press Releases - Getting Stats
I had a consulting gig last year that had me write an SEO press release every week. I had no access to stats and that severely hampered my ability to improve and learn from all of the data. I like seeing what combination of techniques and PR distribution services work best for different business objectives. In other words, I would go for lower cost services just for SEO and save the more dynamic news for higher priced services that target search engines and the media.
The client was extremely protective of me and his company, so I can’t use any of the press releases as references. I’m sure that at least one got a very quick #5 ranking for the keyword I optimized for. I do have to say my opinion (because I can now) and that is don’t write a press release just for the backlink. Make sure you actually have news.
Does anyone else run into this issue? When you do work for clients, how do you quantify your work? They’ve told me how effective they have been but too often I don’t have numbers, and I need numbers. Stats are my reward (along with money, the lifeblood of any business).
There is a lot of news going on in a company that is overlooked. However, just releasing news so you have new content is not a good strategy - that is a strategy for a blog post where you can update frequently without needing a full blown news angle or story. I also learned it’s a bad idea to mix SEO blogging with community blogging (more on that later). Eventually it proved too expensive for the client, which isn’t surprising at all. BTW, I found the business blog I wrote that I thought was gone).
Ideally, you combine a blogging and press release strategy which reinforce each other. Then you can add social media elements (Digg, delicious, etc). You can email your press releases to bloggers and post them on your social media profile on an RSS feed. I need to write a plan to do this or if you have one, please go to my contact form and you’ll go straight to my network of contacts (meaning I will forever be a resource for you back, even if years down the road you need a contact or expertise).
When I had access to stats I clearly saw how valuable a press release can be for search engines and for media attention. I know my editorial score and the reads (usually over 50k). It was well worth the spend for the traffic and visibility we got. It sure beat the cost of paid search and was a permanent link in the search engines.
Writing SEO press releases is the service I most like doing, because I love getting the story out and I get to use my SEO/internet marketing skills too. I love to write press releases that involve interviewing a person. Those become my best work because I really like people more than computers. The best press releases hit both search engines and are also meaningful and useful to people (the media, the public, etc, depending on your goals).
p.s. My blog URLs are fixed.
Most Comments:
2 Responses to “SEO Press Releases - Getting Stats”
Leave a Reply
January 17th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I’m so glad to see you mentioned press releases.
Search engine optimization is particularly important when writing press releases. If you use the same keywords in your releases that people use when searching online for the same information, you can attract a lot of attention for your product, service, cause or issue.
I’m offering a free email course called “89 Ways to Write Powerful Press Releases.”
I explain why we should no longer be writing press releases only for the press, but for consumers who can find the releases online, click through to our websites and enter our sales cycle, even if journalists don’t think our release is worthy of attention.
The course includes several terrific press release samples as well as “before” and “after” makeovers.
You can sign up for the free press release writing tutorial at http://www.PublicityHound.com/pressreleasetips/art.htm
It’s a very long tutorial but please stick with it. By the time you’re done, it will be like earning a master’s degree in writing and distributing press releases. And you’ll know more about this topic than many PR people.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
To answer your question about results, the best way to measure results is to determine ahead of time a “call to action” in the release.
You must tell people what you want them to do. You can tell them to click through to a website and in exchange for their email address you’ll give them a special report. Or call a phone number and order tickets. Or whatever.
Determine how many people you want to convince. The client might conclude that the release is successful if he gets 1,000 new email addresses. Or of X number of tickets are sold. (You could lead readers from the press release to a particular landing page separate from the homepage of the website.)
Stats that show how many people have opened it or read it are useless. What really counts is whether people take the action you want them to take.