Press Releases - Good "News" For Massive Web Site Traffic

Public Relations For Your Web-site!

One of the most untapped areas in web traffic is the use of online press releases.

A press release in this context is effectively a short attention-grabbing article you write and submit to popular press release web sites. These websites then syndicate your content to many other sites and other news feeds, spreading the message dramatically and in many cases generating huge traffic for your website.

For a discussion on offline press releases please read the offline advertising article, which goes into significant detail about all things you can do offline to increase your overall web presence.

The cool thing about press releases is that they also get picked up by the search engines, and can bring you traffic time and time again in the future.

Why is this important I hear you asking? Generally the search engines rate the major press release websites highly and index their contents (and thus your press articles) very often, often numerous times in a day! This gives you a one-way link from a quality site (read up on one-way links in another article on this Website.

In the case of new websites, issuing a press release is in my opinion essential because it will get your website indexed by the search engines very quickly.

More to the point, a press release you have submitted to the various press release websites may well rank higher in the search engines that your actual website itself, while you are building up your rankings for your website so it’s a great way to gain exposure quickly and efficiently (people can visit your website from the link in the press release).

One of the most popular press release websites is P.R. WEB so I would recommend you start with this site.

Now be prepared to pay in some cases, because not all press release websites are created equal. Whilst it is possible to find free press release sites, chances are that you are not going to get anywhere near as much traffic from these sites as you would from the major ones, so I would suggest you focus on these first and then move on to the other sites once you have done that.

Remember Search Engines love great content, and search engines love press releases. Believe me when I say press release sites are spidered (indexed) very frequently by the search engines.

So you have decided that you want to use a press release for your website. What should you actually write about in the press release?

Another interesting question. Thanks for asking. The contents of the press release depends on what you are trying to achieve. No surprises there, right?

Firstly it has to be attention grabbing, as does any article to grab the attention of the reader, and the actual content, should be relatively short sweet and to the point, with a call to action. That is, to give the reader the urge to actually click your link in the press release to visit your website.

You don’t want to be wallowing in self-promotion and telling everyone how good you are (they will find this out soon enough when they visit your website). Rather, you want to convince them that they should be visiting your website, and that there is a benefit to them (the reader) of doing so, and that they should do so right now!

You should write your ad for the “press” because the “press” will be the people who will initially read your release and determine the relevance of it, and how hard they “push it”.

If they see a benefit to a reader in the article it makes sense for them to promote it because more people will be interested in the press release and their website also benefits as a result (from visitors reading your press release because the press release is actually stored on the press release website).

For example, if your releasing a new eBook on Web Traffic, then perhaps a heading like the following

How To Grab A Massive Surge in Visitors To Your Web-Site Today

And then in the sub-heading and body of the text you would outline what you are specifically offering (but at a high level, because they will get all the specific information they need when they visit the page, won’t they?). Remember this is effectively a “pre-sell”. All we are trying to do with a press release is to get your name or product or service “out-there” and to get people to actually click through to visit your site, where hopefully you have done a superb job of convincing them that you are the site they have been waiting to visit for their entire life (that, or at least to have them think you are worth their time in “poking around” your site for a look-see).

In my opinion you should never delete your press release because leaving it online means it will always be a source of traffic for you, and perhaps more importantly if someone stumbles upon your press release in the future and it is outdated, it can actually work in your favour and give you credibility because it shows your website has been online for some time.

Some ideas for a press release include: -

1. Launch of a new site
2. Launch of a new product
3. A new addition to the site, for example you may be extending your site to including coaching to your customers.
4. A major new event in your life – e.g. forming an association with a key industry figure, a new seminar, etc

The list is endless. Remember that your press release needs to be relevant to the reader and not just a hard sell if you truly want to maximise the traffic to your website.

Give the reader a reason (and a darn good one) to visit your website, make them compelled to get to your website.

What about if you think you will have difficulties writing a press release?

Well firstly you shouldn’t think like that because writing about yourself should not be that hard, should it? Let’s face it, if you write a press release and it does not work as well as you expected, just write another one! You will get better at doing it the more you practice.

If you really don’t want to do it, or are looking for ways to outsource this type of stuff (and outsourcing is a great leverage tool) freeing you up to do other things, then some of the press release sites do offer the ability to write a press release for you.

Obviously this would be at an extra cost but you just give them the basic information, pictures, etc and they will put a press release together for you. Prweb offers this as an option for an additional $100 (when I last checked their website) and that’s not bad value. As part of the process they will call you to discuss exactly what you are after.

In summary, don’t ignore press releases they can provide great levels of traffic as soon as the press release is released and then in the future via the search engines.