Get High Quality Backlinks With Press Releases
Many webmasters and online business owners simply look at press releases as a means for getting quick backlinks to their websites. Many look for the immediate benefit, rather than understanding how press releases actually work, and how (when used effectively) they can bring high quality, permanent backlinks from authority sites. Here, I’ll do my best to explain the process, help you properly write a press release, distribute it effectively, and help you build quality relevant backlinks in the process, beyond the scope of distribution site links.
Where Many Webmasters Go Wrong
A Poor Return on Investment
Most webmasters are online to make money, not lose it. That’s why they worry about backlinks for SEO to drive traffic to their sites in the first place. But press releases have a very real cost involved through either:
1. Paying for a professionally written release and paid distribution.
2. Costing money through the time spent doing it themselves, where they could have been directly making money with other efforts.
When the only concern is immediate backlinks from the press release distribution site(s) and/or news search sites (Google News, Yahoo! News, etc.), better backlink opportunities are often overlooked. So how does that translate into a poor ROI?
Simple: For the same (or similar) amount of money or effort, the site owner could have received longer-lasting, higher quality backlinks from authority sites using that same press release. No matter how much traffic or how many low quality, irrelevant links they received, they could have gotten much better results without necessarily spending much more time or money. If you could have gotten better results without added effort, then your ROI wasn’t maximized to its full potential, and is therefore “poor” in comparison. Let’s fix that!
So Where are These Better Backlinks Going to Come From?
Steps for Using a Press Release to Attract Quality Backlinks
1. You do something truly newsworthy, and write (or have someone else write) a high quality press release.
2. You submit it to newswires (such as www.AP.org) and to appropriate journalists and editors at niche publications that would have an interest in your news. Get it directly in front of as many people as possible (in your niche, region, etc.), and look at other mass distribution outlets as a side benefit (like PRweb), rather than an exclusive distribution method.
3. If you really had quality news (especially with a timely appeal), the release was well-written, and you got it in front of the right people, you’ll get top-level media coverage. Media coverage shouldn’t just be a reprint/post of your press release; it should be a custom story. If you get picked up by an online outlet in particular (or top quality blogs in the niche), you’ll often get a live link (and if the site was worth independently targetting, it was likely a highly-ranked site). Most large outlets archive their content, meaning you’ll likely receive a permanent link.
4. Other smaller sites, outlets, or blogs pick up on the story after seeing it in a large media outlet or popular blog (they can also be your ticket into social media sites such as high Digg rankings as well). Many of these sites will also provide a direct link to your site, and will often archive their pages, leading to more permanent links. The key here is that, as opposed to distribution sites and news search sites, these links will generally be far more “relevant” - therefore doing more for your SEO efforts than simply padding your incoming link count.
5. The trickle down effect continues to much smaller sites and blogs, getting mentioned in forum posts of niche communities, etc.
That’s just assuming one major pickup, in one large and relevant online publication. If you target more effectively, and build quality relationships with journalists (no quicker way to get on their “ignore” list than repeatedly posting “bad,” time-wasting press releases), you can expand that trickledown effect of not only relevant backlinks, but also highly targeted traffic, as these publications serve as a link between your news story and your end target readers.
This article is an abbreviated version of my Online PR lens at Squidoo.com.
Related Resources
Free Press Release Template (for online distribution)
How to Write a Press Release
Press Release Writing Tips
25 Press Release Ideas
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[…] Press Releases, Link-Building, and SEO The fact still remains that quality press releases distributed effectively will lead to coverage where it’s deserved. As for SEO and link-building with press releases, traditional press releases can lead to better results; not worse. The trick is knowing what you’re doing, having quality news, a well-written release, and like I already said, effective distribution. Golly gee. Who’d have thunk it?? Most media outlets have online versions. Get picked up, and you usually get a nice quality backlink on a relevant page from a highly-ranked authority site. There’s a natural trickle-down effect. […]