The Nielsen/Net Ratings show that in the last six month Yahoo News moved in to the #1 spot and AOL News jumped into the top five with 15 .4 million readers. Correctly optimized press releases can get you a page one result overnight and dramatically increase your search engine visibility. Read more at http://www.expansionplus.com/impr/press_releases.html.
Why should marketers be interested in search engine visibility? More than half of all buyers go online before they purchase. Even those who buy in a store go online to get data first. With good search engine visibility on your keywords, your content shows up on page one when they search.
Since it can take anywhere from 30 - 60 days for a new page of content on your website to get indexed in the search engines, having your content in the news engines can make a huge difference. Content can be placed, indexed and available in the news engines within 24 hours.
And as the person who accesses your data asks for it by keyword, you know they are interested in that subject when they read your release.
In this digital age, every click can be tracked so you can get statistics on all the traffic that comes to your site from the optimized press release. Data on what keywords were used to access your article will give you deeper insight into what words to use in your next release.
Tracking referrals into your website will tell you where else the release is being picked up and used. Setting up news alerts on your company name and keyword can also show you when another website picks up your story.
After a couple of weeks do a search for the full title of your optimized press release and you'll find more of the sites that have used it. Even months later, you'll hear of new websites or email newsletters that are using your content.
Search optimized press releases give you several bites at the apple - instant visibility in news sites, longer term visibility once you get picked up on other sites, every place that uses your story features a link back to your website and you increase your content when you add it to your own website. And since journalists use the Internet for research, it improves your traditional media coverage too.
