How Public Relations Boosts Website traffic
Online press releases are an excellent tool for increasing search results. Search engine algorithms place an emphasis on delivering updated, real-time results and the value of organic search rankings cannot be overstated.
In addition, press releases create links to your site from all over the world. Search engines value both the quality and quantity of inbound links, especially inbound links from unique domains with high rankings – such as online news sites and blogs with authority on your product or service.
PR is Cost Effective
A PR program is less expensive than an SEO program and can garner the same results. Sending out a series of press releases over time will exponentially improve your online search rankings. It will also help to establish a solid platform for your brand and an online presence beyond a proprietary website. This spreads your message, along with the confidence and high rankings that come with it, across the Internet.
How does it work?
Traditionally, wire services like PRNewswire faxed or emailed press releases to media outlets, offering little or no measurement. Today, these same wire services offer RSS/XML distribution to news search engines like Yahoo! and Google News along with the ability to measure views and clicks.
This means that now you can measure tangible ROI on your PR efforts. To maximize visibility and ROI on a press release, it must be properly optimized. You can hire an SEO specialist to do this for you, or you can just let PRWeb do it for you as part of their basic news distribution service for just $200 per release. You can also use PRNewswire or BusinessWire for the same service, but it costs about twice as much and they charge extra for photos and additional words.
If $200 per release is out of your price range, you can distribute your press releases for free with PRLog. They even offer advice on creating a press release yourself so you can do the whole thing for free.
It’s best to have your press release professionally written by someone that has an understanding of your industry and can identify and incorporate keywords for each release. Keyword density for target phrases should range from 2 to 5 percent of the total text for best results.
A PR Program for any budget
PR can build website traffic for any company no matter what your resources are. If you have the budget, you can hire a PR agency or professional to do it for you, or you can do it for free by writing your own releases and using PRLog. Whichever route you take, you can build website traffic and increase sales for a minimal investment.
Of course, the more effort you put into your PR program, the better the results will be. A well-written release that’s properly optimized and distributed will bring more traffic and better results than a poorly written one.