by Gary Sims
The quantity
of links to your site is used by the search engines (like Google) to
calculate the importance of your site. This measure of incoming links is
called "Link Popularity". Press releases are a powerful way in
which you can promote your site, service or product while at the same
time increasing your link popularity.
Search
Engine Optimization
Search
Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of fine tuning your website to
get higher rankings on Internet Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and
MSN. Broadly speaking there are two types of optimization,
"on-page" and "off-page". On-page optimization deals
with the layout and format of a web page to make it attractive to a
search engine. Off-page optimization deals with external factors like
the number of people linking to your page. Let's look at off-page first.
Off-Page
Optimization
In trying
to quantify the importance of a website, search engines have developed
sophisticated algorithms that rank web pages for their quality. The
largest factor in determining quality is the number of links to a web
page. Links are an almost impartial method of determining how popular a
website or a web page is. Or to put it another way, quality websites are
the most popular and so have the most links to them. As previously
mentioned this is called "Link Popularity". So to improve your
standing on the search engine you need a higher link popularity.
Another
very important factor in off-page optimization is the text used to link
to your site. This is called the anchor text. Adobe ranks the highest in
the search engines for the words "click here". Why should that
be? The word "click here" isn't in the title of the page, nor
is it in the page itself! So why does a search engine like Google rank
Adobe so high for this term? Because many of the websites linking to
Adobe used the words "click" and "here" many times
in the anchor text of their links to Adobe. You know... Click here to
download Acrobat Reader...
Press
Releases
A press
release is a written communication that you submit to journalists in the
media (newspapers, radio, television, magazines, etc.) They are used to
make announcements which are newsworthy. The mistake that many people
make when writing press releases is that they don't find the angle
necessary to make their announcement newsworthy. Press releases aren't
for customers or consumers they are for reporters, journalists who will
use them as a starting point for a larger story or feature. Press
releases written as sales pieces will be completely ignored.
There are
various ways to submit free press releases on-line.
Some of the popular sites are:
http://www.free-press-release-center.info
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.prleap.com
How can a
press release help with building your link popularity? Most of the free
press release services are text-based which means you will not be able
to add any HTML tags and so you can't add any keyword-optimized links
into the press release. However others like the Free Press Release
Center (FPRC) allow you to also supply some keywords for that press
release. When that page is viewed by someone, including the search
engines, the keywords will be used to create links within your press
release back to your website.
This
means:
There is a
one-way link to your website
The link uses the anchor text of your choice
The link is within a natural context of the press release.
Traditionally,
a press release is short-lived, it has a limited amount of time to make
an impact on the media before it becomes old news and is replaced by
fresh press releases. Some services like FPRC allow you to buy a cheap
upgrade, which means your press release will remain permanently in their
system. This means that your "in context" links with the
anchor text of your choice remain permanently for search engines to find
and so help improve your rankings.
When
preparing your press release you should optimize it for the keywords
which are important for your site, product or company. This means that
when someone searches for information in your industry, your press
release will be seen as relevant by the search engine.
On-Page
Optimization
There are
several factors in on-page optimization. The first is the title of the
page. This is almost the first thing the search engine reads when it
visits a page. All of the free press release services use the title of
your press release as the title of the web page. So when preparing your
press release try to put some of your important words in the headline,
however don't force them in as then you will alienate your readers (the
journalists).
After the
title is the heading tags on the page. Like the title of the page, your
headline will become the first heading on the page. Again you should
optimize your headline.
If you
prepare an optimum press release and select good keywords you can gain
valuable incoming links to your site as well as gaining exposure through
the media.
