Press release distribution service BusinessWire shared results of a poll, which found that 85% of those who send out press releases put links in them. That means that 15% didn't. Granted, this is only a small poll of less than 300 people, but it may still be indicative of a greater issue that not all businesses include links in their online press releases.
In fact, BusinessWire says by its estimate, the percentage of those who don't include links in their releases is much greater. "Interestingly, internal research of the Business Wire file of approximately 1,000 press releases each work day, suggests otherwise," says BusinessWire. "By our reckoning, only 13.5% of press release issuers use hyperlinks to drive traffic or amplify their messages in the context of their press releases."
"The advantages of including relevant, timely hyperlinks in your press releases are well documented," BusinessWire says. "Links can amplify your message, help increase your search engine optimization, and drive traffic to your website or other relevant sites."
The company has a podcast posted on this topic.
Reasons cited for not including links in BusinessWire's poll included "Just didn't think about it," "I don't know how," "I don't see the point," and "I don't know what a hyperlink is."
If you fall into that last category. I strongly recommend learning.
The web has made it easy for businesses to gain great reach through press releases. While widespread coverage is not always guaranteed, services like BusinessWire, PRNewswire, and a bunch of others make getting releases in front of journalists and bloggers quite easy.
Releases can be found in search engines, Google News, and are often shared via social media sites just like any other content, if they are interesting enough. Also keep in mind that press releases have long search shelf-lives. Releases can stay around in search results for random queries even if they are old. Just because they're old does not mean they aren't relevant, and they may be stumbled upon at a later date by a journalist or blogger who is researching a story, if not by a consumer.
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Comments
Not including links in your press releases is a waste
We have been experimenting with feature article and press releases specifically as a search engine optimization tactic for a while now. Each time we send out a targeted release we have seen quantifiable lifts in our campaigns. If you put out great content that is picked up, the backlinks from these releases are prices. For other ways to generate quality backlinks you can check out this recent blog post:
http://priorityresults.com/blog/seo-backlinking-the-backbone-to-an-effective-search-engine-optimization-strategy/
That I found interesting
That I found interesting that the poll above was from the PR distribution service "BusinessWire" which is geared almost exclusively from, well, business related press releases.
I wonder if the results would be significantly different if a poll was taken among users of the PRweb service which isn't geared exclusively to business-related press releases.
Always...
As a web site owner of safety and security products, marketing is my second job after processing orders so when possible, I always include a link. Not every site will allow it but when possible, it's a no brainer. Thanks, Chris.
They Just Lack Understanding
Monitor your link text as well
Choose targeted link text and place one or two links amongst the press release copy.
Add link in your text
Adding links in your text is also a way to promote products.
Links in press reliases
Keep in mind that a newsworthy release doesn’t guarantee that it will be covered immediately, or at all, in your target publications. There are different levels of news that can be assigned to press releases.
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