Building Brand Awareness And Valuable SEO LInks Through Free Online Press Releases

17 Jul Building Brand Awareness And Valuable SEO LInks Through Free Online Press Releases

At Soul Arch Media we focus on promoting our video production services, but the marketing arm of our business also handles PR, copy writing and press release preparation for small start ups right through to international brands.

While our larger clients have healthy budgets and can afford to have releases distributed via reputable newswire services to media outlets, many smaller clients rely on emailing releases out to media contacts. This limits a releases’ effectiveness as many journalists receive upwards of a hundred press releases per day, and barely scan email headlines before clicking the delete button. Personalized pitches to journalists work a lot better, but this method is more time consuming and therefore a lot more expensive to undertake.

To maximise the life of their releases, I often upload them to a variety of low cost or free press release distribution services. There’s literally hundreds out there, but some have proven to be a lot more effective than others.

When we first started experimenting on pushing small business releases out via free press release distribution services about six or seven years ago, we discovered issuing an online press release was an amazingly cheap and effective way to announce business news while building links. You can still send the release directly to your contacts and distribute it online to relevant industry associations and press, but an online release is also invaluable for inserting direct links back to your website as well as insert your targeted keywords (in our instance Gold Coast Video Production, Gold Coast Online Marketing etc ) throughout the release, so once posted on online news sources it also helps raise your website’s SEO.

Many clients are still getting solid web traffic from releases we posted for them online six years ago – not bad for minimal investment!

Of the hundreds of sites out there that we’ve trialled over the years, only a handful are worth bothering with. Here’s a rundown of seven popular low cost or free press release distribution services:

1888PressRelease.com  – Does have ad-supported free press release distribution options, but to insert any real links or gain visibility you’ll need to opt for paid services that range from $14-$250 plus, and not as effective as others we’ll tried. Still, not bad!

www.pr-inside.com  – This site is European and has a reasonable ad-supported free press release distribution option. The cool thing about this site is they don’t try and upsell you to paid distribution like most other sites, but it’s fairly basic.

www.24-7pressrelease.com – Offers a free press release distribution option that’s actually pretty good, but limited to one website link in contact details box and limited distribution, so not overly helpful for spreading news, building links or SEO unless you select paid options. Free releases are ad supported.

www.prbuzz.com –  This site used to offer a free option but now only offers annual packages. If your business sends out frequent releases this site is a reasonably-priced paid option, but very basic.

www.pitchengine.com – One of the newer players with a great free option, we just love the clean and sleek modern layout of this site. Big fan of the functionality – you can add all your social media links, add photo galleries and video to your press release. It’s pretty awesome to look at, the drawback is it’s traffic seems fairly low compared to other sites, plus it’s not a distribution site so doesn’t push your release out there to news sites and online news sources like the others. So very hip, but not as likely to spike traffic or get your phone ringing.

www.prlog.org – PR Log is the most effective free press release distribution site we’ve found. Their free option allows you to add links and photos, add video press releases or embed company videos, and even build a press room. Sure, it’s ad supported so doesn’t look as pretty as some of the paid sites, but it delivers good traffic and syndication to news networks for free. You can see a handful of releases we’ve published for clients here: https://pressroom.prlog.org/CazSoulArc/

www.prweb.com  – Another complete step up in standards again is PR Web, which delivers in ways ALL the free sites can only dream about.  It’s still very reasonably priced (packages from around $89) but is hands down the best bang for buck of any of the paid options we’ve used for any of our clients, large or small. Their news syndication network will catapult your release onto places like Google, Yahoo News and Bing, and as they’re a respected source of news ( many of the free sites often get a bit spammy) you’ll find your release syndicated across the web in places you’d never imagined. Plus your release doesn’t get lost in a myriad of ads from your competitors – this is a premium service with a polished look and delivery. It’s affordable and easy to use, yet light years ahead of anything else out there in the low cost bracket in terms of visibility, results, media reach, and SEO capabilities, so well worth the cost if you’re serious about getting your company news out there to the world. Like many services based in the US, many of the media contacts are in North America, but as it’s a truly international site we’ve found it’s still very effective for our Australian and New Zealand-based clients.  In fact we’d go as far to say if you can afford a little extra for paid online release distribution, don’t bother with any other service listed here – PR web offers the best value and best results.

( To take a peek at what releases look like once published on their site, take a peek at this recent one posted by Byron Bay swimwear label Muther Of All Things here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/surf/swimwear/prweb9711258.htm )

If you’re interested in trying out PR Web to see results for yourself, as we’re an affiliate we’ve sourced a special discount credit to use towards your first trial. If you’re a newcomer to PR Web and like the look of some of their other packages, sign up today and get 10% off your first news release!

So there you have it. And keep in mind even the best press distribution can’t save a badly written press release. Contact Soul Arch Media today on 0755595551 if you need to prepare an online press release or video press release…  And be sure to let us know how you go with any of the services above!