Off Page Optimization Part I - Press Release

Of course you may define press release as “a public announcement of an event, performance or any other news worthy item that is issued to the press”. Well lets rephrase your definition It is an announcement made to the news media for the purpose of gaining attention to a specific event occurred within your company.

Press Release Process includes the following:

•Preparing the news
•Writing a press release
•Preparing it for distribution
•Distribution
•Track results

Preparing the news:
Before writing a press release you need analyze and examine very critically whether what you tell / announce is newsworthy or not. Its very important to know the complete information about your press release else it may go unnoticed or unimportant. Always try to answer the question “Is my Press Release is worth of time of my audience or journalist ? “.

Writing a press release : First of all Press Release is not a sales letter which speaks about your business or your products or your services. An ideal Press release should be tied in with current events or industry news so the resulting story is much more interesting for the readers. As an ideal marketing mantra “give your audience what they want but not what you have”.

• Head lines: It is the first most important aspect of the every news as is attracts the reader’s attention. Just as in a daily news paper. It should be short, precise, vivid and of course attractive. Please don’t speak about your business or company rather keep is related to your news. Limit your headline to around 100 characters.
  

• The summary or sub heading: Summary or subheading should precisely tell about your news. Summary should be able to make your audience / journalist curious about the news story. And limit summary to 200 characters.
  

• The lead: It’s the first three or four lines of press release main text. Ideally it contains all the facts regarding your story it should answer the questions like “who, what, where, when and how”. The lead is the extended summary of the facts in your press release. The lead helps your audience to glance the story of your press release.
  

• The Body:It’s the place where you tell the story in detail meshing in a subtle, indirect pitch of your product / service / company by showing how it contributes your audience in a positive way. Keep the sentences short, precise, vivid and to the point.Your body of the press release should still continue to convenience your audience to follow on reading and end up in contacting your company. It should be around 500 words.
  

• Quotes: Using quotes in your press release brings humanly element in your press release and brings newsy feel. Try to keep the length of your press release not more than one page or a maximum of two.
  

• The Boilerplate: At the end of the body describe your company in two to four lines and what it does.
  

• The End: At the end of the press release use ### on one line in the center of the line which is one of the standard editing tag for the press release or the media report.
  

• Contact information: Contact information is one of the important factors in the press release which helps your audience or journalist to contact your company for more information there are several formats one of them may be written as:

Contact Person
Local Address
Contact Email id
Contact phone number
Contact fax number
Website address

So... hope you have got a good idea about writing a general press release. Now lets checkout writing different kinds of press releases which can improve your Search Engine Rankings or back link for your site.

Tips for Product Based Press Release :

• Write "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:" at the top of the page.
• Provide complete information regarding the products including the photo, website address and other related information.
• Specify the about the product in the headlines of the press release.
• In subheading give the information regarding the product and its benefits.
• Describe how different is your product from other product.
• Share few quotes of your satisfied customers.
• Share few opinions of your company's CEO about the products.

Tips for Event Based Press Release :

• Write "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:" at the top of the page.
• write an appropriate and attractive headline of the happening event.
• Specify clearly about the event and its venue in the summary of the press release.
• Specify about the importance of the event and clebs attending the event.
• Specify the sponsors of the event even though you are the one.

Preparing it for distribution:

Before going to the next phase let’s discuss on editing polishing and formatting your press release.

Check your press release for factual and grammatical errors of course a word processor would help us here.

Analyze your lead paragraph to ensure that it meets the “who, what, when, where and how” details.

• Check your quotes to ensure that they blend in seamlessly with the rest of the story AND the press release.

Well press release is all about convincing the media to run your story.


It’s very important that where, how and when you distribute your press release to reach your audience. Generally audience can be classified into
• General – low interest, hard to please
• Focused (Category) – medium interest, hard to pin down but more likely to give some coverage.
• Targeted (Sub-category) – high interest, success is directly proportional to the quality of your information.

Before Distribution
Before you send your press release for distribution, you have to ‘prepare’ it.
Here’s how:
• Ensure that you can easily identify the separate elements of the press release – headline, summary, lead paragraph, body text, boilerplate, contact information. Distribution services like PRWEB ask you to enter these directly in an online form instead of submitting a formatted press release.

• If you are not using the SEO service of the PR distribution company,
Ensure that you carry out adequate keyword optimization yourself.

Keep reading I will back with the information regarding the distribution, tips, tools and other related resources for your press release.