Social Media PR Blog

The SEO Value of Press Releases

Jiyan Wei, a product manager from PRWeb, posted this week on his blog a great overview of press releases and SEO.  He runs through the history of SEO as it relates to release distribution, and gives a number of recommendations on how to write a release that will help your site’s search rankings.

Jiyan mentioned that he’d been getting a lot of questions about the SEO value of news release distribution.  I suspect that many of the questions came from attendees of the PRWeb webinar in which I presented on Wednesday.  I know we got a lot of them during the session.  I told Jiyan through Twitter that his blog post was a wonderful overview on the topic and is one that I’ve been meaning to write.  Now I don’t have to!

News Release Distribution Review UPDATED

Note: This post was updated on May 30, 2009 to include new information about the Pitchengine service and to update the “Best of the Best” list.
-Steve

The most popular post on this blog BY FAR is my April, 2007 review of online news release distribution services. According to my website stats it occasionally ranks above the front page of the blog or even the EndGame PR website itself! Because this review is so popular, I feel a responsibility to keep it updated.  I last updated the original post in September, and since then I’ve been promising a complete overhaul.  Now … here it is!

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Presenting at Another Free PRWeb Webinar

The PRWeb webinar on October 14 (yesterday, as I’m writing this) went so well, they’ve decided to do another next week.  And, I’m once again invited to be a presenter!  The topic will be the same: Use PR to Grow Your Business.  The last webinar was a record setter for PRWeb, with approximately 1,000 people attending.  The next one looks like it could be even bigger.

I’m honored that the other presenter at next week’s webinar will be Amy C. Cosper, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine.  I don’t pretend to have as impressive a title, but I think between us we’ll be able to dole out quite a bit of good information and advice.  My portion of the presentation isn’t finished yet, but I expect to be speaking primarily about marketing on the web through SEO, SEO PR, social media and blogging.

The next webinar is on October 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET.  It will likely last about an hour.

To register, just follow this link.  It’s free!

Free Webinar on Small Business PR

I’m one of three presenters being featured in a free PRWeb webinar on Tuesday, October 14.  That’s tomorrow as I’m writing this, so if you’re interested in registering … time is short!  The topic of the webinar is “Use PR to Grow Your Small Business”.  I’ll be speaking on SEO PR, SEO, corporate blogging, and podcasting.

The webinar is from 2:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. ET.  Currently, more than 2,000 people are registered but I’m told they’re still accepting registrations!

If you’re interested in learning a little and maybe even heckling me, sign up at the registration page for this PRWeb Webinar!

The Power of Blogger Relations

Blogger relations is like media relations … except with blogs. Seems obvious, right? Instead of working to get media coverage, you’re working to get mentions on blogs. I had the opportunity to watch up close this week how a “hit” from a blog can be more valuable than a hit from a mainstream print publication, and thought I’d share.

PerezHilton.com is a wildly popular celebrity gossip blog that recently started posting about what it calls “worthwhile causes” every week or so. My client, Fight SMA, is an international organization working to find a cure for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, the leading genetic killer of children under two. On Monday, May 26, taking an email suggestion from a public affairs person at the organization, Perez Hilton decided to include Fight SMA on its worthwhile causes list. They (he?) posted a link to the fightsma.org website, a description of the disease, a call to donate, and a YouTube video about a child and family dealing with the disease.

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