Why Distribute a Press Release?

1) Organic Traffic: With Universal Search protocol, Google has started showing press releases in organic search results. If your press release is well-optimzed, it can rank for two to three days in Google organic results. The press release can also get traffic from Google News and other news aggregator Web sites.

2) Link Building: You can use your important keywords as anchor text (in our paid package) and link them to relevant pages on your Web site. When the press release is distributed these links will be picked up by distribution partners.

3) Reputation Management: If someone has criticized your company, one sure way to get the criticism off the first page of Google Blog Search or Google search results is to issue multiple press releases. Of course, if you want to do a professional job, then you need to get external links in to your press releases and bookmark and tag these releases.

4) Bloggers and Web 2.0 Audience: Many bloggers subscribe to online press release services like PRunderground. If your press release interests them, they might blog about it and give a link to your press release or your Web site. If your consistently reach out to this audience, you can get significant links, traffic and sales from them.

5) Traffic from Traditional Media: If your press release interests journalists, they will follow up with you and write a story about your business. This will most certainly lead to a short term boost in your Web site traffic and sales.

* This list was taken from the May 2008 issue of Website Magazine.