Link Popularity and Press Releases

Link Popularity and Press Releases
By Gary Sims (c) 2006

The quantity of links to your site is used by the search engines
(like Google) to calculate the importance of your site. This
measure of incoming links is called "Link Popularity". Press
releases are a powerful way in which you can promote your site,
service or product while at the same time increasing your link
popularity.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of fine tuning
your website to get higher rankings on Internet Search Engines
like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Broadly speaking there are two types
of optimization, "on-page" and "off-page". On-page optimization
deals with the layout and format of a web page to make it
attractive to a search engine. Off-page optimization deals with
external factors like the number of people linking to your page.
Let's look at off-page first.

Off-Page Optimization

In trying to quantify the importance of a website, search engines
have developed sophisticated algorithms that rank web pages for
their quality. The largest factor in determining quality is the
number of links to a web page. Links are an almost impartial
method of determining how popular a website or a web page is. Or
to put it another way, quality websites are the most popular and
so have the most links to them. As previously mentioned this is
called "Link Popularity". So to improve your standing on the
search engine you need a higher link popularity.

Another very important factor in off-page optimization is the
text used to link to your site. This is called the anchor text.
Adobe ranks the highest in the search engines for the words
"click here". Why should that be? The word "click here" isn't in
the title of the page, nor is it in the page itself! So why does
a search engine like Google rank Adobe so high for this term?
Because many of the websites linking to Adobe used the words
"click" and "here" many times in the anchor text of their links
to Adobe. You know... Click here to download Acrobat Reader...

Press Releases

A press release is a written communication that you submit
to journalists in the media (newspapers, radio, television,
magazines, etc.) They are used to make announcements which are
newsworthy. The mistake that many people make when writing press
releases is that they don't find the angle necessary to make
their announcement newsworthy. Press releases aren't for
customers or consumers they are for reporters, journalists who
will use them as a starting point for a larger story or feature.
Press releases written as sales pieces will be completely
ignored.

There are various ways to submit free press releases on-line.
Some of the popular sites are:

http://www.free-press-release-center.info
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.prleap.com

How can a press release help with building your link popularity?
Most of the free press release services are text-based which
means you will not be able to add any HTML tags and so you can't
add any keyword-optimized links into the press release. However
others like the Free Press Release Center (FPRC) allow you to
also supply some keywords for that press release. When that page
is viewed by someone, including the search engines, the keywords
will be used to create links within your press release back to
your website.

This means:

There is a one-way link to your website
The link uses the anchor text of your choice
The link is within a natural context of the press release.

Traditionally, a press release is short-lived, it has a limited
amount of time to make an impact on the media before it becomes
old news and is replaced by fresh press releases. Some services
like FPRC allow you to buy a cheap upgrade, which means your
press release will remain permanently in their system. This
means that your "in context" links with the anchor text of your
choice remain permanently for search engines to find and so help
improve your rankings.

When preparing your press release you should optimize it for the
keywords which are important for your site, product or company.
This means that when someone searches for information in your
industry, your press release will be seen as relevant by the
search engine.

On-Page Optimization

There are several factors in on-page optimization. The first is
the title of the page. This is almost the first thing the search
engine reads when it visits a page. All of the free press release
services use the title of your press release as the title of the
web page. So when preparing your press release try to put some
of your important words in the headline, however don't force
them in as then you will alienate your readers (the journalists).

After the title is the heading tags on the page. Like the title
of the page, your headline will become the first heading on the
page. Again you should optimize your headline.

If you prepare an optimum press release and select good keywords
you can gain valuable incoming links to your site as well as
gaining exposure through the media.
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Gary Sims has a degree in Business Information Systems from a
British university. He worked for 10 years as a software engineer
and is now a freelance consultant and writer.
http://www.free-press-release-center.info
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