Taking targeted press seriously - seriously!
When doing press for your online business what are the sites that you think of, or come to mind right off the bat? Who do you spend your time submitting to? Who do you think is a credible source to get a story on? Do you even submit press releases at all? Let me name off a few of the obvious, and give you some reasons you should be taking press (and very targeted press) seriously:
My question though is how targeted are these places? Are they starting to get filled up with garbage? Are to many wannabe search engine marketers saying things like, “You need to do a press release about your site.” (blah blah blah)
I have a new take on it. I have been testing something with Google News that has been paying off for me. Here is a screen shot of a search for “memory foam mattress” inside the Google News area:
It is probably hard to see from this screen shot, but I have identified 3 very targeted press places I can submit to that is very specific to memory foam mattresses.
- Furniture World Magazine
- Furniture Today
- Home Textiles
It is also important to note that this was just 10 results from my very first keyword search. Think about all the keywords you have (or should have) the ability to target and go after. Do searches for them. I would be willing to bet within an hour you would have anywhere from 30-50 super targeted press sites to submit to. The best part is you don’t have to pay anyone to do the work for you. You just have to come up with a really good press release/article and submit it!
When the search engines see a story in a very targeted website that is related to my industry it really helps with credibility issues. If you are having problems getting out of the “filter” or the Google sandbox (that does not exist) this could be a turning point.
I am even willing to venture out and say that getting a story on one of these targeted press sites will do more for you (search engine optimization wise) then a story on the mainstream PR sites. Do your best to write really good articles/press that are worth reading, and don’t think so much about the search engines - but at the same time remember we are doing this to get better rankings with the search engines!
Google News is not new (I know this), but most marketing companies are going to tell you to go with the big dogs first (and its never a bad idea getting your stories with them) but what about giving your site some true credibility through getting a very quality story/link? I would recommend trying this for your business. Do a Google News search, and see what kind of targeted press sites are out there in your respective field. Most of the time from what I have found the sites will let you submit for free, and they get indexed almost instantly. Major ILQ building if you are in need!
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Hey I think this is some really good advice. I don’t have much to add to this. But Mainly thanks for the insight.
Targetted marketing is the key (isn’t that what we’re trying to optimize with SEO?) and this is a great tip for targeting some quality traffic.