The 10 commandments of effective press releases
If your New Year’s resolution is to write more successful press releases, use this list of commandments as your guide.
A lot has changed with press releases over the years, particularly in the last few months thanks to Google’s algorithm updates.
While the press release is still alive and well (not to mention useful), it’s undoubtedly in a transition period. That’s why I came up with a set of guidelines to keep in mind as you write your press releases. Some of these rules are new, and others date back to the press release’s origins.
Without any further ado, here are the 10 commandments of press releases:
1. Thou shalt be newsworthy and engaging.
A few years ago, press releases were one of the best tools for improving search rankings. As you might remember, people started abusing this by dumping tons of low quality, meaningless press releases on free directories across the Web. It didn’t take Google long to crack back against these manipulative practices. Today, press releases are no longer purely a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. They’re only effective if they are newsworthy and provide a great user experience.
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