NewsCactus Blog

I recently found a fascinating article featuring Bob Pearson of Dell at this month’s Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference.

He’s uniquely qualified from his vantage point to talk about the influence of technology on our planet, and especially upon those who claim to be professional business communicators.

Consider this observation: a company’s home page is the Google search results page. So true! And precisely why utilizing every tool you can, so you can control as much of the search results page content as possible, is so important.

The NewsCactus online newsroom solution provides unlimited opportunities for companies to claim that first page of search results through consistent publishing of keyword-rich announcements about products or services.

NewsCactus news releases utilize RSS, carry associated multimedia content and related links, and continue to position companies at the top of pertinent search results.

If you’re writing for the Web, you’re familiar with the importance of incorporating appropriate keywords in your prose.

If you’re a business communicator and you’re writing press releases without much thought as to who would search for your release, and what words they’d use to find it, it’s time to change.

With the digitization of information, companies who provide search mechanisms have become huge conglomerates (i.e., Google). Most of us no longer pull a printed directory to search for information, we go online and do a search. We Google it.

Thus, as communicators, it behooves us to write so that our information can be found, quickly and easily in online searches.

Here are a couple of handy tools to help you know what keywords people are searching for and what keywords you could incorporate into your news releases to help secure higher search placement:

Google Trends

Keywords at Wordtracker

With the convergence of technology and advent of Web 2.0, the public relations practitioner’s standard old press release has had a makeover.

If your company is still sending text-only news releases by mail, fax or email as the primary way of sharing news, you’re missing a terrific opportunity.

Using the Internet, press releases can have so much more depth. In fact, you could probably only use the Internet and reach more people — consumers and journalists — than you ever could the old fashioned way.

Various surveys show that approximately 90 percent of journalists use the Internet to gather information for a story, find story ideas and read the news. Some 70 percent of Americans now primarily read their news online.

If your online newsroom is a simple, chronological archive of press releases, NewsCactus can help optimize your news for greater search engine placement.

Here are some key ways by which the NewsCactus online newsroom allows public relations practitioners to do much more with their press releases:

Search Optimization

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — because NewsCactus news releases include keywords and descriptions in addition to the text of the release, and because of the way the individual pages are named, NewsCactus releases secure top search placement for your company, its products or services.

Multimedia

Include audio or video to help tell more of your story.

Important Links

Link keywords to other online resources such as research, white papers and articles in the media.

Social Media Tags

Users can share your news with others using a variety of Web 2.0 social media.

Distribution

Let users manage the way they receive your news, either by subscribing to your RSS feed (don’t worry, journalists are way ahead of the pack when it comes to using RSS) or electing to receive daily emails containing your news. And you can view RSS statistics and email subscribers.

Search

Every single online newsroom item is searchable using Google Custom Search, making it easy to find just what you’re looking for.

Schedule for Release

You can elect to publish your news release right away, save it as a draft or schedule the distribution for a future day and time.

By using an online newsroom you gain increased visibility on the Web. In fact, most NewsCactus customers now have two first page search links: one for their company, and a second for their NewsCactus powered online newsroom.

We’ve all seen the pesky headlines asking whether or not the U.S. is in a recession. We know that now’s not the best time to travel overseas if you’re a budget-conscious consumer. So what do businesses need to do to gain a competitive advantage in tough times?

In a soft economy, some executives cut back on marketing, advertising and public relations. However, other executives realize the potential for carving out a niche during an economic downturn, and then reap the benefits of new positioning when the market picks up again.

From a corporate communications perspective, just about the worst thing a company could do is cut-off communication with key constituencies in order to save a few bucks. The challenge, then, becomes smart, cost-effective marketing.

Frequently, when businesses are cutting back on advertising budgets, there are bargains to be found. If you have considered a campaign previously and felt you couldn’t afford it, now may be a good time to revisit your ideas and work out deals with media representatives. With fewer advertisers in the game, you’re more likely to get a break.

From a public relations perspective, it’s a great time to get your message out. If others are cutting back or limiting the amount of information distributed, then ramp-up your communications and you’ll gain greater market share.

Online marketing, search placement and positioning have long been a very cost-effective way of corporate branding. Especially now, when some advertisers have pulled the plug, your company should be participating.

Look for additional ways of securing top search placement, increasing website traffic and securing new business online. The NewsCactus online newsroom is an excellent tool to accomplish just that.

When we installed the Les Olson Company newsroom in October 2007, their company Web site was the first Google search listing when searching by the company’s name.

After about a week following the addition of its NewsCactus online newsroom, the company secured the second listing in Google, doubling its search placement on the first results page. The only additional cost was the monthly NewsCactus subscription.

Another way to secure more top search listings is to pay for them, pay-per-click campaigns, banner ads, etc. But that can be an expensive proposition.

Additionally, a NewsCactus newsroom provides much more functionality than an online ad campaign alone. Features include self-publishing announcements distributed through RSS, multimedia, additional links, news highlights, links to the company in the news and media contacts, to name a few.

Online newsrooms provide valuable tools to secure top search placement. Because of the way NewsCactus newsrooms are named, news.companyURL.com, the newsroom secures a second search results listing in addition to the company’s main website.

In our Web 2.0 time, no company should be without an online newsroom.

Consider this: many companies need, or choose, to develop websites using Adobe Flash technology. Because of the way Flash sites are created, they are notoriously bad for organic search engine placement.

Now for those of you who don’t know: organic placement happens because your site has all the right keywords; paid placement occurs when you engage in an online campaign, like a pay-per-click or banner advertising campaign. But I digress…

Another reason to utilize an online newsroom like NewsCactus is to take advantage of the keyword rich content that the newsroom will naturally contain. The content, in HTML, is fabulous food for those surreptitious search spiders.

Online newsrooms not only help secure top search placement, they provide a place on your website where you can have plenty of copy and loose the flashy stuff. Journalists are more interested in content than bells and whistles.

A key advantage to employing an online newsroom is you’re able to spice up your website, knock yourself out with the latest technology, pimp your site . . . whatever you want to call it, and still provide the searchable content necessary to secure top organic search placement.