A good press release can generate good coverage and quality links from authority sites such as online versions of traditional newspapers or magazines. However any coverage gained does not automatically result in direct links.
Many media outlets have a policy of not linking to external sites because they don’t want readers to have the opportunity to leave their site. For the link builder then should such link free publicity be dissappointing?
Let’s take an example. UK supermarket waitrose issued a press release on a new range of ‘ugly fruit’ at a discount of about 20% of normal prices. Ugly fruit is fruit that is perfectly good to eat but just doesn’t look perfect. In the past supermarkets have shunned this type of product. I came across the story first on the BBC - ‘Ugly’ fruit finally makes grade - which included a healthy link to Waitrose.com.
A search on Google News for “ugly fruit” waitrose produced 18 results today including coverage in the best of UK newspapers The Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian among others.
But none of these stories carried links. Does this mean that from a link building perspective, the publicity was a failure? Certainly not.
There are four main benefits from doing a story like this:
- The story will generate some quality links such as the one from the BBC.
- Potential customers will read the story and react.
- Journalists comment on stories published by other media outlets, further spreading the word.
- Bloggers also comment on the stories and are much more disposed to including links in their blog posts.
The publicity effort has been quite successful as a search on Google this morning for “ugly fruit” waitrose returns 813 results.
So if you’re doing online public relations don’t worry if news sites don’t publish direct links. Their coverage will help spread the word to your online marketplace and increase the likelihood that others will link to you.
Posted by Ken McGaffin @ June 28, 2006 – 8:40 am in Blog | Comments (0)
Creative Thinking Brings Quality Linking
SEO guru, Mike Grehan makes the distinction between the practice of ‘link baiting’ and ‘attracting links’ through creative thinking in his latest article, Stinking Linking Vs. Creative Thinking at Clickz.com.
‘Link baiting’ is the process of making an outrageous or controversial statement with the intention of stirring up debate and controversy - and as a result get lots of links from people saying how wrong you are. (For example, SEO is Dead).
‘Attracting links’ on the other hand is the creative process of coming up with content so good, or an idea so unusual that influencers in the online marketplace write about it. (For example see the Home Office From Hell contest).
Grehan goes on to say, “We throw around terms like ‘viral marketing,’ ‘buzz marketing,’ and ‘word-of-mouth marketing’ as if they were new concepts. Yet these tactical promotions have been around forever. Seeding trials, brand advocacy, buzz-worthy PR and other grass-roots promotions were standard tools of the trade for conventional marketers long before the World Wide Web and search engines”.
Such practices “adapt themselves beautifully to the Web, where it can all happen bigger, better, and faster”.
Of course, being controversial as a PR tactic has also been around for years but I couldn’t agree more with the thrust of Grehan’s article.
Time and effort invested in developing a creative idea can have huge payoffs in extensive publicity and a ton of high quality inbound links.
