by Stone Reuning

Besides writing a properly formatted press release for journalists, bloggers and the search engines, you have to distribute it around to various outlets for it to have much impact. Simply posting it on your site will not do much outside giving your site more content to offer the search engines.

In order for your company news to make a splash, it needs further distribution. There are essentially two types of press release distribution outlets - paid and free. In our third and final article on press releases, we'll explore each type, what you need to look for and some suggestions on a couple we use to spread our company news around.

For example, many of our press releases appear page 1 of Google results within 24 hours when using the right distribution outlet.

Once you have your optimized press release posted on your site in an optimized press room like this one, you can explore the following options.

Paid Press Release Distribution

Press release distribution outlets, whether they're paid or free, are either actual newswires that carry anything and everything or are industry specific. Some even combine the two (the best) and allow you to not only choose a specific geographic area to distribute your news on the wire but applicable industries as well.

A good press release distribution outlet will provide several options for optimizing your press release. Anchor-text links, keywords, meta tags and distribution to large outlets like Google News and Yahoo! News are just a few of the things you want to look for.

There are several outlets to choose from out there. Some are more like traditional newswires while others allow you to target specific industries. Marketwire is an example of a true wire service that also allows industry targeting. As far as cost, distribution within a specific state is around $150 with regional and national distribution costing a little more.

You can add an SEO optimization (which brings permanent benefits) for an additional $75.

Other outlets mainly let you target specific industries. PRWeb.com is one example where pricing is based on how many industries you want to target. Other outlets are specifically designed for a specific industry, like technology for example.

Free Press Release Distribution

If money is a concern and you need to do the best you can with the least, free press release distribution outlets are an option you need to consider. In fact, you should distribute to a few free outlets even if you use a paid service like Marketwire.

While they won't necessarily offer the same services as paid outlets, you should look for the same elements mentioned above: keywords, anchor-text links and more. One of the big differences though is free outlets only create one page on a particular site and do not syndicate it like many paid outlets. Therefore, it pays to post your press release on more than one site.

Below are some examples of good free press release distribution outlets. Some are even industry specific so if your company's news fits into any of those, you can use them for more targeted exposure.

1. PRLog - Allows you to choose up to 3 industry categories along with distribution to Google News and numerous search engines. Allows you to choose multiple categories and keywords and allows HTML links in the body.
2. PR.com - Allows free distribution to one industry channel, Google News and on the PR.com site. You can choose multiple industries and further SEO enhancement for a nominal fee.
3. Tech Expo World - Specific to technology related companies. Allows you to choose three keywords in each release that will link to your homepage.

Of course, these are just a few of the press release distribution option out there so carefully choose 3 or so outlets to distribute your company's news. Be sure they allow anchor-text links, keyword optimization and check to whom and how they distribute press releases.

Be sure and visit our small business news site.