You’re Doing Links in News Releases Wrong
The Sprocket Report
This article was updated on 12/3/2024 with the article entitled “Spotlight Your Event With Better Links in Your News Releases.”
Planning a not-for-profit event? Do you have a speaking engagement coming up? What about that store-wide sale you’re holding? To pull off any of these successfully, your audience needs to get the news. So stop making it so difficult for them!
At least once a year we talk about the best practices for event marketing. Last year, we shared some event marketing case studies. This year, we want to specifically address using web links in news releases and provide some tips.
Tip #1: Use web links in your news releases
We’re well into the twenty-first century, folks! Your potential audience is scanning news on their laptops, their phones and their wrists. You might catch their eye, but only for a moment. Be sure you provide a link to all the details for their later perusal.
Tip #2: Don’t use too many links in your news releases
Linking as a technique to boost a website’s popularity is still a thing, but it’s a bad thing. No search engine puts up with that and all will punish your site once they catch you. Just write your news release to attract real humans to your event and you’ll naturally include just the right number of links.
Tip #3: Link to the right landing page
Don’t use your home page as the default landing page. No one wants to play around trying to figure out where in the menu your special event information is. Link directly to the page that has the information you promised in your press release.
Tip #4: Build a landing page for your event
Folks have short attention spans and they aren’t going to scroll through a long list to find the item they want. Instead of an overwhelming calendar, have a page devoted to each event. Website platforms these days make it easy to do.
Tip #5: Use anchor text
Online news releases don’t need you to spell out the URL of your landing page. Using a hyperlink preserves the flow of your article and highlights appropriate search terms at the same time. For instance, if you write “Join us at Business Expo 2016 in April,” add a hyperlink to the landing page for the words “Business Expo 2016.”
Tip #6: Put yourself in your audience’s shoes
They don’t care about what other things you want to talk about or whether you are maximizing your SEO. All they want are the details to the event that caught their attention. Ease and credibility are most important here.
If you’re a business or not-for-profit planning an event in 2016, you will no doubt be putting a lot of effort into spreading the word. Support those efforts with smart link usage to make it easy for your audience to attend. Need help? Just give us a call – we’re happy to be of service!
Kate Gingold
I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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