Online Press Releases for Lawyers

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Online press releases are an important part of your inbound marketing strategy, as they are no longer solely designed to reach traditional offline media. Online press release distribution for lawyers has become a staple in many law firms’ digital marketing strategies.

ONLINE PRESS RELEASES AND SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Recent Google algorithm updates have negatively impacted the value of online press. While the quantity of links is less important now in SEO, links are still a factor if they are coming from a credible source. Our press releases are sent out to journalists, bloggers, reporters, and thousands of RSS feeds, giving your release ample opportunity to get picked up and linked to by authoritative websites.

Google algorithm updates in recent months have continued the search engine giant’s efforts to find and destroy spam. As part of its spam-seeking efforts, Google has started viewing extremely self-promotional content as spam. As a result, many of the press release distribution websites where articles are posted have little or no value as information distribution sites.  In some cases, lawyers’ continued use of these channels could even hurt their SEO.

However, online press releases for lawyers are not dead; newsworthy press releases, when published on credible websites, can provide direct traffic, rank well, and be picked up by credible media outlets. Many third party websites offer a lawyer press release for syndication on other websites, getting your content listed on hundreds or thousands of websites including top national and regional media outlets.

While link building to pile up thousands of inbound links doesn’t work anymore for SEO, quality link building does. Links are still a factor in increased SEO if they come from a credible web source. Now that we have established that online press remains valuable, but that you have to be mindful of how you do it, we can talk about how to create an online press release.

HOW TO WRITE AN ONLINE PRESS RELEASE

  1. Pick a timely topic – set up Google Alerts for your practice areas and monitor what is going on in the news so that you can write about it. In addition to using current news stories and legislative and case law updates as press content fodder, you can also write about:
    • Community involvement
    • Awards and recognition
    • Speeches and presentations
  2. Draft your content carefully, from headline to concluding paragraph – do research into keywords and keyword phrases surrounding your timely topic and ensure that those phrases are included throughout your release.
  3. Close with all of your contact information – including your social media channels, your website, a contact form link, and the best contact number at which to reach your firm’s media contact.

ONLINE PRESS RELEASE DISTRIBUTION

Once you draft fabulous law firm press release content, what do you do with it? You share it via an online press release distribution syndicate. Distribution channels for lawyers vary, with a variety of price ranges and a variety of distribution possibilities.

Some of the more popular law firm online press release distribution sites include Law Firm Newswire, Business Wire, PRWeb, eReleases, and PR Newswire.

In my next post on online press releases for lawyers, I will cover using your online press release offline with media contacts and setting up the proper internal protocol for handling inbound media inquiries.

IF YOUR LAW FIRM WANTS HELP WITH ONLINE PRESS, CONTACT STACEY E. BURKE, P.C.

Stacey Burke has been handcrafting law firm press content for years, for use both online and offline, and has developed a national reputation for promoting lawyers and law firms to raise brand awareness and increase new case acquisition. If your law firm would like to work with Stacey outside of her standard monthly retainer arrangements, individual press release purchasing is now available.

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