Press Releases: An Open Invitation Onto Your Competitors' Websites

Press releases are used online in a variety of circumstances and by a huge range of different websites. General news sites, such as Google News and Yahoo News, publish press releases and news stories on every conceivable topic and from all around the globe while a press release distribution or news wire service may be consulted by industry based websites to find topically related press releases.

Look around the major websites in the industry in which you operate and you may be surprised to see how many of them publish online press releases. These press releases not only cover their own website and services but those of others in the same industry. This presents you with a unique opportunity to promote your service on the site of a competitor.

Press releases shouldn't contain direct sales but they can contain contact information, and more and more distribution services also allow the use of links pointing directly to the pages of your own website. These links are extremely beneficial for driving targeted traffic and for improving your search engine results making online press releases a desirable form of online marketing.

As well as submitting a press release to major distribution and news sites you should also consider submitting to other sites in your industry. Make the appropriate request before bombarding a website with releases, though, because they may only use press releases that they have found through sites like PRweb or news sites and submitting directly in these instances might alienate the site owner.