Last updated on June 24th, 2009
I write sometimes 8-12 press releases each month, mostly for our client businesses. I have a process I use that makes sure I’m hitting all the bases to both optimize the press release for the search engines and also that the content is newsworthy and presented in an interesting way…
But everyone can use a little help now and then. Just recently David Meerman Scott noted a new tool called Press Release Grader. I have to say it’s definitely a tool worth checking out if you write press releases, whether you’re just starting or you’ve got a gazillion under your belt. After all, the factors that make a press release successful are still evolving.
I used the tool to evaluate a press release I had just prepared, and I was relieved to see I earned a score of 87%. The points deducted were simply for not copying the ### at the end of the release into the grader, and also using the word “unique”, since this can be a gobblydegook word. However that was unavoidable since it was actually part of a targeted keyword phrase in the press release.
But the tool went farther than just giving your press release a score and a couple reasons for it. It analyzes the links you’re pointing to in your press release and even shows a tag cloud for keywords, so you get a visual representation of the words most repeated. There are some other nifty features but you’ll have to go check them out yourself…