I love everything about press releases. Researching, writing and optimizing a press release is just plain fun. The coolest thing about writing and distributing a press release is that it’s kind of like watching a butterfly leave its cocoon. Once it is out in the world it takes on a life of its own.

Let’s have a look at the life of a press release.

One of my recent press releases was about a gentleman by the name of Rick Gosser. Rick wanted to tell his story because over the last two years he has lost more than 100 pounds, has regained his energy and his health, and has even made an appearance on MSNBC’s Today Show. Not only that, but Rick has taken up running, and now runs 5k’s and marathons.

It gets better. People are so inspired by Rick’s story that, in addition to running a promotional products business, he has added public speaking to his resume.

I know. Pretty cool! Rick enjoys public speaking engagements, and he feels that he can make a real impact in the world by helping other business owners to make the connection between their health, their lifestyle, and their success in business.

So we wrote up a press release about Rick’s awesome story. We published it through Online PR Media, which is one of my favorite press release distribution companies.

But what happens to a press release? Where does it go?

How to Follow the Trail of Your Press Release

An interesting phenomenon happens if you incorporate good keywords into a press release and publish it through a high quality distribution service. Other news services pick it up and redistribute it, with the complete title intact. Here’s how you find out which services picked it up.

Method 1: Search for the complete article title.

We published Rick’s press release on February 9th, about 12 days ago. The title of the press release was:

Gosser Corporate Sales Executive Achieves Personal Success, Becomes a Motivational Business Speaker

When I type the title into a search window, these are the results:

I hope you really look at the screen shot above and notice that Rick’s company name, Gosser Corporate Sales, appears with each of the redistributed links. That is excellent brand messaging and link building for one little press release. All in all, I counted at least 60 different results for the exact name of the press release.

Method 2: Search for the press release keywords.

This method is of coure much less reliable and depends upon a number of factors, including how well you chose your keywords, and the amount of competition for those keyword phrases. In our case, we wanted to rank for “motivational business speaker Indiana.”

For this search, I receive the following results:

And voila! There’s his press release on page one of Google! Of course results may vary. These days Google is so good at individualizing your search that these results may vary. Still, if we hadn’t done the press release, you can guarantee his name would not be showing up in results for those search terms.

Have you gotten some great results with press releases? If so, please share your results in the comments below.

Thank you for reading! This has been another “How-To Tuesday” post. If you have great tips and ideas you think I should cover on my blog, be sure to take my survey.

To your success,

Jayna