Your Online Press Release Didn’t Work! Here’s Why

The Internet has made press release distribution incredibly easy for just about anyone with a story to tell. So it is not surprising to find that small business owners are taking the plunge and posting their very own homegrown press release on some of the major newswire services.

The issue at hand is that many of the press releases that I find from entrepreneurial companies are doing the worst thing you could possibly do online, and that is to link to a non-existent web page or incomplete website.

As more entrepreneurs and small business leaders start venturing into Internet marketing, there are bound to be mistakes. But for me linking to a web page “under construction” or “404 page not available” on a press release just doesn’t make sense. In fact, this should be common sense. Would you send customers to a storefront shop that was NOT open for business yet? Probably not.

When I begin working with a new small business client they all want to issue a press release, right away. However, my response to that is usually “Do you have a website?” If the response is no, then I insist that we first develop a website for their business.

I usually get some resistance because they either are gung ho about putting out a press release to attract customers and don’t want to wait or they say they don’t want the expense of developing a website.

Time and time again, I advise my clients that they need a website and most importantly the website needs to be LIVE before any press release is issued. The reasoning is that a press release should link to the company website to provide additional information and most importantly, give the site visitor a chance to virtually interact with the company via some sort of content sign-up or contact us form.

A press release should drive legitimate targeted traffic to your site. Don’t miss the opportunity to engage potential clients and customers by knowingly placing a press release with links to a page that is “unavailable” or a website with placeholder text in Latin on some of the pages (yes, I have seen this!).

To be fair it is not always small business leaders that make this mistake. Recently, I saw a press release issued via a major press release distribution service by a PR agency on behalf of a national restaurant chain known for its cheesecake. The release was about a charitable program that was starting.

The release mentioned that “A tour schedule and updates from the road are available at” and they provided a clickable link. I clicked on the link and the page was incomplete. None of the information they promised was on the page. In fact there was no consumable content at all.

I clicked the link just an hour after the press release was issued. I really hope the restaurant chain’s internal marketing communication team gave the agency hell on that one.

Don’t lose customers because of carelessness. Avoid linking to dead links or websites with incomplete web pages at all costs.

– Shakira