This past Friday at midnight, we rolled out a brand new PRWeb.com.  This launch was the result of countless hours of effort logged by a wide variety of individuals – from developers, to designers, to writers and more, this was truly a collaborative effort that spanned the company.

Also worth noting is that the launch is a mashup of several different projects that have been on our roadmap for a while now.  Some changes will be immediately obvious, such as the updated look and feel of the site and the new press release template.  Other changes on the other hand, will reveal their impact over time – but more on this in a bit.  What is common throughout all the updates is our intention to better serve our customers – from providing them with more tools to get started to ensuring that the releases perform more effectively online, this launch was all about continuing to offer industry leading visibility to our customers.

As with all significant changes, there are sure to be questions that arise.  We want to take this opportunity to address some of the more significant changes you may notice with the new PRWeb.com:

1. We are no longer listing all $140+ releases on the home page

Back when PRWeb was a free service and publishing a far more limited volume of releases, front page placement was a benefit granted to certain customers willing to make a financial contribution to the company.  At this time there were more tangible benefits to front page placement in terms of readership and SEO.  Over time, the volume of releases published daily has swelled to a much larger number and we have ended up with a home page that can contain too many articles at times.  This has made the home page less than optimal for both users as well as search engines.

Our solution to this challenge has been to evolve from an architecture that focuses on one front page to one that has multiple front pages (from a search perspective). Tactically, we have done this by creating a section of our domain completely devoted to customer news releases, organized around industry verticals (i.e. arts & entertainment, technology, etc.).  This technique is one that is used by many sites with a large volume of content and is a generally accepted method for creating value in certain silos within the hierarchy of a Web site and passing value to the pages located within these silos (customer news releases).

As a result, we fully expect this new architecture to increase the volume of traffic to your release as well as your site.

2. We have made some major changes to the news release template

The PRWeb news release has undergone some significant changes.

First, you’ll notice that there is far more room being given to multimedia elements like video, images, and file attachments.  In the last several years we have gained a lot of empirical knowledge about the way that people consume news online.  Our own research into the effects of multimedia on news consumption showed that the presence of relevant images and video increased the average time users spent on news releases.  There is also notable research that has proven the correlation between multimedia and action.

Then again, all it takes is a quick look at the home page of CNN.com to see how multimedia is beginning to dominate the visual real estate of news sites today.

The second major change we have made is to place links to various actions such as sharing, further inline with the news content.  These days, news releases are not just about getting people to read a story; they are also about getting the reader to take some form of measurable action: to share on Facebook, e-mail to friends, and more.  Subsequently, we have optimized the placement of these links to make our news more action-able.

The final change we’ve made to the release is behind the scenes.  After years of adding code, the time had come for us to step back and optimize the code behind the release to make sure it was optimized for faster load times and better performance in search.  Speed is not only important for users, but leading certain search engines have been very vocal about the growing importance of speed when it comes to performance in search.

3.  We have introduced a dedicated learning center

Over the past few years, we have been consistently investing more time and resources into customer education.  We realize that although there are some folks who have been sending out press releases for years, the practice of creating and distributing online news releases is still relatively new.

What’s more, the varying backgrounds of our customers has created a need for a range of different types of content.  We have PR folks who want to learn more about SEO, and SEO folks who want to learn more about PR.  We have small business owners who want to move from sending out one release each year, to a more ongoing cycle of communication that results in the long term development of online visibility for their brand and their business.

So in response to the ongoing demand for educational resources, we are launching a dedicated learning center that will serve as a hub for all the various articles, webinars, and white papers we have put together.

Hopefully these points address some of the more glaring questions you might have.  If you have others (and I’m sure some of you will), please post them to the comments section of this article and we will make sure to address them as quickly as possible.

We’re looking forward to the conversation.

Introducing the New PRWeb Web site was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

In Fall 2008, we rolled out a newsroom product in beta. The newsroom was a fairly lightweight tool that was initially envisioned as a hub for PRWeb news releases. The newsroom was developed with the intention of providing customers with a place to put additional information about their company that bloggers and journalists would find useful. On the newsroom, customers could upload images, boilerplate content about their organizations and hyperlinks back to relevant pages about their organization. Over the next year and a half, we had numerous customers experiment with the product and several began incorporating the product into their toolkit.

After hosting the service for just over a year and a half in beta, studying the results and engaging with customers we have decided to phase out the product. Our decision has been determined by the following factors:

1. The evolution of the news release into a destination – Simply put, the news release has come a long way. In its current form, it is a living, breathing Web document that contains video, visual imagery and is interconnected with relevant online destinations. When we stepped back and looked at what our news release was doing versus what the newsroom did, we didn’t see a profound difference. One could say that the news release itself has transformed into an online newsroom. We recently previewed the new PRWeb news release template, set to launch in the next few months, and we believe that this takes us one step closer to delivering on this claim.

According to one of our customers, Robb Hamic, “Sending news releases out over PRWeb is almost like creating a stand-alone Web site that appeals to my customers. On a single page they see the news release, a call-out quote, photos, graphics, my Web page and even a video. ”

2. Keeping the focus on the customer’s own Web site – From a search engine perspective, the hub and spoke model is an effective approach for lifting the visibility of the hub in search. For the vast majority of customers, the hub is their own Web site. Many customers use PRWeb because it helps increase the interconnection of their own Web property within the broader online universe and in the process, increases the visibility of their Web site in search. In some ways, the newsroom could serve as a distraction by creating a separate hub. Ultimately, PRWeb is first and foremost about building value for our customers’ Web sites.

This is not to say that customers shouldn’t have a section of their site built for the media. In fact, we recommend they do. However, we do believe that to really gain the most value from search engines, that section of their site should be hosted on their own domain.

3. Visitor behavior – In our research we found that most visitors to PRWeb news stories, whether they were bloggers or just people interested in buying a product, were far more likely to click-through to the PRWeb customer’s Web site rather than their newsroom. In our discussions we learned that if a visitor to a PRWeb news story was interested in learning more about a company, they wanted to go directly to the company’s Web site and start navigating around rather than visit a newsroom.

4. Shifting behavior in news consumption – One additional reason for rolling out the newsroom was to provide a place where news consumers could stay updated on news from a particular company. Over the past year and a half we have seen a steady increase in the volume of news consumers who subscribe to feeds through personalized home pages (i.e. iGoogle, Netvibes) and a drastic increase in the number of news consumers who follow companies through social media channels like Twitter. Both of these behaviors are already accommodated by the PRWeb news release through our personalized customer RSS feed and TweetIt feature, rendering their presence on the newsroom less important.

So in summary, we considered a variety of factors and ultimately decided it was time to phase out the newsroom. As always, we are more than happy to speak with you directly about the decision and we encourage commenting on this blog or if you would prefer a more private channel, through our help desk.

Notification of Pending Newsroom Phaseout was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

Last Summer, we began having conversations with customers as well as a handful of influentials in the communications space, regarding how to effectively revise the PRWeb news release template.  Concurrently, we also launched internal research efforts that focused on tracking a variety of key performance indicators for PRWeb news releases and attempting to correlate positive outcomes with structured elements of the release.

After many discussions, conclusions and product iterations we are getting close to a place (in the not-so-distant future) where we will be unveiling a new template for the PRWeb release.  As you can see in this rendition (not the final design), the various structural elements will remain largely unchanged, however the composition of those elements has been changed.

Our redesign of the template has been driven by the following considerations:

1. Improving the search friendliness of the template – The code behind the template has been written from scratch using more search-friendly methods.  For example, we have transitioned from using tables to CSS, which allows for cleaner code, less HTML and a host of other benefits.  This batch of fixes probably won’t make as profound an impact on human readers but the lighter code should be more easily crawled and parsed by search crawlers.

2. Creating more space for multimedia – As mentioned above, we have been taking a closer look at how multimedia impacts the consumption and usage of news releases.  In general, our research has indicated that multimedia can create greater levels of engagement with news readers.  Specifically, we have seen very positive relations between usage of relevant multimedia and increases in key performance indicators like time-on-page, general self-reported experience of the news and likelihood of using multimedia in ensuing stories.  Accordingly, the new template will provide more page real estate to the multimedia elements that we know readers are looking for and using.

3. Increased interaction – In addition to broadening engagement, we have been looking at how to improve the news release’s facilitation of various forms of interaction (shares, forwards, click-through).  Accordingly, we have optimized the location of interaction elements to ensure that they are readily available in places and at times when news readers are most likely to use them.

Moving forward, there are several key enhancements to the news release template that will improve their search-friendliness, social media potential, level of engagement and action-orientation.  However, this first release will be focused on reorganization and optimization.  As always we would love to hear your thoughts!

A Sneak Preview of the New PRWeb News Release Template was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

For the past several years we have offered podcast production and syndication services through PRWeb. In the past two years or so, a number of factors have resulted in declining usage of our podcast services.

Most notably, our launch of video integration has resulted in increasing numbers of customers focusing on video as opposed to audio when creating multimedia news releases. This trend in customer usage can be correlated with our research into journalist and blogger news consumption habits that shows relatively lukewarm interest in audio content compared to other forms of media.

These factors have lead us to decide and phase out our podcast production services so we can place increased focus on the other multimedia elements of the release including focusing on how images and video can be further emphasized on the release.

So effective May 1, we will no longer be offering podcast production services to our customers although customers who have their own audio will still be able to add them as attachments to their news release.

For your convenience, we recommend the following resources for those interested in learning more about how to create their own podcast:

1. eHow explanation of How to Syndicate a Podcast
2. wikiHow page on How to Start your Own Podcast
3. Tinkernut  video on How to Create a Podcast

Podcast Production Notification was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

For several years now, we have allowed customers to select a Web page that is displayed in a frame at the bottom of the news release.  Out initial goal was to provide those reading the news release with an easy way to interact with a customer’s Web site by placing it directly within the release.  Over the years, customers have used the feature in a variety of ways: to highlight specific landing pages, as a holding page for multimedia content that may not have fit neatly into the release, etc.  In fact, it has been a feature that a number of other services have adopted.

There are some shortcomings with the feature that have become increasingly evident as of late.  First, the limitations on the frame size imposed by it’s placement within the news release template creates a less than perfect user experience that involves excessive scrolling.  Second, the presence of the frame is somewhat of a security risk as we have had numerous customers (unwittingly) place sites infected with malware into the frame, which has a negative impact on our site as whole.  Lastly, the presence of the frame may be lowering the number of users who click-through to visit the customer site itself.

One idea we have been thinking through would involve replacing the frame with a screenshot of the customer Web site that would launch the site in a new browser window when clicked upon.

So we’d like to hear from you, the PRWeb customer, on how you feel about being able to place a Web page in a frame within the release and whether or not our alternative would be an acceptable solution.

Feedback on the frame in the news release was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

This Friday we are going to be rolling out several additional updates to our analytics dashboard including the following:

• Hovers for ‘impressions breakdown’ - We will be adding hover menus with help text over the various fields in the breakdown table for impressions to better explain what those different values mean.
• Table with exact counts for impressions, reads and interactions - We will be adding a table into the impressions, reads and interactions reports showing the actual count for each of these statistics by day.
• Premium impressions – Premium impressions was an idea we had during development that was rolled out as part of our beta release.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to acquire the proper data and will be putting that feature on hold for the time being (until we can get the proper data to filter through).

You may also see some changes to our category taxonomy.  We’ve made these changes for a number of reasons.  First, we’ve added a lot of categories over time based on customer request and it was simply time to take a step back and evaluate the overall quality of the taxonomy scheme.  Second, we wanted to start imposing more of a hierarchical logic on the overall scheme that better organizes more specific categories (i.e. chemistry) into broader categories (i.e. science).

Finally, I wanted to mention that we are in the midst of making some significant changes to the layout of the PRWeb news release itself that are going to be a big step forward in terms of search-friendliness and overall look-and-feel.  There are also going to be some goodies thrown in.  We’ll be talking more about some of these upcoming changes in the next several weeks so stay tuned!

More Updates to Analytics, Category Updates and More was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

Today we are announcing the launch of our updated news release creation tool.  I wanted to take this opportunity to provide background into the thinking and effort that went into this update, which is probably one of our most significant user experience enhancements we have made in the past several years.

Planning for this revision actually started back in November of last year.

At that point in time we were rolling out a fairly lightweight newsroom product and our lead developer on the project pushed for us to use a ‘What You See is What You Get’ (WYSIWYG) approach that allowed the user to interact with something resembling the final product.

Upon launch, the initial UX feedback was extremely positive and at this point in time we started seriously thinking about using a similar approach with the news release creation process.

Intuitively it seemed like the right decision.   Our existing tool, which used a form field based approach, had been initially developed in a text-based news paradigm.  Over the past several years we had rolled out dozens of feature enhancements to the news release and its public facing form had evolved into an interactive, multimedia Web document.  On the back end however, the functionality had outgrown the form field based tool and new, powerful features were sometimes getting lost.  A new release creation process seemed warranted given where we had come with the news release.

However, changing the news release creation process meant we would be altering the most fundamental behavior on PRWeb.  This was a process that thousands of users had grown accustomed to and any fundamental UX change with such a large user base is a daunting consideration.

Inhaling deeply, we wrote down the following goals that would become our guiding light throughout this  process:

1. Ensure that existing PRWeb users would experience a seamless transition to the new tool and better able to take advantage of the full array of features that PRWeb offers.
2. Make it easier for new users to create multimedia news releases on PRWeb and take advantage of new features and technologies.
3. Create a more flexible, scalable framework that would allow us to do a better job supporting new features moving forward.

After agreeing upon the goals of the project, we presented a variety of approaches with internal and external user groups and ultimately decided that a WYSIWYG-type approach was the right way to go.  We then designed a plan that would A) be driven by user feedback from multiple types of users, B) provide us with the flexibility to iterate until we were comfortable launching; and C) take into account best practices of proper UX design.

After two quarters of development, numerous iteration and several rounds of user testing, we finally got to a place where we felt comfortable deploying the tool.

Our plan moving forward is to run the new tool in tandem with the legacy tool (for existing users) until the feedback authoritatively shows that existing users are comfortable transitioning.  At this point in time we will permanently switch to the new tool.  During this time, I do want to note that we will be introducing new features and enhancements into the new tool exclusively.

The news release has changed.  It is our sincere hope and belief that this new tool will cut back on the time and effort associated with managing content in a multimedia news release and provide more time for our users to focus on creating content.  As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section.

Announcing the New PRWeb News Release Creation Tool was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

This is just a note that we are phasing out Technorati and Keyword tags from PRWeb news releases.  Our rationale for doing so is as follows:

Why We Removed Technorati Tags

The initial function of the Technorati tags was to serve as a directional tool for news release visitors who might want to see what was being said in the blogosphere about certain topics relevant to the news release. Our research has driven us to the conclusion that Technorati tags are not being utilized with any significant consistency.  In fact, our initial research indicates that click-through rates on customer links has increased on releases where Technorati tags have been removed.

Why We Removed Keyword Tags

Keywords were initially added as meta tags to support the performance of the release in search.  For several years now it has been generally accepted that keywords have had a minimal effect on search ranking.  This belief was validated when Google publicly affirmed that they do not use the keyword meta tag in web rankings.

However Keywords Still Matter

Keywords still play an important role in the performance of the release in search.  It is just the placement of these keywords in the meta data is what has lost relevance.

It is still important to consider the placement of relevant keywords in the the following areas of the release:

• Title
• Summary
• Body
• Anchor text links
• ALT tags
• News release URL

In Conclusion

At PRWeb, we put customer content and customer links front-and-center.  We are always in the process of looking at the different elements of the news release and analyizing how we can improve the release as a tool to create online traction, build search equity and ultimately traffic to customer Web sites.  Technorati and Keyword tags had gotten to the point where they were no longer providing value to our customers so we made the decision to phase them out.

Phasing out Technorati and Keyword Tags was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

We are rolling out a number of great new feature enhancements designed to provide you with an improved user experience, more scheduling options, and increased visibility for your images. Here are the new features now available through PRWeb:

Draft Mode

All PRWeb news releases are hand-reviewed by our dedicated editorial team to ensure each release meets our editorial standards. Traditionally, customers upload a final copy of their news release when they are ready to submit it for editorial review and distribution.

Save your press release as a draft before submitting

With draft mode, you can now create a news release in our system and save it as a draft without submitting it for review. When you are ready, you can go back, finish it up and submit it to our editors. Note: if you save as a draft, then it will not go to an editor for review and won’t be distributed until you have specified that it should be submitted for editorial review and distribution.

ALT Tags

ALT tags help images perform well in keyword driven searches. For instance, if you are distributing a picture of your cat without an ALT tag, it would be difficult for a search engine to know that the picture is of your pet cat. Adding an ALT tag that reads “my cat” will help explain to the search engine that the picture is indeed about your cat. ALT tags also make your site more accessible to text readers used by the visually impaired.

To help explain the steps involved in uploading your release and provide you with an indication of where you are in the process, we now offer an enhanced navigational device to guide you.

Enhanced navigation shows you where you are in the process

Scheduled Distribution

You can now synchronize your communications more effectively by choosing the time of day you want your news release distributed.

Priority Distribution

If you need your news release out fast, simply select priority distribution when you choose your distribution package. With priority distribution, your news release is immediately sent to an editor for review. Provided your release meets our editorial standards, we’ll publish it right away through our distribution network. Note – priority distribution is available between the hours of 4AM (PST) and 6PM (PST) and is contingent upon editorial approval and processing time for any additional services ordered.

PRWeb Launching New User Enhancements was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com

We have made it easier for visitors to your press release page and the corresponding PRWebPodcast.com page to quickly and easily listen to your podcast. Embedded in these pages is a podcast player that will stream the content to your audience without requiring any special software or waiting for the file to download first.

Embedded Podcast Player was posted at Blogging PRWeb. | http://www.bloggingprweb.com