(PRLEAP.COM) HOUSTON,TX, July 3, 2006 — “’What’s the big deal? Who cares?’ That’s what some people ask me when I tell them our firm is celebrating one year of writing press releases,” laughs Bayou City Public Relations owner Sharon Dotson. "And, it’s true, there is nothing special about a public relations firm writing press releases – except the press release we’re celebrating is search engine optimized; it makes its way to Google News in 24 hours and – optimized properly – can set on the first page of organic Google for six months or longer, not to speak of the click through business it can bring,” she says.

“It was like a new product launch last summer when we introduced optimized press releases to our clients,” says Dotson, “and we weren’t sure how they would be accepted or if they would be accepted at all. Search engine optimization is still a new concept, and search engine optimized press releases are an even newer concept.”

A year later, “optimized press releases are more than thirty percent of our business,” says the Houston public relations expert. “Our clients – many of them new clients – represent companies who have never had a presence on Google and Yahoo before now. They had websites, but those websites were lost in the search engines and no one saw them. Optimized press releases brought them out of the woods and into the light.”

Dotson defines optimized press releases as “a relatively new kind of search engine exposure based on a combination of art and science. The art is knowing how to write the press release in so it interests readers and keeps them engaged; the science is knowing which keywords to use and where and how many times to place them within the release.

“Being a good writer is not enough,” says Dotson, “and being an SEO expert is not enough. It’s got to be a combination of both skills and talents for the optimized press release to work.”

Dotson says she has had so much interest in the new public relations service that she put up a companion website devoted only to optimized press releases – www.firstpagepressrelease.com. Her main company website is www.bayoucitypr.com.

Disc Inc., a Houston data conversion and recovery company, “has seen optimized press releases work over and over since August of ’05 when we wrote their first one,” says Dotson. “We optimized it for ‘Houston data recovery’. Since then, we’ve optimized other press releases for ‘Houston data conversion,’ and ‘Houston CDs and DVD labels.’

Dotson says Disc Inc. is now on the first page of Google for the keyword phrases, “and their business has grown. You’ll even find their company website on the first page of Google for these keywords, which is another benefit of optimized press releases.”

Stephanie Robertson, the company’s vice president of marketing says most of her company’s referrals come from the Internet. “No other Houston public relations firm has offered this service to us,” she says.

Another of the Houston public relations firm’s optimized press release clients is a business coach in Florida who attracted the attention of a Fortune 500 client as a result of his optimized press release. “It is ironic,” says John Wyche, “that this company was located practically in my back yard here in Fort Lauderdale, yet I would never have known they had a need for someone with my skills if they hadn’t first found my optimized press release on Google, and then called me.”

Wyche says Miami newspaper reporters find his release on the Internet and call him for quotes and comments on stories they are writing.

Other clients for the specialized press release include a San Francisco jeweler who specializes in selling used Rolex watches, a Christian bookstore owner in Hawaii and a ileostomy medical specialist in Los Angeles.

“It’s been a great year for Bayou City Public Relations – and sort of a surprising one,” says Dotson. “Who knew we’d have a hand in giving the age-old press release a new life?”

For more information about Houston public relations firm Bayou City Public Relations and their optimized press release service, call Sharon Dotson at (281) 859-9800 or visit www.firstpagepressrelease.com and www.bayoucitypr.com.


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