I recently read an online article about using hyperlinks in press releases. It linked up to a release that was a purported model of best practices.

The release was horrible! It did use links and anchor text well, but reading it was as much fun as cuddling up with the IRS code. It was full of techno-jargon and larded with windy self-serving quotes from various executives.

I ran the release through grammar check to get the Flesch-Kincaid reading level. Once the smoke stopped pouring from my computer, the number showed you needed to have a Ph.D. to understand the thing. Besides being virtually unreadable, it wasted about 700 words of text on about 350 words worth of news.

It is important to use anchor text and key words well in releases, but that’s not the first job in writing a release. Job one is to write a compelling, newsworthy, well-focused story that people can read easily.

As more bad writing floods the web, good writing stands out even more. Make sure your press releases are well written, plus have good hyperlinks and anchor text.