5 Ways your Media Room benefits Journalists and Others

In a digital age success is often a function of the speed with which customers and the media can find credible information about you online.  The media room on your website is critical for your SEO, Current information about you, is searchable by journalists, but is viewed by more than just journalists, and is a top brand and corporate promotional tool.

Speaking as a working Journalist here are 5 ways your media room benefits journalists and others.

Communications Shop Window

The Media Room is known variously as your ‘Press Page’, ‘Press Room’, ‘Media Centre’, sometimes even the ‘Media Kit’ on your site, but they’re all the same thing.  You can think of it as the communications shop window for your business and brands, constantly open to anyone browsing or searching for your company or your type of service.

Because the word ‘Media’ appears in its title, don’t think that media relations material is all that can or should be in your Media Room. Of course, your Press releases should all be there. They are a record of your latest, breaking, and curated news and views. They tell the world and journalists what you are about and will be the most current and updated page on your web site. And that leads to other benefits like enhancing your SEO. If when publishing press releases you also include phrases in them that customers and media use to search for your business or service, you give a massive boost to your SEO. Searches lead to your press releases making you an authoritative site, in the eyes of the algorithm, for material on that topic. 

SEO

Most website pages are relatively static and only infrequently refreshed and updated. But your Media Room is constantly being updated with your latest news insights and information. Pages that are updated frequently are favoured by the web crawlers used in search engine rankings. They pay more attention to regularly updated pages because they are presenting new information and material. That’s another great benefit you gain from running an up-to-date Media Room – it’s great for your search engine optimisation and ranking in searches. Media Room pages help your company and brand achieve a higher index and show up earlier in searches online.

Searchability by Journalists.

Of course, your press page can include other material besides Press Releases, such as audio, video, pictures, other information of interest to your audiences. But the material in the press releases is searched especially if populated with the search terms and words people use to find your company and the type of services it produces. This is of particular interest to Journalists.

There is virtually no story that can be written without reference to case studies, quotes, and the activities of a living business or individual who is operating in the arena being written or broadcasted about. The press room is the quickest way that I, as a working journalist, check leads, search for potential interviewees, and find case studies. I couldn’t do my job with ease If I didn’t have access to media rooms. Furthermore, media rooms have a way of conveying the professionalism and competence of their owner, providing a win-win for journalist and media room publisher.

Brand and Corporate Promotion.

Working journalists will visit your press room for your current news and then browse further for more background when seeking out interviewees and case studies. Potential investors, customers, associates, partners will each come to your media room for their prime point of interest but will stay and browse for other material on your site once they’re there. The net impact of the Media room then becomes a major shop window for brand and company promotion on the net.

 Must Have.

Don’t think your Media Room is an Optional extra, it’s a compulsory must have for most businesses seeking to raise their visibility and profile with minimal effort. That is why we offer it as a basic tool in the toolbox we offer freelancers for their PR clients, and SMEs for their own companies when they join us at JournoLink. The Media Room ups your SEO, keeps your company’s profile current, is a searchable resource by journalists and the media, is used by more than journalists to engage with your company, and is an invaluable brand promotional asset on your site.

For help in creating your media room contact the JournoLink team on sales@journolink.com

Tet Kofi is a working journalist and Director of Journolink. The views he expresses here are based on his work experience as a journalist.