Press releases can be used to get increased website traffic by publicising a company's name, but they can also bring in visitors using slightly less obvious methods.

Using search engine optimisation techniques when creating press releases can offer substantial reward, according to Sarah Evans, a communications academic in the USA.

She provides tips on Mashable.com about how to go about perfecting the release.

Keywords should be used, Ms Evans explains, especially in headlines, while keyword search tools can be used to find the most effective ones.

She stresses: "Know your keywords before you write even one word of your release."

These keywords should have anchor text links, because using them "increases your chance of driving viewers back to your website", while at least one of these should link to a page on the site which isn't the homepage.

Moving away from the search engine optimisation side of things, Ms Evans recommends more general approaches to press releases: staying away from jargon, writing good copy and being newsworthy.

But this begs a question - is it always possible to achieve these three criteria while optimising text?

Business Feet deliver targeted results through search engine optimisation