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.

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.

We undertook this project with the underlying goal of making it easier for our customers to use PRWeb by focusing on the major objectives they want to accomplish: creating, distributing and analyzing news releases.

Additional goals included the following:

1. Making the console experience more customer-centric by placing information about their news releases and analytics front-and-center.
2. Making the navigation more intuitive and removing elements that customers don’t use.
3. Providing easier access to educational information and customer support.
4. Using consistent design elements throughout the entire client console.

As with most of our enhancements, the main architect behind these changes was you, the end user.  What you see in the client console when you log-in today is the result of the ongoing dialogue we have with our users.

We hope the updates make it easier for you to use PRWeb and give you more time to focus on creating great stories to tell the world and stay tuned…we’re in the lab working on other major enhancements so we can continue to provide you with the highest quality of news distribution service in the industry.

PRWeb.com has always served multiple functions.  First and foremost, it has served to get customer news releases picked-up in search engines online.

In addition it has served the following primary functions:

1. To educate new users and help them sign-up and use the service.
2. Place for existing users to view their releases and log-in.
3. Destination for people interested in reading and subscribing to our news.
4. Resource for Web publishers interested in syndicating our news.

It has been over three years since we made any significant changes to the site and in that time, we have made many additions and subtractions to different sections on the site to better serve all the different audiences and as with most technical projects, the result had been something of a patchwork quilt.

At the beginning of the year we got together as a team and outlined several basic goals for redesigning the Web site:

• Organize the architecture of the site in a more unified manner;
• Simplify experience for all user groups by eliminating areas that don’t receive any traffic;
• Make it easier for new users to learn about our service and sign-up;

We then talked with our customers and learned about the different types of Web site resources and information they were interested in that we didn’t currently have.  We also looked exhaustively into how we could restructure the site to not only preserve the search engine visibility provided to our customer’s news releases but increase them as well.

The Web site you see is the synthesis of these different goals.

In addition to eliminating areas of the site that don’t receive any traffic we have rolled out a Tools & Tips section of the Web site that is exclusively devoted to providing freely accessible white papers and educational videos for new and existing customers and a customer examples section where we highlight examples of current customer releases as well as customer success stories.

Our initial results have been positive.  Not only has overall traffic to our site (and customer releases) increased, but the new tools and simplified architecture has made it easier for people to navigate our site and find the resources they need.

As mentioned, we spent a great deal of time studying the potential SEO impact of the changes before launching and our initial research shows that the simplification of the Web site is starting to have a positive net impact on the search performance of our customer’s content.

The updates to the Web site were a long time coming and we are confident that they will help provide an enhanced experience for all the different groups that use PRWeb.

• Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) Web Properties - The leading trade association for multi-channel marketers. PRWeb news releases will appear on their website, blog and online trade magazine.
• Website Magazine - Website Magazine offers website professionals information on how to succeed on the web. Reaching 135,669 qualified professionals, the publication has the largest audience of website owners and managers in the field.  Our news releases will appear on their main Web site.
• Acquire Media - Acquire Media specializes in news aggregation and real-time distribution for financial organizations, corporate enterprises, web portals, and publishers.

Read the full release on PRWeb.

We have already seen many customer news releases appearing on top Web sites through the partnership and expect to see many more in the days to come!

Read the full release.

We’ve recently taken a closer look at the volume of traffic we receive to our RSS network.  Our most recent data indicates:

• RSS Consumer Reach: In a typical week, our network receives over 3 million requests from over 250,000 subscribers around the world.  These are consumers, bloggers, journalists, analysts, etc. who want to receive our news.
• RSS Publisher Reach: In a typical week, our network receives requests from over 30,000 Web publishers who publish our RSS feeds on their Web sites.

This year, we were awarded the distinction of being named a finalist in the ‘Best Online News Service’ category.  Read the full release on PRWeb.

Our Approach to PRWeb UK…

Was guided by our vision of providing a localized experience while leveraging our global platform. Specifically, this meant the following:

First, we wanted to ensure that the user experience was tailored for customers in the United Kingdom.  This meant processing transactions in pounds sterling, using GMT as the time standard, using copy written in the Queen’s for a UK-based audience, and countless other details that required significant time and effort.

At the same time, our approach struck a balance between provisioning the user with a localized (UK) experience while keeping the core platform global.  For current customers, this means that they can use their existing credentials to log-in to PRWeb UK however their experience will be UK centric while in their UK console and US centric while in their standard PRWeb.com console.

Finally, from a distribution perspective, we made the decision to leverage our core online network while adding a layer of distribution focused specifically on the United Kingdom. This meant the creation of newsfeeds focused on topics and regions relevant to the UK, optimizing for UK search and creating direct channels to the UK media.

A major component of the media distribution piece is accomplished through a partnership with the Press Association that allows us to feed our content directly to the newsrooms at all of the major national and regional outlets throughout the United Kingdom.

It is our hope that the culmination of our efforts is an experience that is tailor-made for customers in the UK and results that will ensure industry leading visibility on both a global and regional scale.

PRWeb UK will be publicly available in early March.

Links:

• Official launch announcement on PRWeb UK.
• Launch announcement on YouTube.