Hat tip to David Meerman Scott for pointing out a neat new (and free) online utility called Press Release Grader.
It’s very simple. You copy and paste the content of your release into a box and hit submit. The site then generates a report about the press release – it checks to see if the release contains a valid contact phone number for example. But where it gets very funky is in checking any embedded links in the release – not only to ensure they are valid, but also whether the anchor text is reflected by the target link – very handy for SEO purposes. It also has a word “cloud” that lets you see keyword density at a glance – good for checking that the release is highlighting the right things. And lets not forget the Goobledygook checker – it’ll tell you how many suspect buzzwords your release contains.
Finally, it provides you with an overall score out of 100. Imagine if PR agencies started putting their Press Release Grader scores on their releases. Journalists could then choose to only view those that score, say, 85 or above.
Why not check your own releases? Or test out a few from Sourcewire to see what the general standard is.