With consumers taking charge of what they read and when they read it, online news has attracted the interest of marketers. The new report Search Marketing Benchmark Guide from Marketing Sherpa tips optimized online press releases and the combination of PR and SEO as one of the top three Internet marketing strategy trends in 2006.

According to this report search optimization spending increased in 2005, but it is still a fraction of the money being spend on search advertising and pay per click.

The one, undeniable truth of search marketing is that across all major engines organic results (those that show up in natural "free" listings) are better noticed, read, and clicked on than the paid listings, says the report.

77% of surfers get their news online today. Yahoo News has the largest online news audience and an online optimized press release in Yahoo News and Google News can give a quick boost your search engine marketing. Youll be on page one in the news search for your keywords within twenty-four hours.

Eye track studies show that the pay per click and sponsored ads (e.g. down the right side of a Google search) get less than 50 percent of the searchers' attention and on average get only 30 percent of the clicks.

Makes sense - people buy a newspaper to read the news, not the ads. You don't turn on the TV to watch the ads.

The best Internet marketing strategy would be to have a strong presence in the news section of the search engines. "PR plants the seed. Advertising harvests the crop," wrote Jack Trout and Al Ries, authors of best selling books on positioning.

Publicity in the form of news articles molds public opinion so that your target audiences are more susceptible to advertising or other promotions. The purpose of public relations is to gain awareness and acceptance of your brand -then advertising can be undertaken to forward the brand message.

Every company has a good story to tell. If it is well-written and optimized for the news search engines, an online press release will get more exposure and help improve the visibility of your web site

It seems that there is something magical about news coverage - the public accept it but pass ads right on by. With more and more people getting their news on the Internet, it's vital to also use online optimized press releases that include "key words" (the words that your prospects are using to find you or your competitors) links back to your site and a measurement system that can track the results not only on the press release, but also the clicks to your site and the visitor actions on your site.

One caveat: Be sure to find someone who really understands the combination of PR and SEO. Some so-called experts in press release optimization may not be as skilled at optimizing and tracking results as others. Check their references and results carefully.