Press release for a startup or small business: your first release and a public record from zero

Why a first release matters

A new business is invisible. Google says it can take a few weeks to notice a new site, and that links from other sites help it find you. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults, from a company that sells local SEO software, found that 66% do further research after reading a positive review and 54% visit the business’s website, so a business’s website is where many shoppers go next.

A release is one such page: a dated, public statement on a news site with your name, your location and your contact. The US Small Business Administration, in a 2019 blog post, advised small businesses that press releases are still useful because they are distributed online and might turn up in search results, and to keep a News Room page on your own site. That advice is older, so we cite it as an SBA blog post and not as current policy.

What a founder can credibly announce

Announce something that happened and that a reader can check: the business opens, a first product ships, a first location or an own site goes live, a partnership is signed, a documented result. Put the founders’ names and what they did before if it is relevant and true, the street address if customers visit you (if you work from home, give a city and a contact instead), the opening days, the website and social pages, and a named contact.

A real example: on 25 November 2025 a coffee roaster issued a release on PR Newswire about a shop in Amherst, Ohio, that reopened under a new name and new owners. It gave the street address, the owners’ names, the previous name and that the owners had bought the business earlier that year, the menu, a named local supplier, that it opens seven days a week, and the web and social pages. It was issued by the supplier, not the shop, and it is a reopening, not a company starting from nothing; some background claims in it are self-reported.

Claim only what you can show. “First”, “only” and “leading” need proof; a new company can instead say what it does, for whom and how it works. Leave out revenue, customer numbers and funding unless you can document them; the funding guide covers money.

The fictional example below uses an invented company, Cedarline Bikes. The details are made up.

Build a public record from zero

A release is one part of a public record. Google advises you to consider claiming your Business Profile, and its eligibility guidelines say that P.O. boxes and mailboxes at remote locations are not acceptable, so a business with no customer-facing or service-area location may not qualify. Put your site live first, with an About page, your address and contact details, and ask partners, suppliers and directories you belong to for a link; Google says it primarily finds new pages through links from other pages. Our guide to getting a new website indexed has the checklist.

When to publish

Publish when the site is live and the business can be reached: the day you open or ship, or a few days before. If you can, send a short note to one local reporter or blogger first. If you need a fixed date, our release form lets you schedule the release at least 48 hours after you submit; editors review first and then schedule it. Without a set time it goes out after editor review.

Which package to choose, and why

Start small. You can try the process with one free release every 30 days. For a first paid release, Brand Starter at US$69 distributes the release to 300+ outlets, including openPR and 25 city news sites. Global Reach at US$129 adds newspaper and TV-station finance pages; Premium Media at US$379 adds AP News, USA Today, Barchart and StreetInsider when the news is bigger than a local opening.

Every price is on the pricing page, the media list names the outlets in each package, and our comparison reads other services’ own published prices and dates.

How to use the release afterwards

Make it a page people can reach.

• A Press or News page on your website with the release link and date, and an About page with the same facts.
• Your Google Business Profile and social profiles: the same name, address and website everywhere.
• Emails to suppliers, landlords and first customers: one line and the link.
• LinkedIn and local groups, from the founders’ accounts.
• A check after a month: search your business name and save the results with the dates.
• Link text: your business name or web address, not a keyword phrase.

The checklist

Before you submit, check these seven points. How to write a press release covers the structure.

• Does the first sentence say who you are, what you do, where and from when?
• Are the street address, opening days, website and a named contact in the release?
• Is every claim something you can show?
• Is there a quote from a founder that says something?
• Is the website live, with an About page and the same facts?
• Is there one link, with your business name or web address as the link text?
• Is the publishing time, and any note to a reporter, agreed?

What our own releases show

A new name starts with no search results, so here is how our own October 2026 releases did. A Brand Starter release for Mubboo Flights, a travel site in our own group, was online on 325 pages, including openPR and all 25 NEWSnet city news sites, and our own USA Today release pages were in Google’s index 12 and 19 days after publication. Each is one check, so read them as what happened to us. See how long distribution takes.

Publish with Vokolla

Vokolla shows one public price per release, from US$69, with no quote, sales call or subscription. You write the release or draft it with the Vokolla AI assistant, choose the package, pay online and get a report with every live link, and an editor reviews each release before it goes out. You can try it first with one free release every 30 days; every package is on the pricing page.