In a fiercely competitive online atmosphere, press releases can be a valuable resource for increasing
your company's overall visibility, but only if they're optimized effectively. Remember, this tactic is no
longer just about publicizing your latest news. Instead, it's about creating visibility through multiple
channels that allow you to connect through content, reaching those audience segments that are
relevant to your company and purpose.
When optimized correctly, online press releases can do all of the following:
* Boost Search Engine Rankings for SEO
* Drive Targeted Traffic
* Build Brand Awareness
* Save Money on Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
* Usurp Position From Competition on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)
Despite these numerous benefits, however, many companies continue to use unoptimized press
releases that don't work as well as they could. Instead, these lazy releases stagnate in Deleted
folders and are never indexed by the major search engines. Remember, this isn't a traditional press
release like Grandma used to write.
Unlike traditional press releases, which were succinct and written with readers in mind, online press
releases need to be more carefully crafted. An online press release (like SEO in general), is half art
and half science - in addition to appealing to readers, they need to be optimized for search engines in
order to drive results. A few simple modifications could increase their effectiveness drastically,
providing far more SEO benefit to your online presence than they would have otherwise.
So how do you write and optimize an online press release that will drive tangible results?
First and foremost, employ common sense and reason. No one wants to read something that isn't
newsworthy, and these type of releases won't garner any publicity. In fact, according to a DM News
survey, 98 percent of journalists are online every day, and almost 75 percent are searching for press
releases. So before you write anything, ask yourself if the story you're thinking about publicizing is
newsworthy. As a member of your industry, whatever that may be, would you take the time to read it?
If not, don't waste your time. Wait for a story that will make a splash and matter to your audience.
Next, identify the keywords your press release will utilize. Align them with the keywords and phrases
you're already optimizing in order to derive the highest SEO benefit. In order to make sure you're
choosing those with the most potential, start with some quick competitive analysis. This can be done
by performing a News search that includes your keyword on Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN, or any other
popular search engine.
Looking at the results page, you'll know if this is the right keyword or phrase to chase? How? By the
amount of competition it presents. If you notice that most of the results are spread out over a longer
time span, this keyword is a good opportunity because there clearly isn't as much competition. On the
other hand, if your search turns up ten stories from the past few days, you'll know that this term is
much more competitive due to the many stories you're competing against.
Now that you're aware of the competitive landscape, determine the amount of flexibility you have to
work with. As I mentioned before, if you're attempting to enter a space that's crowded with recent
news, you'll need to focus on a single keyword phrase, while if you have more flexibility, you can
chase several permutations of your keywords.
In the end, it's a better idea to focus on specific online niches, crafting your press release in a way
that you know will appeal to your potential readers. Your press release will be much more potent if it
gets noticed within a specific sector than if it languishes away in relative obscurity, hidden somewhere
in a crowd of similar stories.
This simple research phase can make all the difference in whether your press release gets noticed,
but it's often the most overlooked aspect of this strategy. Don't get trapped milling around in the
virtual crowd - stand out and get noticed by optimizing around the keywords that hold the most
potential.
Once you've completed this critical research step, you will have identified the most potent keywords
with which to write your press release. Now you're finally ready to start writing!
Start with the headline, the most important part of your press release. Include your most competitive
keywords in this headline. While it may be tempting to simply combine all of your keywords, it's
imperative that your headline remains both condensed yet descriptive. Think like a journalist and a
searcher here. Stick to the basics, providing the essential facts and the who, what, where, when, and
why. All of the major search engines start by looking for keywords in headlines, so be sure to give
them what they're looking for in order to capitalize on relevancy. Observe these rules and you'll also
attract those all important human readers.
After you've crafted the headline, it's time to start writing the body of your press release. Begin by
isolating several related phrases to maximize your SEO potential. For example, if you're publicizing
the launch of your new SEO site, your headline may be something like Fusionbox Launches SEO
Microsite.
Don't fall victim to the constraints you'll encounter with the use of just one keyword or phrase. Instead,
use a web of related keyphrases to expand your reach. Alternate permutations like "Fusionbox
Launches Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Microsite," for example, will invariably broaden your
scope and influence. These various combinations allow your release to appear in News results for
these related phrases as well.
Try rotating various combinations of keywords in the body of the release as well to create more
diversity and cover more ground. For example:
"Fusionbox, a Denver SEO agency, recently lauched a new microsite devoted to search engine
optimization (SEO) strategies. The company, which specializes in search engine marketing (SEM),
web design, and web development, needed a unique platform to reach clients looking for optimization
solutions and showcase their SEO services."
Rather than using the same keyword phrase repetitively and sounding like a broken record (which
drives human readers away), this sentence sprinkles other keyword combinations that expand the
SEO value of the release without detracting from readability.
Be creative here. Don't try to overload on keywords or your release won't flow like good writing
should. A good rule of thumb is to write with an eye for your keywords, incorporating them into the
release when natural opportunities appear.
Once you've finished writing your release, read over it again and circle your keywords in red. Does it
sound natural or look like a finished New York Times word search? If so, take a step back and ensure
your work flows while maintaining general SEO copywriting best practices and a healthy keyword
density.
Next, look for instances of your keywords where you could include a backlink to your site. This will
allow you to build valuable incoming links to your site, which are a major determinant of search
engine positioning. Remember to use the full URL in your link if you can't employ anchor text, as this
will ensure your link is indexed and available to search engines and readers alike.
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Finally, you've finished writing your optimized press release. Now you're ready to begin the
submission process. There are an infinite number of press release sites on the Internet, but some are
far superior to others. Before you go about submitting anywhere and everywhere, make sure the sites
you're submitting content to are crawled by the major search engines, or else you won't get any SEO
benefit from your release.
Many of the more popular distribution services are indexed by Google News, Yahoo News, and
others, but make sure by searching for related stories on these engines and noting where the top
results originate. This way, you'll get a better idea of which distribution channels specific search
engines favor.
Target these for your own release to ensure your content will be visible where it matters, especially as
Universal search [http://running-with-the-bulls-seo.blogspot.com/2007/09/blended-search-changes-
internet.html] rolls onto the scene, showing News links among the regular search results.
As you can see, optimizing your press release is a somewhat complex endeavor. Still, considering
that an optimized release is an essential ingredient to a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign for
its ability to boost search engine rankings, drive targeted traffic, build brand awareness, and even
help you gain digital real estate on the SERPs (search engine results page), the juice is definitely
worth the squeeze.
Just observe the best practices I've described above and you'll build your online presence in this
fiercely competitive online atmosphere where visibility is everything. An optimized press release will
allow you to connect with your target audience through content while deriving tangible SEO benefits.
SEO And Press Releases
Source: http://pdfcast.org/pdf/seo-strategies-optimize-online-press-releases-for-crm-45
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