So, you want to send a press release?
April 4, 2008
Don’t ever write a press release for SEO. That’s just shooting yourself in the head. In fact, you deserve to be shot in the head if you ever say “press release for SEO” again. Michael Martinez – Director of Search Strategies for 1st Query
A key element in getting links back to your site and improving your traffic is understand where your target audience and circles of influence get their information and be there.
Obviously our goal with this site is to learn SEO and how to get positioned in the top spots for our target keywords. But the question remains, “What do you do to get people to your site now?” An even more important question is, “What can I do today to get people to come and link to my site?”
The press release can be a powerful tool for people who know how to use it effectively. If you have a gift for communication and you know how to properly distribute a press release, it can help you reach influential people, consumers, bloggers and important minds in your niche. If you can do this, your traffic will grow and your inbound links will increase. Ultimately, (in an indirect way) the press release is another great SEO tool.
That said, a press release is not the ultimate, secret magic trick. Press releases have become a huge source of search spam lately and you have to realize that if you’re going to take the time to write a press release it better be damn good and highly newsworthy. If it’s not, you’re just wasting your time.
Here are 10 tips on how to use a press release to further your SEO efforts. We’ll also look at what you need to do to fully distribute your work so your efforts provide you with the greatest benefit possible.
If you haven’t reviewed my basic intro to writing a press release, please do so now before continuing.
1. Focus on your angle and your target audience
The first thing you need to do when writing a press release is figure out how to appeal to your target audience. Your press release should appeal to them immediately and make them want to read on, visit your site and possibly write about what you have to say and then (in a perfect world) link back to you in some way.
If you don’t write compelling content for real people then you’re just spamming. You should only write a press release if there’s a real need and if you can do a good job at selling what you have to say. Don’t focus on SEO techniques before spending a lot of time on how you’re approching the reader. Remember: “Humans First” and you’ve mastered the first step of optimizing your press release for SEO. I know it’s a weird concept but SEO is becoming more and more about appealing to people and getting them to link, bookmark, talk and spread your content. It’s less about using the right keywords (although still very important) so if you can’t write, find someone who can.
2. Treat it link a web page
Without disrupting the readability of your page you should think about ways to appeal to the reader. To do this, your press release needs to be more like a mini web page than an old fashioned press release. Include your logo and spice up the design with relevent and useful photos, graphs and graphics that further enhance your goals. Think about making it a useful and informative resource for people to use and talk about. Video is another option and if you host your media on an external site there are added benefits. Read on for more about this.
3. Use external multimedia content
When you include images and multimedia in your press release, consider uploading the images to a service like YouTube.com or Flickr.com where you can tag them with keywords and more information. Not all newswire services allow this but you should give it a shot if possible. Remember, YouTube is currently the third largest search engine on the net so don’t neglect an opportunity to reach out in a different way.
4. Get to the point fast and be concise
Part of effective writing involves knowing when to shut up. Google News gets 100,000 articles a day and includes them for 30 days. That creates an index of 3 million articles per month that don’t stick around very long. That’s a lot of content my friend and people don’t have a lot of time to read. Your challenge is getting to the top of that list and getting people to read what you have to say. If you jabber on for 10 paragraphs before you get to the good stuff you’ve probably already lost them.
Consider writing in pyramid style and this will help. Basically this invoves giving the reader the golden nugget right out of the gate and as they read on, the information becomes less important and the subject matter more broad.
When you’re writing a press release, don’t be a poet. Write for people that are looking for information. Make your press release short, compelling and infomative and you’ll hit a home run.
5. Linking
One of the unique and useful aspects of writing press releases on the web is your ability to include links. Links should be included in all the obvious places like your company information in the footer but you should also link to a relevant pages on your site from within the first paragraph of your press release.
As mentioned in the previous point, you want to hit them over the head with everything you got in the first paragraph before they move on to another article.
When they click they should immediately land on a page that supports the information they’re looking for. Don’t link to your homepage and make them hunt for it.
When linking, use your most important keywords as the link text as this will be an added SEO benefit if your press release gets distributed to more sites.
Also, reach out to important and influential people by linking to them. If they’re savvy they’ll see that you’re linking to them and they may link back or help to return the favor in some way; ideally by distributing your press release on your site or part of your relevant news.
6. Keywords
This is an obvious one but very important. Optimizing a press release is not much different than optimizing a standard page or blog post on your site.
Focus your press release on a keyword phrase that ties in to the product or service you are promoting and that people actually search for. Don’t stuff your press release with keywords but write naturally and focus in on 2-3 variations of the same phrase if possible.
So, what to do? Write a plain jane release that does not stand out, or stuff that sucker like a turkey with keywords galore? A talented writer should be able to incorporate keywords into a press release as well as satisfy any creative requirements for a compelling read. This is the “art” of press release optimization and also of web page optimization. - Lee Odden, Top Rank Blog
Here’s a basic, quick reminder on how to use your keywords in your content:
1. Research keywords that fit your target audience and support your decision to use those keywords with real world data
2. Add keywords throughout the press release and write naturally
3. Add keywords to your H1 header tag
4. Add keywords within your external links
5. Make sure your keywords are in your first paragraph of text.
7. Make your press release viral
This is not a post about how to make your content viral. What you need to consider though is what you can do to get others to pass on your content. You want people to talk, forward, link and create buzz so investigate the ways to accomplish that. We’ll talk more about this in the future.
Essentially you want someone to look at another person and say “Read this because I think it’s great and useful.”
Start the process by posting the press release on your own site and sending it out through your RSS feed.
Bookmark the page with Del.icio.us and other social and viral sites like Stumble Upon. This can only start people talking if you’ve done your job with creating effective and compelling content.
8. Go door to door in the digital world; focus on people who will redistribute your release
If you’re operating in a niche where you know influential people by name, contact them. It’s as simple as that. Do you know an influential blogger or have access to a journalist at a newspaper or publication? Write them a short, personal note via email and include an invitation to visit your site for more information. (Where you’ve posted your press release)
Don’t just send them the press release via email because people hate that. Remember, you need to stand out among the crowd so if you really have something to say that’s newsworthy, people will listen if you approach them with respect and just ask.
Many websites will republish press releases, or at the least, they’ll publish important parts or quotes from your press release; so consider seeking out people who are major players in your target niche and approach them directly. You want to make sure that the press release that you toiled over actually gets in front of the right people. If you have some manners and time to do it right, you’ll be surprised at your success.
9. Know where to distribute your press release
When you distribute your press release, don’t focus on just any ol’ service just because it’s free. Save your time and hassle and spend a few bucks to do it right through one of the top services. If a wire service allows and sends out a lot of press release spam, do you really want to be associated with that?
Here is a short list of outlets to consider:
www.free-press-release.comwww.e-xl.com
www.inthepress.ruwww.pressbox.co.uk
10. Send your press releases at the right times
When do you have time to stop and read? Do you find that you have more time on Monday mornings or Friday afternoons? Maybe it’s somewhere in between? Research has shown that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days for getting optimized press releases to the top of the pile.
Journalists can typically be found searching for story ideas on those days as well.
11. BONUS: Basic things you can do to optimize your press release
Research your keywords
Use headings with your target keywords
Use your keywords at the beginning of your content; spread words throughout in creative ways
Consider using some bold text but limit this practice to your most important keywords
Link to your own website content with keyword rich link text
Link out to other sites
Include quotes from influential people and give them credit with a link
Focus on readability
Focus on humans
Write natural
Keep it short
Double check your spelling and punctuation
Speak w authority
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