Companies that are dedicated to improving their SEO often wonder if they can use press releases to boost SEO. PR SEO uses company news to create excitement around a brand, product, or service, do damage control and earn media mileage for a company. It can be very effective if done correctly. In order to do this correctly, you must abandon strategies that no longer work. Among the strategies that no longer work for SEO is stuffing press releases with unrelated links.
Traditional SEO is a process through which companies optimize their products and services on Google to gain a wider audience and, as a result, a greater conversion rate. When used effectively, SEO is a broad approach that can transform a brand’s reputation and expand its global reach. In fact, SEO has actually overtaken traditional marketing as businesses have moved into the digital realm.
SEO can be broken into three main pillars:
- Content: You often hear the phrase “content is king” in the marketing world. This phrase is used to highlight the belief that content should take precedence and offer people relevant solutions. Your content should reflect your company goals and be helpful to others.
- Technicalities: You have created the best content possible and believe that it will draw a large audience. Even so, if your site isn’t optimized and search engines can’t effectively scan it, what good is it spending hours on creating quality content? In order to optimize your content, you should have an acceptable URL structure, keyword-focused metadata, and a user-friendly page load time to keep users on your site.
- Hyperlinks: Do you include links to other web pages so that readers can learn more about the subject? Link building will boost traffic to your website.
Benefits of press release SEO
1) Generate brand awareness
Potential customers will never shop from your store if they are unaware that it exists. Without a strong brand presence, you can also pass on the opportunity to attract new investors. Learning how to use press releases to promote SEO can help your company’s visibility. Improving your brand visibility will also help you reach a wider audience with your products and services. These people can learn more about your services by going to your website. They can learn about your area of expertise by reading your blog posts and browsing through the rest of your content.
Increasing your brand’s online visibility can help you build brand awareness and recognition over time. Once you start doing media outreach, you’ll have an easier time staying top-of-mind with each subsequent press release. Consumers will remember your press release and website the next time they’re trying to solve a problem that your products or services address. Consumers are also more likely to see your website first if you improve your SEO rankings. You can check where you rank in a search engine results page to ensure that customers visit your site first, rather than one of your competitors. Consumers will also notice when you’ve made it to the top of the page.
Keep in mind that most people don’t browse past the first page of search results. For this reason, if you’re not already on this page, you need to spend more time optimizing your content so that you feature on this page.
2) Gain backlinks
Backlinks are links that lead from one blog to your material on another site. The more backlinks a page has, the more Google organic traffic it can get. Many companies use guest blogging to build backlinks.
According to experts at Google, backlinks are among the most important determinants of whether your website will rank high on a search engine or not. In other words, your rankings may not improve if you do not have backlinks.
Gaining backlinks can help you improve your SEO. People may link to your material because of your high-quality, interesting press releases. As a result, you’ll be able to build backlinks naturally. Your rankings will improve as you obtain more backlinks. Remember that improving your SEO rankings can help you reach a larger audience online.
You can enhance your business while improving your rankings and generating more internet visitors.
3) Gain referral traffic
Using press releases to improve your rankings will also help you obtain more referral visitors.
Before releasing your press release with its existing audience, a news source may decide to pick it up. You’ll get increased traffic to your website when people view and read your press release. Google will notice if you’re producing referral traffic. Your search engine results may improve even more as a result of referral traffic.
Learning how to use your press releases to improve SEO might also inspire people to share your material with others.
A consumer or blogger can read your press release on the website of their preferred media outlet. They can then share that post with their own followers. Your reach will continue to grow, resulting in increased brand awareness.
4) Generate leads and sales
More people will visit your website if you improve your SEO using PR. You’ll have a better chance of generating more leads as more people visit your website. To convert those visitors into sales, you can utilize strong call-to-action messaging.
As a result, your return on investment (ROI) will increase.
Tips for boosting SEO press releases
It’s important to learn how to write the perfect press release that will be picked up by Google and other search engines. With a good press release, you can drive traffic to your website.
These tried and true tactics and techniques can help you get your press release to the top of your desired search engine results page. We’ve covered everything from nailing that SEO-optimized title to strategically using keywords and integrating a variety of multimedia.
1) Use keywords strategically
When it comes to SEO and keywords, there are two types of search terms and phrases: short tail and long tail. Short tail keywords, such as ‘meal prep’ or ‘virtual assistant,’ are broad terms with three or fewer words. On the other hand, longtail keywords are precise terms that can provide more specific results, such as ‘order meal prep delivery in Chicago’ and ’employ virtual assistants in Austin, Texas.’
In your company’s press release, use longtail keywords to improve its relevance on search engine results pages (SERPs) while also providing value to your readers.
Make sure you mention your focus keyword in the headline as well as in the first paragraph of your press release. Also, avoid stuffing your release with buzzwords. Stuffing your material with keywords can actually cause Google to lower your firm’s rating and reduce your company’s online visibility.
2) Nail the headline
To attract readers to your press release, you’ll need to create a headline that captures attention. You’ll want to include your target short or longtail keyword in the headline in its entirety so that Google’s crawlers can pick it up and index it.
While short and snappy headlines are preferred, the headline for your company must communicate the main idea of your press release to the reader. Your headline may be shorter or longer than the typical headline depending on your desired keywords.
Although the ideal headline character count varies per news outlet and platform. There are specific things to keep in mind when it comes to the length of your company’s headline:
- The first 55 characters of your company’s news release headline are displayed on most editorial sites.
- Google and other search engines display the first 70 characters of your headline.
- Facebook tends to include the entire headline and may even provide space for a synopsis.
- Limiting your headline to 40 characters may be challenging, but many digital marketers believe this is the ideal headline length for individuals reading headlines on mobile devices.
In summary, you can only rely on the first 8-15 words of your headline to entice people to read your press release.
3) Don’t forget the five Ws
Your press release will start to take shape once you’ve chosen your company’s target keywords and written a great headline. Beyond that, including the five W’s – what, who, where, when, and why – is one of the most effective approaches for developing a terrific release.
These five crucial features in your press release assist your readers in imagining your company’s product or service by providing them with the critical information they want and need. This strategy, combined with strategic keywords and an optimized headline, will help you get closer to the top of the SERPs with quality content while piquing the interest of your target readers.
4) Include a compelling call-to-action
When writing a press release, it’s easy to forget to include a way for your readers to take action based on the news you’ve shared in the press release. Make the most of this opportunity by including an engaging call-to-action (CTA). The best time to engage readers is just after they’ve digested your release because your news is still top of mind.
You can do this by including a hyperlink with appropriate anchor text. This informs search engines such as Google about the content on the linked page.
The more logically your company’s CTA is placed, the more likely it is to be effective. For example, placing a link to your demo website after a summary of your product and how it satisfies the demands of your audience makes logical sense. On the other hand, including a link to your homepage in the first paragraph of your press release is also a good idea.
5) Take it easy with the links
A press release with too many links will confuse readers and hurt your company’s SEO. Stuffing your press release with links is considered a Black Hat SEO tactic. This tactic can lead to Google penalizing your website or pushing your press release to the bottom of a search engine results page.
To avoid this, aim for one to four relevant and well-placed links throughout your press release.
6) Take a look at the competition’s SEO
Discovering what keywords your competitors use and then producing an optimized and more strategic press release with the same keywords can benefit your organization.
Make a list of the top keywords that your competitors are ranking for. Include these keywords throughout the press release, ensuring they are appropriate and related to the subject.
7) Include a variety of media
Include multimedia in your press release to boost its SEO performance. Using high-quality images and videos to accompany your press release is a great way to increase visibility. This helps your release to be indexed by media search engines like Google Images and others.
When compared to text-only material, video posts generate 1200% more shares. As a result, you should use video-enhanced press releases whenever you want to improve your chances of excellent engagement with your readers. Adding videos to your press releases can also increase your coverage across many media channels.
Additionally, providing exciting and relevant videos or photographs can improve the likelihood that your company’s press release will be shared on social media by your readers. Since so many people acquire their news from Facebook and LinkedIn, it’s only natural to incorporate highly shareable graphics and videos in your press release.
You can also make your releases more accessible using images, videos, and sound. Finally, integrating these multimedia features in your company’s news releases can increase reading, increase social media reach, and raise brand awareness.
8) Streamline your distribution strategy
Most press release distribution firms include SEO features such as do-follow links. To reach more websites, you may choose to pursue wider distribution. However, there will be a cost associated with this. If you’re a multinational company, you should consider using Associated Press (AP) Newswire syndication to reach a global audience. If your company is only based in the United States, target national regions to reach every major news outlet in the country rather than the limited newsfeeds in your firm’s geo-region.
Would you prefer to leave your press release writing to someone else and focus on improving your product? The team at Pressfarm is skilled at writing quality press releases that will help your brand make a memorable impression. Reach out today and let us help you create a press release that will capture attention and rank in search engines.
In addition to helping you create a professional press release, we can also help you write engaging guest posts and design an eye-catching media kit. By distributing this content to the right media outlets and startup directories, we can help you feature in relevant search results across different search engines.
Finally, as a client, you also get custom media lists. When combined with our media database, these media lists can help you connect with the best thought leaders and storytellers in your niche.
Conclusion:
When it’s time to write your next press release, you can now ensure it’s SEO-optimized so that the maximum number of people can see it and, hopefully, act on it. Begin by nailing your headline and determining which keywords you’ll use in the release. Be sure to include the who, where, what, when, and why, as well as an attractive call to action that your press release readers will want to click on. Take it easy on the links and do your homework on the competition to see what keywords they’re currently ranking for. Finally, include high-resolution images and videos in your press release and distribute them appropriately based on your region.