As businesses continue to embrace SEO, press releases can be added to their tactics to increase their online visibility. Public relations, or PR-SEO, uses company news to shine a spotlight on your brand, product, or service, do damage control, and earn media miles for your company – and when done right, can be very powerful. Doing it right means abandoning tactics that no longer work, in particular spamming links unrelated to press releases. In 2013, Google introduced a no-follow policy to prevent SEOs from abusing PR backlinks in the future. The new rule removed the impact optimized links had on site performance in search engine page results (SERPs). To this day, it doesn’t hurt to have optimized links on popular news sites, but Google’s bots will ignore them. Some authoritative websites apply no-follow attributes to their links to avoid penalties from Google. Unlike followed links, unfollowed links do not affect search engine rankings.
What Is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of optimizing website content in order to improve the website’s visibility when search engines return results for a particular search query. Specialized calculators can measure the ROI for SEO efforts, while search engine algorithms determine the importance of a website. SEO is a method of organically increasing the importance of a particular website through the inclusion of carefully chosen keyword phrases. In press releases, SEO relies on algorithms to assess a website’s visibility and improve its ROI (return on investment).
What Is a Press Release?
A press release is an official written statement created and distributed to members of the press (also known as the media) to make a newsworthy announcement or provide information about a particular event. A press release is a document that a company or individual creates for publication and shares with professionals in the news media industry, thereby providing media coverage of an event and extending its reach. Press releases are still important and useful today, but they actually started at the beginning of the last century. Specifically, the press release predates him by more than a century. The first press release was issued in 1906. Here are some tips on how to optimize it:
Newsworthy Angle
There are catches in the news that people care about. This is a determinant of newsworthiness, and if you interact with journalists frequently, you should develop a sense of it. Suppose you are writing a press release for an event. We need to emphasize its importance, not just say it’s happening. When launching a new product or service, relate its capabilities to the needs of your target market. The announcement doesn’t need to be too long; just explain to people what it is that makes you different from others.
Know Audience
Follow the rules of content marketing when writing your SEO press release. Customize your message for the expected audience. In this case, you can target journalists first. Keep in mind that your media company’s user base, potential customers, and general audience should also be interested in your message. Use language your target audience understands. Get inspired by PR marketing campaigns for product launches aimed at men and children. The first paragraph will grab the attention of the reporter because it provides facts and figures without flash. Give 100% effort to succeed in describing products in a way that prospects can easily understand.
Write for Your Readers
An SEO press release is written in a specific way, using a style and structure that are familiar to the core reader. To make them interested, use these:
Create shareable content – press releases create massive backlinks and have the added value of increased brand exposure on high-traffic sites such as newspapers, online, and even social media. This is an excellent tactic for engaging your audience with short messages. Write about newsworthy events and shareable messages that are relevant to your industry and ultimately your audience.
Format your headline- search engines can shorten titles and descriptions, so try to work within the character limit. Keep important keywords in the heading and keep it to 70 characters or less. But remember to write for people before search engines. To get real, profitable clicks, remove titles that sound offensive or unnatural.
Use natural links- Remember SEO, who abused tactics? They are doing this by adding hyperlinks to keywords that are being typed into text. If you add a hyperlink, make it flow and function naturally. Include anchor text that is meaningful and directs readers to make the content on your site relevant.
Long-tail keywords- in search engine terminology, search terms fall into a short tail and long tail. Short-tail keywords are general terms containing no more than three words, such as: “health foods.”. Long tail keywords, on the other hand, are precise terms that produce more targeted results, such as: “where to buy healthy food”. Respond to long-tail keywords in press releases to provide value to your audience while increasing your relevance in the SERPs. Also, make sure to include multimedia such as videos and photos, as they have been shown to improve conversions.
Reach Out to the Right Journalists
Find someone to email the press release to. Ensuring they write in the space your company belongs to saves you and your media contacts time. They’re following these kinds of stories all the time, so if your press release falls short of their wits, they’re more likely to be picked up. All that’s left is to make it newsworthy.
Distribution Channels
Distribution networks are not created equal. But those that offer better service usually charge more. Whichever you choose, we recommend channels that effectively optimize your press releases so you can maximize your investment. Here are the best options based on the above factors: Marketwired, Business, Wire PRWeb, and PR Newswire.
Press releases can be difficult. Using them to improve his SEO is a double-edged sword. SEO-focused advertising can be harmful if not done properly. If you want your SEO announcement to be successful, take some of these tips for press release optimization to ensure your press release gets publicity.