Jun 21, 2022
csalomonlee

Search and Find – SEO Your Press Release

SearchPress releases are an important component of PR. Typically, I focus on writing the right headline to catch a reporter’s attention, while crafting intelligent quotes for my spokesperson. But sometimes, a catchy headline and eloquent phrasing may fall short of helping your client from a marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) perspective.

I was reminded of this recently when reviewing my company’s site ranking for various terms.  I realized that my company’s press releases was an ideal opportunity for SEO.  MarketingSherpa has an excellent article on how to write a press release to enhance organic search. Here are my top tips:
1) Keywords: Collaborate with your client to understand what their key terms are for SEO. The goal is not to use all of these words in your release, but rather how these terms may be applied based on the topic of your release.

2) Title Tags: This is the description that appears when you navigate to a web page. Many search engines weigh title tags heavily for ranking the content of the site. By understanding your client’s general key word groupings, you can craft a title tag that a) includes these keywords and b) accurately describes the content of the press release.

3) Header, subhead, first paragraph: These three elements of your release are important for search engines to evaluate the content of your release. Balance the use of keywords with your client’s messages. Though keyword density (the number of times a keyword appears in the release) is important, don’t overdue as it may be seen as trying to game the search engines.

4) News Wires: If you client is incorporating SEO, then consider paying extra money to SEO your press release. Why? Since the release is distributed to various sites, this can increase the number of links pointing to your client’s website. Since the boilerplate is included in every release, the boilerplate is a great way to incorporate keywords and appropriate links for SEO.

14 Comments

  • […] my previous post, Search and Find – SEO Your Press Release, I mentioned how keywords play an integral role in your press releases. Since that post, I’ve […]

  • As a fellow webdesigner , I’m truely glad to find that someone thought to post this topic.

    All too many people just don’t understand what all is involved in our field, and I think also we are all too often underrated
    or taken for granted. Never the less I’m very glad to see that you feel the same way I do , thanks so much for this post!

  • Agree with every one of your points – something I’d written about myself previously:

    http://pressreleaseprblog.com/2008/07/24/yes-a-press-release-will-increase-your-web-traffic/

  • Excellent point, Press releases are an important tool and why should it be left outside the purview of SEO when it is used an an integral strategy of SEO.

  • There is some controversy over how representative Alexa’s user base is of typical Internet behavior. If http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=www.fortunehotels.in Alexa’s user base is a fair statistical sample of the internet user population, Alexa’s ranking should be quite accurate.

  • Great article there. Learned a lot!

  • seoline

    …wrote a very informative article on…

  • […] Kilka ciekawych uwag na temat SEO press release znalazłem także na blogu PR meets Marketing, gdzie niejaki Cece opisuje jak wykorzystać SEO Press release w agencjach PR. […]

  • Seach and Find – SEO Your Press Release « PR Meets Marketing

    Top tips for optimizing press releases for search engines.

  • Very good points Vince. Linking to keywords vs. “click here” type phrases helps with the SEO aspect. And the boilerplate word linking provides consistent linking while the main body may change.

  • Like your article Joe: I’d add the links you mention – in the boilerplate or elsewhere, should be hyperlinked through keywords. I still see releases linking back to websites through “click here” instead of topical keywords relevant to the page in which you are directing visitors.

  • Joe – Great points. One other thing I forgot is tagging of press releases. Look into the types of tags you can associate to you press release and how your news wire handles this.

    Thanks!

  • Good post about SEO’ed press releases. Here’s a couple other tidbits to consider:

    An SEO’ed press release has little to no value unless properly and widely distributed online. It needs to be found on quality (by search engine standards) sites and content relevant sites.

    And what if your press release is going to be deleted or even moved to a new URL after a few months, what good it that? Make sure it doesn’t happen.

    Be sure to check into these things when choosing who is going to distribute your SEO’ed press releases.

    Joe Beaulaurier
    PRWeb

  • SEO Your Press Release

    Press releases are an important component of PR. Typically, I focus on writing the right headline to catch a reporter’s attention, while crafting intelligent quotes for my spokesperson.

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About

Cece Salomon-LeeCece Salomon-Lee is director of product marketing for Lanyon Solutions, Inc. and author of PR Meets Marketing, which explores the intersection of public relations, marketing, and social media.

This blog contains Cece's personal opinions and are not representative of her company's.

Learn more about Cece.

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