Why should you try writing press releases and do press releases work for SEO?
A press release is a great way to communicate and promote your company’s events and news. As of now, more than half of the population search for news reports online.
Press releases for SEO is a strategy to raise your visibility and traffic. Before you decide to write a press release, here are some things you need to know. Read on nine things that you have to keep in mind when writing press releases for SEO.
1. Find An Interesting Topic
There are many topics you can take for a press release, but are they newsworthy? You need to keep your target audience and their interests in mind when finalizing a topic. Readers won’t interact with content that’s not interesting or relevant to them.
You need a topic that can generate plenty of engagement through likes, tweets, or comments. Try promoting new products or services to boost visibility for your brand-new offering. You can also share your awards and acknowledgments or upcoming events.
A press release for SEO can act as your advertisement for sales or giveaways. While you pick a topic, keep these three in mind: recognition, immediacy, and impact. Make sure that the news you have to share is urgent, well-known, and informative.
2. Make An Attention-Grabbing Title and Intro
When writing press releases for SEO, you need to grab the attention of users scrolling through the internet. Start by thinking of a keyword-driven headline that piques curiosity. Make sure you keep your headline under 80 words, and it gets straight to the point.
Not only should you keep your intro in mind, but also your short description and title. Keep your press release in the third person and between 400 to 500 words. Try to speak straight to the readers and cut off all the jargon.
Your intro is what keeps your readers from leaving the page. Write a relevant 250-words intro for search engines to understand your press release. Make sure to add your main message and keep the reader’s interest through the entire release.
3. Don’t Forget Your Keywords
You need a careful selection of keywords when using press releases for SEO. Search engines rank website pages by crawling them for specific key terms. To ensure that you have the best keywords, you need to conduct keyword research.
Keyword research is the strategic phase of press releases for SEO. It will act as your foundation when looking for your target market’s needs. Think about your niche and avoid keywords with many competitors.
Note that most slogans and jargon words are not search terms. You need to find keyword categories addressing your customer’s and the journalist’s needs. Do some research on the keyword’s competition and traffic potential.
4. Insert Relevant Links
Links are one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website when you give your press release to a reliable new source. It’s also a strategy to get journalists and bloggers to link to your post. When you link to other posts, you also raise your chance of getting backlinks.
Rather than leading your readers to your home page or recent blog post, link to a specific product related to your keyword. Try not to go over two links to avoid overwhelming your reader. It may also seem spammy to search engines, leading them to ignore your press release.
5. Go Beyond Your Website
Yahoo! News and Google News find articles by crawling online news sources with press releases and editorial content. It all gets collected by the news search engine, synthesize, and ranked. After posting your release on your website, you also need to send it to outside news sources.
You need a way to let search engine crawls find your releases. Sending it to a news website will alert not only your local target audience, but also globally.
6. Think About the Format
Press releases typically follow a single format:
- Headline
- Subhead
- Intro
- News description
- Quote from a company executive
It’s best to go for this format since most search engines prefer a standardized format. Search engines also find it easier to crawl content and find keywords with scannable content. This means the use of subheads, bullets, lists, and numbers to break up your content.
Go for shorter and condensed paragraphs instead of blocky paragraphs. It makes it much smoother to read and easier to look at for your readers. If you want to add pullout quotes, be sure to add your keywords as well.
7. Include A Call-to-Action
Although a press release is different from your usual blog posts, you still need a CTA. Without a call-to-action, your readers won’t have a follow-up action after reading your content. After a reader familiarizes with your news, you need to capitalize the moment with a CTA.
Add a hyperlink to an anchor text that has your primary or relevant keywords. Try not to go over 35 words to avoid overkilling your call-to-action. CTAs are another way to boost your digital advertising and sales funnel.
8. Add Multimedia Elements
To get more of the reader’s interest, try utilizing multimedia for visual support. Place relevant pictures or videos to increase the reader’s attention and prolong their stay. It also increases the chances of readers sharing your videos and images on social media.
9. Measure the Success of Your Press Release
The final thing you need to know when using press releases for SEO is to measure your success. You have to know if your press releases are working for your business and website. Use web analytics to take a look at your traffic, click-rates, and leads.
Try out Google Analytics, Webtrends, or Adobe SiteCatalyst. Check how much referral traffic comes from your blog posts, news articles, and press releases. Knowing your number makes it easier for you to change your strategy, news website, or content.
Nine Things to Know When Using Press Releases for SEO
Press releases for SEO are all about your content, link, keywords, and format. You need to be careful when looking for and deciding on a topic for your audience. Keep everything you put in your press release relevant, concise, and trendy.
If you have everything set, it’s time to send your press release out in the open! Contact us for any concerns, feedback, and inquiries. We’ll get in touch with you as soon as we can.