Press releases have long been a public relations tool for businesses. With the online advancement of press release organizations, this communication device has now become important to Internet marketing success. But what exactly is an SEO press release? How can it help your company? And how do you write one?
What Is An SEO Press Release?
An SEO press release is simply a standard press release that has been optimized for search engine spiders. Companies that are used to creating these documents off-line should not panic when told that they should now create them for the Internet. In fact, focusing too much on optimization can actually hurt your company instead of helping it.
The main aspect of an online press release is the use of keywords. Because this form of content can help your company’s overall search engine ranking, you will want to make sure that you are including key phrases that your company is targeting in terms of SERP.
There are many different ideas behind when to use keywords and how many times they should be included in the text. The number of inclusions of a specific phrase for SEO purposes is called density. With all the changes Google has made the search engine rankings, keyword density has become a highly contested idea.
From a business perspective, you shouldn’t focus on whether or not you have 1% or 5% keyword density of a specific phrase. There are even studies that show aiming for specific density may hurt search engine rankings. Instead, focus on the quality of the content and make sure that the keyword is included in the title, summary, and body of the text. Also try to use synonyms and related phrases to help people find the press release when they are researching your company.
Another aspect of an optimized press release compared to a standard press release is the inclusion of hyperlinks. Hyperlinks help with organic linking strategies for your company website. It is permitted for your organization to include a hyperlink to a specific page on your website. You need to make sure that the page is relevant to the topic and improves the value of the document.
How Can It Help Your Company?
With all of the different rules and regulations for online content, how can an SEO press release possibly help your organization? When an individual is researching a business, certain forms of content will have more weight than others. People tend to discount information on the website because they understand it is advertising. Many individuals will contact friends and connections on social media sites in order to gain insight into a business. Another form of research is to find non-biased content.
Because a press release is not intended to be a marketing document, it is considered to be unbiased. Not only do humans give more weight to press releases that are online, search engine spiders also consider links to press release documents to be more valuable than other forms of links such as to e-zine content. By including a series of optimized press releases, the company has a better chance to improve its overall search engine ranking.
An additional benefit of an online press release is that you have the chance of having the information picked up by journalists and bloggers. There are many Internet-based news agencies on the web today. They still obtain information for their articles the same way traditional journalists do: press releases. They scour Internet press release sites to find interesting information to write about. This will help information about your company spread and increase your marketing influence.
How Do You Write One?
So how do you go about creating a press release that you will publish on the Internet? If your company already creates standard press releases, then the learning curve will be short. If your company has never created a press release in the history of the organization, then you will need to start with the basics.
A press release starts with the title. You’ll want to make sure that your main keyword that you are using is included in that title. You’ll also want a short summary, similar to a meta-description that is created to catch the eye of the journalist or other individual. The main or secondary keyword should be included in this area as well.
Next is the body of the press release. The format used is a similar to the standard news article style of the inverted pyramid. What this means is the main content appears in the first paragraph of the document and then the rest of the text goes on to explain the subject matter in more detail. This is so that journalists can understand the idea behind the release quickly and determine if this is something they want to utilize.
The length of a press release varies, but many experts agree that 250 to 400 words is a good target. Most journalists and individuals don’t read beyond this point, and in order to be concise you don’t want to have a lengthy text. You can include 2 to 3 links in the body of the text, depending on where you are publishing the press release.
You want to make sure that the content of your document does not sound like advertising. Try to mention just the facts and support your ideas with information and links. A quote from someone high within the organization is also a good idea to lend authority to the document. At the end of the press release, you will be allowed to create a paragraph that provides more information about the company, include contact information, and a website link.
This is the basic structure of an SEO press release. Companies should include press releases, online or off-line, as part of their public relations efforts. With the added benefit of improved ranking for the company website, it is more important now than it was before to add this form of content to your marketing efforts.