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The Marriage Between Online Press Releases And Search Engine Optimization

Guest post by: Tara Geissinger

Article Overview: Nowadays, online press releases can be an integral part of a successful Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign. This article explores how to optimize a press release, where to distribute it and how to use online press releases in your marketing strategy.

The Marriage Between Online Press Releases And Search Engine Optimization

Press releases have traditionally been used to spark interest from journalists and editors. These professionals would pick the most interesting of the lot, and syndicate them across their various publications. The companies distributing the releases would enjoy media coverage, increased brand awareness, and often, requests for comments and interviews. As a result, they would improve their positions as authorities in their respective fields, leading to a surge in their businesses. Online, press releases deliver these same benefits. But there's an important twist: an additional boost in exposure via the search engines' editorial listings.

Most companies focus their search engine optimization efforts on ranking their main websites in the top positions for their primary keywords. To be sure, this type of presence is critical, regardless of whether a business operates exclusively online or offline. But distributing well-written, search-optimized press releases can help you control several top listings at once. And that kind of exposure can be invaluable for companies large and small.

The Mechanics Of Creating An Optimized Press Release

For years, the search engines' ranking algorithms have focused heavily on keywords to infer context. Given this, your press releases must focus on relevant keywords in order to gain presence in the top positions. Relevance is critical.

Any given press release can be broken down into a few distinct pieces. Each should be written with your primary and secondary keywords in mind. For example, your headline should contain your primary keyword, preferably as close to the beginning as possible. Your summary should contain one or two secondary keywords. Your body copy should contain a light sprinkling of both primary and secondary keywords.

Your press release should also include two or three links that contain keyword-focused anchor text. They improve the contextual relevance of your release in the eyes of the search engines. They also improve the ranking authority of the site to which you link (presumably, your company's main site). At least one link should include your domain, and if you're sending traffic to a specific landing page, the full address (i.e. URL) of that page. This ensures that people can find your site in the event your anchor text links are dropped during syndication.

Addressing the mechanics of a search-optimized press release is merely the beginning. It doesn't guarantee the right people - namely, journalists, editors, and bloggers - will see it. Nor does it mean your press release will gain the top search listings for your main keywords. For that, it needs to be distributed to the right places.

Effective Distribution And Syndication

As much as search engine optimization is based on keywords, it is also dependent on site authority. That is, websites regarded by Google as more authoritative in their spaces than others will rank higher for their chosen keywords. For example, if you type "news" into Google, you'll find CNN, FoxNews, MSNBC, et al. Google considers these sites to be authorities for news.

In order for your press releases to gain the top search positions for your keywords, they need to be syndicated on sites that have authority. This is influenced, in part, by your distribution. There are many distribution services that will send your press release to thousands of sites, but it does little good if these sites have no authority in Google's eyes. Nor is it effective to distribute releases that are veiled promotions rather than newsworthy items. A quick scan through Google News reveals the reason: such pieces are filtered. That means they are given no exposure.

Bottom line: create search-optimized press releases that are written to attract attention. Then, distribute them to authoritative sites for syndication.

Leveraging News As Part Of Your SEO Strategy

Your search engine optimization efforts should extend beyond your company's main site. While ranking your site is important, you can improve your overall search presence by integrating search-optimized press releases into your SEO strategy. More journalists and bloggers than ever are using the search engines to uncover newsworthy stories. If they stumble upon your press release, and find it engaging, they may publish it on their sites.

This increases your company's exposure. It also boosts your site's ranking authority via anchor text links sprinkled throughout your release. And these are the seeds from which your SEO efforts bear fruit.

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Article Tags: how to write a press release, online press release



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