A press release is a powerful way to announce your company’s important news and events. You can make sure the news is reaching the right audience by incorporating more SEO-friendly practices in your PR content. SEO optimization is perhaps not rocket science but still requires consistent efforts in order to gain fruitful results. It also requires a smart PR strategy that makes those SEO approaches more effective and successful.
If you are looking forward to crafting an SEO press release for your company, here are five simple steps that can help you in the process.
1. Optimize the First 200 Words of the Press Release
A press release is usually 300 to 350 words long and based on purpose and the story, the content can be even longer. As today’s readers are quite impatient and willing to skip content if the content does not feel interesting; you need to make sure that you are providing the meat of the message within the first 200 words. Here are two reasons to do it,
- Firstly, keeping all the necessary information in the first 200 words help the search engine algorithms to understand the meaning and the story in the content and show it to a user with successful search results.
- Not only search engines but also important for the readers as it offers relevant information pertaining to your message while keeping them engaged till the end of the content. Even if they are not willing to read it till the end, reading the first paragraph will be enough to get the idea and info.
2. Incorporate Keywords with High Search Value
Keywords are the main components of search engine optimization that make the PR content relevant to search results when the users are looking for a certain topic or information. Incorporating keywords with high search value is very important as it makes the content appear in front of millions of online users, including potential customers, competitors, and investors.
3. Use Hyperlinks Correctly
Hyperlinks are definitely important but they must be used properly without making your PR content a cluster of links only. Over-linking in SEO press releases makes them appear more spammy and the search engines might ignore the content which puts all SEO efforts in vain. So, do not make it hard for the users to read.
4. The Topic Must be Newsworthy
Now the biggest question is, what is ‘newsworthy’ anyway? In order to create SEO-friendly press releases, you need to keep the end users and their interests in mind. Here are some ideas,
- Awards and Achievements
- Charitable Donations and CSR Activities
- New Product or Service Launch
- Information Resources
- Partnership and Collaboration
- Giveaways or Promotions
5. Off-site Links and Contact
The boilerplate is considered to be the most important element of a press release that comes at the end of the content. Make sure to provide your company and contact information along with links where appropriate. However, not every site will be showing these links and it is a good thing as many sites will be pointing these links directly to your website; making the SEO practices more successful.
Final Thoughts
SEO practices are constantly evolving with the changing market trends and PR campaigns. So, if you find yourself stuck or not able to gain desired results; do not hesitate to take help from SEO experts and PR professionals who have ample knowledge and experience in the field.
