Press releases have been used for years, to advise customers and potential customers of changes in your company and special sales. But they are also an important tool for getting your business the exposure it needs to stay competitive online today.
You should be careful when formatting your press release for SEO these days. The perfect keyword density is not as important as it used to be. Stuffing keywords within meaningless text not only will not get you ranked, but search engines may penalize you for stuffing any content, including press releases, with keywords.
When you prepare press releases, you should have a focused message for your target audience. Too many themes merely cloud your message, rather than appealing to different audiences. People online seek out specific and detailed information, and content that isn’t focused may never be ranked or noticed.
Before you put your press release online, ask yourself who the audience is that you’d like target, and what the purpose of the press release is. Where do you think it will be the most effective, and when should you post it? Lastly, make sure that your target audience cares about the information you will be providing.
Use anchor text links, but be sure not to overuse them. Content that is replete with links may be flagged by today’s search engines. Use links to provide calls to action, and give the reader the information he needs if he wants to pursue your promotion. Use backlinks in your press releases to link them back to the pertinent pages of your website. But keep the overall number of links to just a few.
Photos keep press releases interesting. Use a key phrase in the caption for the photograph. Photos can help not only in making your messages more compelling, but also in boosting your visibility – not just for search engines but also on social networking sites.
Sharing your press release information socially will help build exposure for your brand online. This is due to the fact that search engines pay attention to content-generated social interaction. If there is quite a bit of interaction, search engines see that as timely and valuable. The reverse is also true. If your information isn’t interesting enough for social networking sites to react to, then it may also be ignored by search engines.
Make sure that your press release provides information in a way that is useful and interesting to the readers you want to attract. This will generate more visibility for your site. Answering questions that your customers or potential customers may have, and doing it in their language, is a good way to generate more interest in what you are providing. The headline and keywords, and even well-linked content won’t mean a thing if the content itself is boring or does not serve the purposes of your readers.
Hope this has been helpful – I plan on writing another primer on how to write a press release (or get one written for you on the cheap) and where to distribute them (free). Thanks for reading this article on press release for SEO!