As we discussed in our previous post, “KA-POW! The Power of the Search Engine Optimized Press Release in a Linking Strategy,” sending out well-written and optimized press releases is a great way to get backlinks to a website fast. Backlinks, also called inbound links, push up your website’s search engine ranking and get you more traffic, more leads and even more conversions (sales or phone calls).
The following tips will help you use press releases to get great backlinks:
- Buy the release package that includes embedded keywords where you can hyperlink your keywords back to your website. Beware: the basic packages on most sites do not embed keywords. You typically have to spend more for that privilege. The free or inexpensive distributors may not even have the option. For backlinks, you must embed!
- Get your primary keyword into the press release’s title, summary and first paragraph.
- Use your primary keyword once every one hundred words in the body. Keep the release to around 500 words.
- Make the press release appealing to rushed reporters and readers by choosing a package that embeds an image. Releases that pop up in search results with an image at the top get more reads than those that don’t. Manually select which photo you want to appear with the press release on the distribution site.
- Instruct your web developer or press release writer to optimize all images and videos. This just means get your keywords into the title and description of each photo or video file.
- Encourage your internet marketing company to go with the most reputable press release distribution sites: PRWeb, PRNewswire, MarketWire and BusinessWire have the best reputation at this time. The inexpensive and free sites most likely won’t get you into the best news outlets, rendering the whole press release attempt worthless. Worse, once you get your release loaded in to the cheap distributors, they start up-charging you.
- Tell your press release writer ahead of time the regions and industries you want to target and focus. Don’t just leave it up to him or her. You can choose cities, states and regions (southwest, northeast, etc.). You can also choose the industries and hobbies to aim for. The more you pay, the more regions and topics your release will reach.
- Make sure you’re delivering solid information. Since reporters are your primary audience for the press release, you’ll want to build up your reputation with them as delivering useful, newsworthy topics. Avoid getting a reputation as someone who posts useless drivel.
- Put your Twitter handle and Facebook URL on the release in addition to your typical name, address and email. While a reporter may find your story through a news release, he or she will want to research your company through social media before calling you.
- Put up a “newsroom” on your website where you can archive your press releases. Not only will your releases always be found in convenient chronological order this way, reporters can get a feel for your company’s growth as well. More, they can get all kinds of context and even ideas for new stories on you. Getting all those industry-related keywords on your site also helps with SEO.
- Before your news release goes live, make sure you alert your staff that reporters may be calling. Write down who will answer reporter questions, when they will be available and whether the reporter will need to set an appointment with the company owner or marketing officer. Don’t let a reporter catch an underling off-guard.
- A week after the press release goes out, check or ask your agency to check on how many “impressions,” and “reads” and most importantly “pickups” it got. The distributor keeps track of these figures.
- Explore which outlets did more than post your press release to their site. The parties who are most interested will write up a custom story (even though you may just be one of several examples or references.)
While we wish this information would all get you fired up about the potential of the online press release, we know the next concern: “Our business has no interesting news!”
We have a post for that! Check out our next blog post: “12 Creative Press Release Topics that Get Great Attention (and Backlinks).” And don’t forget to look over the first in this series, “KA-POW! The Power of the Search Engine Optimized Press Release in a Linking Strategy.” These will give you great context on the powerful press release.
Ready to Get More Leads and Customers with a Search Engine Optimized Press Release?
If your previous press releases haven’t included the search engine optimization above, they haven’t worked hard enough for you. To maximize the power of the optimized press release, contact us! We know all the nooks and crannies to wiggle search engine optimization into. We get you started on the right path for becoming a go-to source for journalists, bloggers and more!
About the author: Jeune Ortiz is VP of Marketing and Creative Director at future-ink. With more than 20 years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Jeune brings extensive knowledge and creativity to each website and internet marketing solution to grow your business.
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1 Comment
Florida Website Design | July 16, 2012
Hello Jeune, I agreed that Press Release is a nice way to get the backlinks. But I don’t think to buy the package for it. I think that submission of Press Release in free Press Release submission directory would be efficient. What you think?