If you think that the good old press release is just, well, old — then it’s probably time for you to take another look at this popular old school marketing tool.
It has transcended traditional media to become an effective instrument for internet marketing, but not without a bit of a makeover. Today, the press release is more fun and versatile because it can include images, videos, links, social media buttons and even your website.
Now that internet marketing is becoming highly relevant to businesses all over the world, the press release has become a very powerful tool, especially when integrated with your SEO campaign. An online Press Release, when optimized correctly, can be hugely beneficial
So how do you make your press release SEO-friendly?
If you’ve worked with SEO-friendly articles, then you’d be happy to know that the same rules apply, such as:
- An eye-catching and relevant title that contains your primary keyword/ key phrase
- A key-word rich press release that is compelling and well-written
- Appropriate amount of anchor texts just below the hood that link back to your blog or website
Of course, your online press release should meet all the criteria that make it a press release, including newsworthiness. Also, keep in mind that press release directories have certain publishing guidelines, so do your homework before you start writing your piece of news.
Benefits of an SEO-friendly Press Release
High rankings on search engines – A well written Press Release with a great title has a huge possibility of being re-published throughout quality online news websites, giving you plenty of back links. With this, your targeted keywords can have not just one, but multiple first page visibility results, allowing you to spend less money for much sought-after traffic.
High rankings on news directories – Your press release could show up in a lot of blogs with RSS feeds, making it highly visible on reputable news directories such as Yahoo news. The result? Increased credibility and brand awareness for your business: it’s not only your potential customers who will get to know you, but journalists as well. So you have a huge possibility of getting much-wanted media coverage!
Become recognised in your niche – People who take the time to click on your press release and read it are the ones who are usually interested about your business. So when the content of your press release further peaks their interest, the result is bringing quality and relevant traffic to your website, allowing them to discover further what your product or service is all about.
Permanent archive links – Did you know that there are great press releases on the web that still get traffic long after they’ve been published? This is because credible news websites and publishers will archive your press release on their websites forever. And when you have a press release that has achieved huge popularity, the page it’s archived on will continually get shares, visits, mentions and bookmarks resulting in the increased amount of inbound links to your website.
Reputation Management – The results of an effective press release distribution will help in managing and improving your online reputation by reversing negative results from search engines and constantly maintaining a positive image of your business on the internet.
We have been using Online Press Releases for quite some time now and found them to be a more than successful part of our overall SEO strategy. We had one client with a reputation management issue that we effectively rectified by simply creating some positive news and distributing it via a press release.
We have also noticed that the power of a Press Release can help to maintain rankings for considerable time after its distribution – we still receive contact from prospects in one niche via a Press Release that was created over 12 months ago.
That’s Powerful!!
Here are some quick tips for a high-quality online press release:
- Make sure it is SEO-friendly
- Provide clickable links
- Have an attention-grabbing and keyword rich title
- Timely, relevant and newsworthy
- Contains great, compelling content
- Adheres to publisher’s guidelines
- Showcase relevant videos or images
And finally, keep in mind that a one-time press release submission will never do the trick. Make sure to publish news stories regularly to maintain the freshness of your business or brand in the minds of the public.
No comments yet.