You have your company site up, and taken the dive into the social media pool. And you're ready to craft attention grabbing press releases that will attract journalists, customers and influencers to your website.
How do we get those 'spiders' to love hanging out on our web and sticking onto our releases?
The answer? Breathe in new life with a few easy steps.
It's said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In 5 Ways to Reinvent the Press Release With SEO, author Venessa Bugasch writes on PRNews that pictures, video and other multimedia get at least 80% more searchable traffic than text-only releases.
She says creating your own video is easy and appealing. Think YouTube, not Hollywood, and have fun sharing your company's product and messages.
She says creating your own video is easy and appealing. Think YouTube, not Hollywood, and have fun sharing your company's product and messages.
If you're a bit hesitant to plunge into video production, she recommends at the very least, to add visuals – images, charts, logos - that support your product, message or campaign.
Here are 4 more tips from Venessa:
1. Choose the Right Keywords
Search engines think like your audience. Before you begin to write, know the keywords or phrases that will drive them to the news release and motivate them to click through to pages on your Web site. Do basic keyword research on sites like Google AdWords, Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery.
2. Use Your 'Heads'
Use one to two keywords in the headline and subhead. Search engine spiders read left to right, so take that into account as you compose your headlines and your first paragraph. Use no more than 200 characters in the summary or subhead.
3. Optimize From the Top Down
Spiders also read from the top down. Using keywords in the first two paragraphs makes a much bigger impact than using them lower down. As you write, think in sound bites, like 140-character tweets.
4. Don’t Over-Link
As with keywords, don’t overdo anchor text, as it causes confusion and dilutes the impact of the links themselves. Offer two to three links for a 400-word press release.
These are great and practical tips that are easy to implement. Let us know how they work for you!
1. Choose the Right Keywords
Search engines think like your audience. Before you begin to write, know the keywords or phrases that will drive them to the news release and motivate them to click through to pages on your Web site. Do basic keyword research on sites like Google AdWords, Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery.
2. Use Your 'Heads'
Use one to two keywords in the headline and subhead. Search engine spiders read left to right, so take that into account as you compose your headlines and your first paragraph. Use no more than 200 characters in the summary or subhead.
3. Optimize From the Top Down
Spiders also read from the top down. Using keywords in the first two paragraphs makes a much bigger impact than using them lower down. As you write, think in sound bites, like 140-character tweets.
4. Don’t Over-Link
As with keywords, don’t overdo anchor text, as it causes confusion and dilutes the impact of the links themselves. Offer two to three links for a 400-word press release.
These are great and practical tips that are easy to implement. Let us know how they work for you!
Thanks, Venessa Bugasch! She's senior VP of global marketing at Cision - our PR tools provider. Follow her: @vanessabugasch.
Lynne
