Press Release Optimization in 7 Easy Steps

Rumors are rife in the search world of yet another big shake up of Google’s search algorithms, but whatever happens, one principle remains constant: great content written with a specific audience in mind is good SEO and will increase your chances of being found.  So when you take your seat at the search wheel of fortune, use the seven easy-to-follow steps in this infographic to improve your press release optimization and increase the chances of your message hitting the jackpot, rather than losing your shirt on a busted flush.

1.  Use these five questions to test and focus your press release’s copy:

• Who is the audience?
• What is the press release about?
• Where will it have the most effect?
• When is the best time to distribute it?
• Why should my audience care?

2.  Once your copy is almost set choose one or two keyword phrases to optimize it for. You can find lots of tips online about keyword research, but to start with just pick the most important phrases.   The question “What is it about?” will tell you which these are.

3.  Put the most important phrase as close to the beginning of the headline, the sub-head, and the first paragraph of your press release as possible. Search engines give more weight to phrases at the beginning of headlines.  So if you are optimizing your press release for the phrase “Lucky 7.” then “Lucky 7! Seven Easy Ways To Optimize Your Press Release” works better than “Optimize Your Press Release For Search With My Lucky 7 Top Tips.”

4.  Link the most important phrase in the first paragraph to a page about the same topic. For example, if your primary phrase is “online PR” then use it in a link in the first para of your release to a page on your site about online PR.  Your copy, your link, and the page you link to combine to help build authority on the topic you are writing about.  And of course you provide a way for interested readers to click through to your site.

5.  Add a photo and include your key phrase at the start of the caption.  Images make your content more compelling, and there’s research showing that the use of images in this way can boost rankings.

6.  +1 the release on Google+. Google is the 800 lb gorilla of search and they show activity from people’s Google+ networks in their search results. If your audience is on Google+ your content needs to be too. If you’re not sure, +1 it anyway.

7.  Use your social network to promote your business. Tweet a link to the release using the primary phrase and share the release on Facebook.  All the major search engines value links from real people so retweets, shares and posts from influencers in your industry are important.

That’s it.  Those are my lucky 7 – I hope they are lucky for you.

If the above are old hat to you and you’re looking for more advanced tips, tricks and trends, check out the SEO posts on the blog.

If you have other tips to share post them in the comments below.  If we get enough we’ll post them all together and give you a shout-out.