Optimizing news releases for search engines and beyond
By Chris Biber
News releases present multiple opportunities to improve your company’s visibility. Their wide distribution across many wire services and online news sites makes optimization critically important.
News release optimization, in this context, is not just optimization of content for search engines. Equally important is the optimization of reader experience.
Let me explain what I mean:
The principles of search engine optimization apply to news releases just like any other online content. Search engines index a news release, follow its links and assess the overall relevance of the content for a given subject. When writing a news release, consider the following search engine optimization tips:
- Keyword mapping: Which two or three keyword phrases are most relevant for each individual news release? Ideally, these keywords can be worked into the page title and into a descriptive headline. Needless to say, the phrases will also occur naturally in the body of the news release itself. Otherwise, they are not the right choice of keywords.
- Keyword-rich links: Links play an important part in search engines’ ability to determine relevance for any given web page. Make sure that your news release doesn’t just link to your home page, but rather contains keyword-rich links to focused landing pages. Don’t expect too much from these links, however. The primary reason for a given link in your release should not be to attract search engine page-rank juice, but to get the reader to click through to a landing page for conversion.
- Use analytics: Where possible, use unique tracking parameters to identify which of your news release vehicles is resulting in traffic to your landing pages. Incorporate this knowledge into future efforts.
- Create a concise meta description: While meta descriptions are not being used for ranking of content, they are sometimes used in the search engine results. A compelling meta description can be the difference between an arbitrary text snippet and a compelling message that entices the searcher to click through.
- Online distribution: Where will the release be distributed? Make sure that you take full advantage of online distribution vehicles, and don’t forget vertical niche directories, which sometimes offer this as a free service. Keep in mind that search engines will identify duplicate content. Distribution of identical releases across multiple wire services is therefore a futile exercise for SEO purposes.
- Multiple angles: Does the news release warrant several different angles of coverage? If so, distribute different versions of the release to different wire services and distribution outlets.
Viewer optimization, on the other hand, concerns itself primarily with the usability of content. Online, everyone has ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Here are a few tips to cope with that:
- Make content easily digestible: Using bullets and short headlines lets viewers quickly grasp the main points of your content.
- Plan a call to action: What do you expect the reader to do next? Make sure that this is blatantly obvious. Do not overload your text with competing links. Less is more.
These are just some of the suggestions to help you maximize the impact of your next news release. Needless to say, the story is still critical, and no amount of optimization will turn a dull and boring release into a lead generation machine. So don’t be boring.
Chris Biber is President & CEO of SearchingWorks.
