How Press Releases Support Search Engine Marketing

by Jerry Amundson

Press releases are becoming more and more important to your search engine optimization strategy. Many people prefer to view them online as a source of information instead of newspapers and trade publications, especially in the technical field.

Online audiences are increasingly in control of the messages they see, and will filter out a lot of advertising and publications perceived as irrelevant. Plus, it's still true that PR carries more credibility than advertising.

Increase traffic and link building

A good press release strategy can help increase site traffic and bring in new leads as effectively as other SEO tactics. An interesting, well-written press release can "stick" on web sites for a good long time, creating valuable publicity and interest in the source.

When your release is picked up by a relevant web site, it creates an important link back to your site. This can help boost search engine rankings. So press releases are a good strategy for your link building efforts.

Know your keywords and your audience

It is critical to include carefully-researched keywords in the copy--and especially the headline--to be sure you have an optimized release. It is also important to designate keywords and take advantage of available RSS feeds when posting the release to sites such as PRWeb (www.prweb.com).

It is more important than ever to identify and understand your target audience. This will make decisions about optimization and distribution of the release much easier and more effective, and can increase your relevance to the search engines.

Use your newsroom

As soon as it has been released, you can add important content to your site by placing each release in your site's newsroom (if you don't have a newsroom, create one soon) It can also help to place the headline with a link to the newsroom on your home page. You might automate this process. And keep your releases up to date! A prospect doesn't get a positive first impression from a Latest News item dated 2006.

Take advantage of blogs

It is also important to post the release to your blog and include the keywords in the post title. This also increases relevance and visibility. The number of people using blogs as a source of news is quickly increasing, and this will place your news in front of them. A good press release increases the likelihood of attracting the attention of people who write news stories because journalists are heavy readers of good news blogs.

Give them a reason to visit

It may help to include a specific reason in the release for the reader to visit your site, and make it easy with imbedded links. For example, RefreshWeb client Clifford Law Offices (www.cliffordlaw.com) includes a summary introduction to free legal articles in a press release, and includes a link to make it simple to visit their site and finish the article.

---

Jerry Amundson is a consultant to RefreshWeb, a search engine marketing firm in Austin, Texas