What Is a Press Release?
Have you ever read a journalistic story about a major brand’s product launch? That is a list of press releases. A press release is an official statement from a company that delivers new information to journalists or news websites in the case of a significant occurrence.
The goals of a press release are straightforward: getting media attention, increasing brand awareness, or influencing a narrative that the company wants to shift.
Release to the media In the digital age, SEO has become a critical aspect for organisations. But how important are press releases, and how can you write one that is effective? Let’s see what happens.
Check this: Best Press Release Submission sites
History of Press Release SEO
In the beginning, press releases had a lot of value, and businesses got amazing organic results from them. Then, like everything else in digital marketing, press release SEO became overused in ineffective ways.
Businesses began publishing all forms of press releases after realising that acquiring links from top-ranking news websites may help their website rank higher, and the market became oversaturated with them. This includes innocuous or irrelevant press releases for events such as hiring new interns, relocating, and more.
As a result, search engines such as Google began to notice the spam of press releases and penalised websites that had these links. As a result, nofollow URLs are now used exclusively on all Newswire websites for publishing press releases. So, you can still get links on these websites by sending out press releases, but they won’t help your website’s SEO.
Are Press Releases Still Important?
While the links in a press release may not provide many benefits, they are nevertheless quite crucial for businesses. Press release SEO can be quite valuable to organisations, but it must accomplish one of the following goals:
- People are being informed and engaged about a major event in order to urge them to attend.
- Announcing the launch of a new product or service
- Taking control of a bad storey or narrative about your company by getting ahead of it and clarifying your viewpoint.
- Promoting major marketing initiatives or naturally growing brand awareness
If you wish to perform any of the above, press release SEO can be quite beneficial to your company.
How to Draft a Press Release
Find Headlines and News stories
Any news storey with a lot of momentum has a hook. This hook is frequently a headline or a compelling tale that entices people to click on the link and read the content. It’s critical that your headline or storey be not just interesting but also timely.
Getting the attention of the user with a great headline is only half the battle. It’s also crucial to include a tale in your press release. Make sure it’s full of useful information and organically promotes your brand to encourage readers to learn more about your company.
Know Your Target Audience
Release to the media The effectiveness of SEO is determined by how well it is targeted. Because a press release tells people about your company’s accomplishments or services, it’s critical to adapt it to your target audience.
Journalists are the first group in this target audience, therefore your press release may receive some media attention. Then there are your potential customers, who need to learn something interesting about your company in order to engage with it. Always use straightforward language with a clear message that everyone in your target audience can comprehend.
Structure Content for your Readers
Many individuals are unsure what press release submission means in terms of SEO. A press release’s structure is critical to its submission and the amount of engagement it can generate. A press release’s structure and style are geared for journalists. Here’s how to put out a press release:
- Catchy Headline – Make sure your headline catches the attention of your intended audience right away.
- Respond to the 5Ws: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. This will give the readers with all pertinent facts in a succinct and direct manner. Finish with the “How,” which is your brand’s opportunity to shine in the press release.
- Use the inverted pyramid form when creating the press release. In the first part of the article, lay out all of the most significant details. Facts, quotes, and figures should all be included. Add your sources, and once you’ve written the most crucial information, you may fill in the blanks in the rest of the document.
- Finish it off with a quick description of your brand and services. Use this section to put all of the relevant links to your landing pages so that readers may easily access them.
- Total word count should not exceed 700 words. Make your press release as short and sweet as possible. Make use of brief sentences and paragraphs.
- Investigate and Contact Journalists
It’s crucial to do some preliminary research on the journalists you’ll be contacting for the press release. A quick background check will disclose whether or not these individuals write or publish material in your domain. If they do, they are ideal recipients for your press release because they already share information from your domain. It will be your exclusive responsibility to make your content noteworthy so that it can be shared across different sources and media platforms.
Share your Press Release on Different Networks
Because you’ve contacted multiple journalists about your press release, it should be distributed through multiple channels. This increases the authority of your press release and attracts the attention of search engine algorithms. It’s critical to share your press release across multiple networks because it expands the scope of your news and draws in more attention from your target audience.
Press Release SEO Best Practices
Include Keywords
The greatest method to generate some online traction with your press releases is to use keywords. Whatever event you cover in your press release, you should always look for ways to incorporate the most relevant keywords into the material organically.
Keywords can help you naturally reach an audience looking for comparable products or services through SERPs. Look for keywords with a high CTC value as well as a large search volume. To locate the most popular terms in your market, use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs.
Search terms that can be naturally employed in your press release can also be found in the “people also searched” area of Google SERPs.
Do Competitive Analysis
Always keep an eye on how successful your competitors’ press releases are. You can reverse engineer them to use the same keywords and overshadow their links by adding even more relevant content if they’re performing well.
Using tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs, you may even figure out where your competitors acquire their backlinks. This will provide you with a comprehensive list of resources where you may distribute your press releases to stay ahead of the competition.
ALSO READ: How to do SEO Competitor Analysis?
Pick a Catchy Headline
As previously said, the most effective source of organic clicks is a captivating title. Because there is so much stuff available online, readers want to be lured into clicking something. Make a solid first impression by starting with an appealing headline.
Create Useful and Engaging Content
Readers of press releases are impatient and want to get their hands on essential information as quickly as possible. Remove any fluff from your text and keep it short and sweet. To maintain the readers’ attention, provide quotes, figures, and credit resources. This results in an interesting reading experience with helpful content that aids the effectiveness of your press release.
Insert Links Naturally
Linking for the sake of linking is not a good idea. If you decide to include links in your press release, make sure they have a purpose and are naturally integrated into the content. Avoid using keywords as anchor texts in hyperlinks. Use sentences or pertinent terms as your anchor text, directing visitors to a page where they may learn more about the term in question.
Back up with Visuals
Images or pictures are processed and remembered 60,000 times faster than text in the human brain. Visuals can help to communicate crucial bits of information about your press release so that it stays in the minds of readers for longer and has a lasting impression.
Use Long-tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords can drive the most effective organic traffic, with a higher conversion rate. Because these keywords are specialised, they attract visitors who are looking for content of a specific type. They are also the most likely to convert if their requirements are met by the material.
Include a Powerful Call-to-Action
The press release not only informs people about a change in your company, but it also encourages them to act after reading it. After reading your press release, readers should know what they should do. As a result, having a strong call to action is critical.
The goal of your press release should determine your CTA. Before you start writing your CTA, consider the following:
- Is this a press release to promote a product?
- Do you want to increase the number of people who subscribe to your services/newsletters/etc?
- Do you want to increase the number of people that attend an event?
- Do you need more media attention for a product launch?
Create a powerful CTA around the question that is most relevant for your press release once you’ve determined out which of these questions is the most appropriate for your press release.
Time to Make the Perfect Press Release
Now that you’ve learned all of the tips and methods for using press release SEO, it’s time to get to work and write the finest press release possible. Remember to put all of the above into practice, as well as to conduct extensive research on the journalists to whom you want to send your press release.