Writing Press Releases for Search Engine Marketing

Press releases are one of those mystical pieces of self-promotion. Whilst the wily press release hangs around in the shadows, a journalist picks up the content and writes his or her own version of events. Read a story in the press, in a magazine or on the web, and you probably won’t think the idea originally came from the keyboard of a marketer.

If this marketer can get it right though, a press release is a great way of getting publicity. And specifically, the publicity that’s the most effective and the hardest to come by – that of third-party endorsement. Well, third-party endorsement is not strictly true. But, because the journalist is writing an article that’s essentially made up of his or her ‘own’ words, readers will think that it is an independent view on a product of service.

So, what do press releases mean for the world of search engine marketing? Not surprisingly, the internet is an extremely useful medium for distributing marketing messages. Get it to the right places and it’ll be picked up by the websites where people will find your name or see what you do. Of course, this is a great way of promoting a product or service, improving brand recognition, or getting links back into your site.

Play your cards right though, and you can get more than visibility on other websites. For starters, search engines like Google place a great deal of importance on ‘link popularity’ when it comes to rating sites against search terms. Link popularity is the amount of other web pages that link into your site. The more links you have, the better a search engine will rate you.

Also, search engines list news items as readily as they do website pages. Millions of internet users (including journalists) use Yahoo!, Google News and other sites to look for stories and information. These sources are usually updated with fresh content that’s less than 30 days old. So, they will always be a useful resource – and a resource that marketers can make good use of.

What about the press release itself? Well, there have always been rules about writing them. And, whilst the old print-based tips still stand (newsworthy topic, targeted messages, concise wording and important information at the top), there are some new things to think about for distributing on the web. Optimisation is the name of the game – and, in particular, the use of keywords. If someone is trying to find information like yours, you need to second-guess the search terms they might use. Then it’s a case of using these terms to the right levels in headers and body copy.

Distributing press releases is certainly a marketing tactic that’s worth taking notice of. Get it right and you might be surprised at the results. Don’t be surprised when you see your own words in black-and-white, that’s all I’m saying.

Damon Lightley is a search engine marketing consultant at Site Visibility Ltd. Site Visibility is a UK based search engine marketing company that helps clients increase online customer acquisition and retention using search engine optimisation, pay per click and online marketing campaign measurement techniques.

http://www.sitevisibility.co.uk

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