Modern-day press release distribution owes much of its prowess to what is known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is basically enhancing your content to rank better on popular search engines, including Google. And since press releases rely heavily on digital media distribution, SEO is more crucial for press release marketing and digital marketing than ever before. As such, there is a set of best SEO practices that are very much helpful in making your press release stand out from the absolute sea of content that the internet holds. So, going further in this passage, we’ll look into the eight easy SEO tricks to improve your press releases.

A rudimentary explanation of how SEO and press releases interplay is by describing how SEO works in general. It works in tandem with good content to better rank itself in Google’s search results. For instance, if you search for ‘laptops’, you will get the best-optimised results on the front page, because the second page is apparently Reactor No. 4. Nobody goes there. So, to make sure that your press release stays on top whenever somebody searches for something relevant, SEO is the best tool to make that happen. And just to show that we’re in tune with the times, here are eight easy SEO tricks to improve your press release. 

8 easy SEO tricks to improve your press release

Let’s start on the goody box that is search engine optimization, and find ourselves some easy tricks that’ll help you get those sweet, sweet clicks, impressions, the whole shebang. 

1.Know your product, craft your story

Good content begets a good SEO strategy. In other words, the better the content, the better optimised it will be. This is especially true for press releases; if you know what you intend to achieve with that particular release, you’ll be better able to treat your release as a story, thereby eliciting interest from the people who will eventually interact with that release. If this gets all too technical for you, let us make it simple. 

With every press release, you have a certain angle with which you can start by. The angle with which you relate the story in your press release. We call it a story because if it were to be a monotonous, run-of-the-mill press release, it gets dumped into recycle bins faster than yesterday’s trash. To make your press release stand out, you need to be able to give it a sort of personalised touch, and you can start by treating it as a story, and introduction to whatever it is that you’re touting with your press release.

This isn’t strictly an SEO tip, but remember that good content begets a good SEO strategy. If you’re starting with a disadvantage, there’s not much that SEO is going to be doing for your press release. So, treat it as a story, and craft your story vis-à-vis your product and your intentions of projecting the product with that press release. That is the first of some easy SEO tricks that’ll vastly improve your press release and its subsequent distribution.

3.Don’t forget the keywords!

SEO and SEM are all about keywords. Thorough keyword search allows SEO Management Team to improve organic traffic and results while Google Ads specialists maximize them for optimized content and paid ads placement. In search engine optimization, there’s unlimited keyword opportunity for the team to work on. On the other hand, SEM limits keyword usage based on budget.

Ah yes, keywords. The macaroni in the mac ‘n cheese that is SEO. Keywords are easily one of the most crucial facets of search engine optimization and your press release will need a good helping of those to get itself ranked. So, here’s how the drill goes. 

Researched keywords, or keywords that are industry-related should be used throughout the press release, and should be present in your headline, sub-heading and within the content of the press release, as they help with audience engagement. You see, keywords that are related to the industry will always attract the ideal audience, since they are going to be looking for the exact words that you’ve used as keywords during their search. This is why keyword placement in press release distribution is imperative and crucial.

Lastly, keywords also present a unique challenge; you’re going to want keywords that have a high search volume (people look them up more) with less competitors. These two factors, if and when combined with the relevancy of the keywords within the industry, can turn a simple press release into a force to be reckoned with, boasting improved online visibility and web exposure. 

3.Know your competitors

If you don’t know your enemy, you’re likely to get kicked out of the server for friendly fire violations. And SEO is exactly like Team Deathmatch; you’re basically warring it out with your competitors over keywords and whatnot. Research the competitor; the keywords they use, and use this knowledge to your advantage and edit press releases that emulate them, but more efficiently.    

Another way you can go about undermining your competitor is by learning about backlinking, especially within your competitors. Backlinking is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization, and your press release can definitely benefit from it. By using keywords similar to that of your competitors, by backlinking just like your competitors, you can actually get your press release to rank higher in searches, which will be obviously a major goal of your press release marketing strategy.

What’s more, this is the most direct SEO strategy that can work for your press releases’ benefit. The rest of the tips are all passive; which means that while they are beneficial for the press release, you’re going to require a whole lot of time and a lot of behind-the-scenes processing to get to the actual, desired results. Whereas keyword placement and backlinking is more active and direct; you do it right, and you will have your results delivered in an instant.

4.The real meat-and-potatoes: the headline

While many may argue that this is more relevant to the content side, this is equally useful for SEO tips for improving your press release. Because let’s be fair: this is the era where you would prefer watching a video rather than reading a blog post; and press releases are the epitome of content-driven marketing. And while it does make use of multimedia; including videos and pictures, most of it alludes to content. So, headline does make a big difference in your press release and improving its odds of getting spread effectively. 

So, the first bit is the headline; if the headline isn’t as good as it gets, well, your press release is not going to go any far. Start with a headline that grabs the reader’s attention, and is compelling enough to allow the reader to progress further into the press release. According to statistics you can get off the internet, 80 per cent of all readers never go beyond the headline; which goes to show how much crucial a headline really is in this case; the rest of the 20 per cent are those who find the headline interesting enough to warrant a read further into the body text. 

But there is yet another problem; not all headlines are created equal. A headline that looks interesting to you might not resonate as well with the audience, which raises the question: well, what kind of headline is needed? And the final answer would be: a headline that is relevant, industry-specific and most of all: interesting and engaging. Any one of these elements is missing, and the headline won’t perform at all, jeopardising the entire press release in its wake. So, do take on good authority that a headline is one of the most important aspects of a press release, and for all intents and purposes, a headline that isn’t creative and attracts the reader will spell the doom for your press release.

5.Answer all questions

In press release marketing, SEO and elsewhere, we call this the 5 W’s rule. Answer all questions basically means addressing the what, why, who, why, where and when. This is basically the treasure trove of information that is the most requested online; we know your press release related to the book launch, people now want to know where it is happening, when is it happening, and who’s coming to the event. A rookie mistake in this regard would be to spread this information throughout the press release; this would only allow for more confusion, since scattered information isn’t doing the reader any favours.

Here’s how you can go about balancing the questions and the SEO side of your press release. Start by inserting the preferred keyword in the first paragraph and the headline; this will ensure that the search engine does rank it on the basis of keyword placement. How does answering the questions come into the fray? Well for starters, the more time people spend on your press release reading the content, the more better the search engine if going to rank your press release. And of course, this will only be the case when the reader finds all the relevant information within an easy reach; if it’s isn’t spread out haphazardly and randomly across the whole text, but rather in a single paragraph, that explains everything with ease. 

6.Use content to your advantage

Content is king, and that’s not just limited to words. Basically, anything that is a refreshing sight out of the bulk of words that is in the press release is going to be a winner. Anything from quotations, tables, charts, graphs and whatnot that can be used and is relevant will serve as part of content that helps the press release stay relevant and stay interesting. Plus, its additions like these that will grab the attention of the reader; aside from all the pictures and any other multimedia files in there, anything that is out of the ordinary text and serves as a place where the reader can rest their eyes. Of course, these are not limited to pie charts and graphs, but in a corporate setting, these are some infographics that you can use to set your press release apart from the crowd of content that is there.

7.Include multimedia

Finally, one of the pro moves of press release marketing. Including multimedia is the best thing that you can do for the press release, and this is the exact reason why we can be confident that the modern iteration of press releases is here to stay; because multimedia like videos and images can help the reader or person who interacts with your press release better understand what the release is all about. For instance, let us take the example of a press release that is supposed to notify people about your label that is signing a new artist. You can go about it two ways; you can either pen a text-heavy press release that only the most die-hard fans of the artist are going to read, or you can keep the text light, and instead have your images and videos say it all. This will make the press release a much better tool for disseminating information; instead of people disregarding it for something trivial, the images and the videos will ensure a better representation from the readers of the press release.

Secondly, always include the relevant keywords into the pictures and the general text, as this will help the search engine rank your press release better, allowing for it to be among the first results whenever somebody searches for the keywords. 

8.Forego the olden CTA’s

A call-to-action (CTA) is something that asks the reader to take a specific action after interacting with the press release; the most common and overused CTA would then be ‘Buy now’. While it is the foremost example of a CTA, your press release is not going to convince people to follow up with the recommended action if you just tack on ‘Buy now’ under it. No. Treat your CTA like your headline; know that it is a fine line between your press release and the rest of the press releases that go straight into the spam folder. The better, more personalised and catchy your CTA will be, the more likely the person is to actually follow through with it, instead of just reading it and rolling their eyes over it. 

In a nutshell,

Follow these eight SEO tips to improve your press releases, and you will see the results pouring in in no time.