The right news release can go a long way in promoting any company and any story. One of the great things about press releases today is that even if they don't get picked up by a specific reporter, they are great promotional tools that can really boost your business's online reputation.
This is why it is so important to not only make news releases clear, concise and professional looking, but to add a little SEO to these releases as well. Optimizing your news release for search engines is a surefire way to help build a strong online marketing campaign.
However, creating optimized news releases is about more than just adding the right keywords. There is an art to ensuring the release still seems natural and ensuring that your document isn't flagged by search engines. Here are a few of the best ways to make sure your release is well optimized and still professional enough for you to get the media coverage you have been looked for.
Don't Forget About Quotes
Before you ever start writing your news release, you need to make sure that you have the right quotes. This can go a long way in helping your piece get attention and it is great for search engine results as well. A quote should have the following key features:
- It should be less than 100 characters
- It should be brief and to the point
- It should be newsworthy or tweetable
- It should add perspective
- It should include the keyword
If your quote has all of these features then it is truly adding the type of value you are looking for to your press release.
Keep Your Headlines Short
Headlines are a great tool for helping your news release get attention. However, this doesn't mean that you should try to make headlines really long, or stuffed with keywords. Only the first 50-60 characters of a headline are going to appear in search engine results, so they need to be short and sweet. The headline needs to get to the point of the article, entice the reader to give the release a second look and it should include the keyword, if possible. The headline is the hook to get the reader's attention, and this should be the ultimate goal when you write an engaging headline.
Put More Value in Your Sub-Title
The subtitle is a really important area of your release, yet it is one that is overlooked. You can keep your headline shorter by paying more attention to adding information with your sub-title. Let the subtitle expand upon your brief headline by keeping it descriptive yet different from your headline.
Keep It Easy to Read
Just because you are creating a news release, it doesn't mean that your content shouldn't have the same rules as any other type of online content. This means that your release should be broken up into small, digestible and easy-to-read paragraphs.
Keep paragraphs just a few paragraphs long. Use lists when you can and use sub-headers throughout to make sure that your content is easy to skim. After all, readers want to be able to browse through content easily to grab the information they need. The quicker they can read the content, the better, especially with a news release.
Easy SEO tips such as this can actually go a long way in helping any news release get the attention of editors, journalists and search engines alike.