Press releases are a proven white-hat approach to building inbound links for search engine optimization (SEO) and are considered mandatory for high octane inbound marketing campaigns. Traditional press releases do have traditional media benefits, but this post focuses on the inbound marketing benefits of SEO and social media with press releases. Many organizations push press releases out on the wire anyway. Why not take advantage of the many inbound marketing benefits at the same time?
- When choosing a wire service, go to one of their published releases and hover over a link in the body of the release. While the cursor is hovering over the link a URL should appear in the bottom left-hand corner of the web browser. If the URL doesn’t contain the name of the press release service it is a clean link (see image below). If it contains the name of the wire service the link is a redirected link and packs less SEO punch then a clean link.
- A good online wire service will provide 200+ backlinks per release. Always ask the paid wire how many to expect.
- Go visit some of the wire’s releases. Pay close attention to the number of tweets the releases have (see image below). It’s a good indicator of what type of reach the wire service has in social media. Social media is now a factor in SERP placement.
- It’s a little known secret that tens of thousands of Twitter accounts auto-post from press release wires. If a press release has the keyword phrase in its title or a tag that some twitter accounts subscribe to than it’s possible to get hundreds even thousands of tweets with the press release in it. If this is done and a short URL can be placed in the title of the press release the website it is linked to can get hundreds to thousands of tweets pointing to it.
- All press releases should be assigned a primary keyword phrase. The phrase should coincide with a page on the company's website that is optimized for the press release's primary keyword phrase.
- Press release titles should be no more than 70 characters in length.
- If the press release is 100 to 250 words in length only place one text link, 250 to 400 in length place up to two text links, 400 to 750 in length place three to four text links, 750 to 1000 in length can contain up to five text links. Don’t submit press releases over 1000 words in length.
- Submit an image or logo with your release and name the file using the primary keyword for the release.
- Make sure to publish the press release on the company’s website in the news section or blog 12 to 24 hours prior to submitting it to the wire if the company’s website has a news section or blog.
- If the wire allows for video attachment make sure the video contains the primary keyword phrase in the title.
This list could be longer, but we’ll save the rest for our next white paper on press releases. In the meantime, feel free to add your SEO press release tips as a comment below.
Photo Credit: WalknBoston
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