Give press releases the respect they deserve and reap the SEO benefits
PR pros will be no stranger to the commonly asked question “What quantifiable value will I see from a PR campaign?”. And any up to date PR or marketer will be well aware of the strategic relationship between PR and key digital metrics such as SEO or backlinking. So, let’s get down to the tactical level to answer this. Our blog this week will focus on what value the trusty press release can bring – and its relationship with SEO.
The press release always has, and always will, matter. Every press release has its ‘hidden agenda’ – a new product announcement, followed by a customer win, followed by an analyst report demonstrates market traction. They tell a journalist what you do, who your customers are, what industries you are in, how you grow year on year, (all the things that thought leadership can’t do no matter how clever you are at it). Not only do they help establish journalist and media relationships, but a good pattern of orders, appointments ,and financials instill trust and credibility and increase customer engagement.
Now pair it with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and you have an extremely powerful tool for sharing news and ranking high on the search engines.
So, when is a press release not just a press release? Always!
But crafting the perfect press release with an SEO-driven mindset requires some forethought.
As PR Newswire explains: “SEO press releases are written in a way that gives them a better opportunity to rank well in search engines for specific target keywords. By incorporating these keywords (the words and phrases your audience searches for) into various elements of the press release, properly structuring content and correctly using links to improve the user experience, SEO-focused press releases can help your content go even further.”
Content that actually increases online visibility
When written with SEO in mind, press releases can boost online visibility. Search engines can find, match, index, and rank your press release, so ensuring yours ranks high on Google and other search engines provides enhanced exposure to wider audiences. But its success depends on how you craft it.
At IBA, we’ve written our fair share of press releases, and not one is ever distributed without a hidden agenda. To make a press release SEO friendly, the copy needs to be clear and concise, making sure it doesn’t confuse the reader with complex sentences and elongated words. You want your audience to read it, not sleep on it! Achieve this and the online visibility will pour in. A carefully written press release for our Aerospace and Defense client reaped 14 placements in top publications within the first 48 hours!
PR Newswire highlights, “Search engines and humans both value clarity, so simple, structured content is best. Start with a strong opening paragraph that tells the audience why they should care about your story, followed by supporting details in short, easy-to-read paragraphs or bullet points.”
Don’t binge on keywords
Then remember to add your keywords throughout! Any PR strategy worth its salt should now encompass a focus on keywords for every content format – be that press releases, articles, blogs, or even social posts. That doesn’t just mean adding words for the sake of it.
But we aren’t talking about stuffing content with keywords to the point where it makes no sense. This tactic just infuriates the reader and many savvy journalists have clocked onto this trend in any case. We’re talking about carefully crafted copy that ties a B2B organization to keywords that link to core industry or market themes.
Include visual content!
Never underestimate the use of multimedia to spice up the press release. The best SEO press release examples use multimedia elements, like images, infographics, and videos, which make your press release more engaging and shareable. In fact, the addition of an image or a video can more than double the engagement of the press release. In fact, the addition of multiple images can soar engagement to four times the amount of a text-only press release. This trick is so simple yet effective and will provide a great return on outreaching efforts.
But the power of an SEO-driven press release can go way beyond just visibility.
Backlinks – the power of a click-through
An SEO press release should include one or two relevant links to your website. These could be specific, relevant landing or product pages. Ensuring click-through to your website is a vital part of an SEO-driven press release. You can also add links to your social media pages to encourage additional engagement and shareability.
Backlinking is useless without targeting!
Quality backlinks will only matter if the right people are seeing it, so that includes putting it in front of the humans with a genuine interest in what you’re writing about. Target the publications read by your customers and prospects to build brand awareness through the press release. But it’s important to embed backlinks into the content to provide a clear route for your website to be visited by a highly relevant audience. Add a piece of enticing gated content on the landing page – such as a deep dive industry white paper, market report, or informative webinar – and you may even begin to start capturing extremely targeted leads.
Brand authority signals – credibility will go far for both search engines and media
When it comes to building credibility, press releases do help with SEO because they can increase mentions of your brand across the web, which signals expertise and trustworthiness and improves awareness. Why is this important? Because Google uses E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
As we highlighted in our State of the Press Release blog, “Press releases continue to be a key source of trusted information on company by journalists – they’re the main way journalists can get an understanding of what a company is and how it operates. In the State of the Press release Cision report journalists shared that “maintaining credibility as a trusted news source” is a top challenge. The report cites that “because press releases are sent directly from brands… they provide an antidote to the misinformation spread on an increasing number of online channels” as well as AI generated ‘general’ content.”
All told, the press release continues to be strategic and crucial part of a successful pattern of activity to support a marketing campaign – essential for the PR toolkit that shouldn’t be missed out!
Georgia Harris is PR Lead Themes at IBA International.
