Listen up, kids. It was a grim and archaic time before the days of “The Google.”
Over the holidays, I was reminiscing about the days of looking things up in actual encyclopedias or, even more tragically, having to sit through an entire movie without the ability to pause and search for where we had seen “that guy from that show we saw that one time.”
The fact is, search engines are critical – not just for researching supporting actors in Hallmark Christmas movies but for making sure your press release and your business in general is easy to find online.
Below are some best practices to consider when developing an announcement that can help ensure better search engine optimization.
Consider keyword quality versus quantity. Search engines are dramatically more intelligent than they were 20 years ago – packing a press release with keywords doesn’t ensure better search engine placement. It makes the text cumbersome and difficult to read (at best), turning it into inauthentic spam (at worst). Further, over-reliance on keywords can even get a website banned or penalized from search engine rankings.
In a fantastic article about keyword density, Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers notes that keywords will always matter to an extent, however “as search engines have become more sophisticated, they have started putting far less emphasis on specific keywords, and more emphasis on the meaning or intent behind those keywords.” DeMers uses the example that by using the phrase “wedding cake” on a page, it’s possible that it could be ranked for “bridal bakery,” despite never using those specific words on the page.
Remember your target audience is human (we hope), so you should write your announcement the way that actual humans speak and read, rather than for search engine algorithms. Reusing a keyword or phrase in 20 different ways through a press release is irritating and off-putting; readers will see through it and likely not search for your content a second time.
Likewise, consider the phrases and words that your target (again, human) audience might use when searching for your announcement (or company/product). Those terms have also gotten more conversational and contextual.
Update, refresh and make over your keywords. It’s also important to continually be researching new keywords for your press releases and other online content. The tech industry is constantly creating new products and categories, which leads to new terminology, keywords and hashtags for your related content. Julian Connors, in an article for Search Engine Land, suggests using resources such as Soovle and Google Keyword Planner to identify new keywords that your target audiences might use “when searching for products or services your brand offers.”
Keep your hashtags fresh as well, since tweets appear in Google’s search results thanks to a 2015 partnership between Google and Twitter. Columnist Neil Patel, in writing about the partnership, noted that “Google is about all about information — and preferably timely information. Twitter gets timely. Users aren’t satisfied with the information that is four hours old. They want information that is four seconds fresh.”
It takes a village: Support your news with original content and resources. Keywords are important, but consider them as only one part of the equation in getting your announcement ranked and posted on search engines.
When writing your press release, provide links to external sources such as analyst firms, industry reports or supporting articles. Leveraging third-party perspectives and linking to additional resources makes your release more credible. As Maureen Jann writes in her article, “How to Apply SEO Best Practices to the News Release,” “High quality backlinks from respected news outlets are looked at by search engines as part of the scoring module which helps them rank the trustworthiness and authority of your site, and ultimately your viability as a business.”
DeMers also offers this sound advice: “Instead of spending your time thinking about how to strategically incorporate keywords, focus on covering a variety of subtopics while providing the best possible value for your readers. When you write excellent content that does the best possible job covering your topic, that’s the key to high rankings.”
To this end, create a landing page for your press release that incorporates additional resources such as video, photos, infographics, white papers and product sheets. Link to a post on the corporate blog providing some colorful commentary about the news beyond what was included in the official press release. Having a range of supporting materials and resources posted online helps with search, and it also benefits reporters and bloggers looking to cover your news by giving them a convenient and easy way to find information about your company and its new announcements.
I hope these tips are helpful as you continue building your PR and SEO strategies in the year ahead. Are there other tips you would include that have helped your business with search engine rankings? We’d love to hear about them!