Press release optimization is the process of enhancing your release so that it will be seen by the readers you want to reach, whether they are journalists, editors or online influencers.
By optimizing your press releases for the web, you can get your message out to the widest possible audience and maximize media coverage.
There is a significant opportunity through press release optimization. Prospects are searching for your solutions on search engines, news search engines, news aggregators and blogs.
Today, it is not enough to send your release out on the news wires and post the html version on your site. You must reach online news media and beyond to get the kind of coverage your brand needs to succeed and thrive.
According to a survey by Middleberg/Ross:
• 98% of journalists go online daily
• 92% conduct online article research
• 81% conduct general searches
• 76% are looking for sources or experts
• 73% go online to find press releases
In addition to the media, there is a community of thought leaders, educators, analysts and researchers who do not see your release when you use traditional distribution channels. These valuable influencers get their news from RSS, blogs and news feeds. Your challenge is to reach this expanded audience.
Expand Your Reach
The scope of possible venues for your release is broader than ever before and is growing almost daily. With a well-optimized release you can reach influencers at channels including:
• Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live Search, Ask and more
• News Channels like Google News, Yahoo! News, MSNBC
• Tag-based search engines (social book marking)
• Technorati (tracking 112 million blogs)
• Blogs, many driving up to 500,000 visitors every day
• Hundreds of news feed aggregators
• Thousands of expert sites and subject-specific websites
• Syndicated Internet services (e.g. PRWeb) – searched eight million times a day
There are many reasons to go beyond traditional release distribution. There are five main benefits of optimized press releases:
1. Reach Qualified Influencers. You’ll significantly expand the reach of your press release to a highly qualified and targeted online audience.
2. Get more visibility on the major search engines. Online visibility on Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live Search and other search engines means greater opportunity for meaningful media coverage — online and offline.
3. Gain higher rankings. An optimized press release will obtain immediate links back to your site which will help with the “authority†of your site and improve rankings.
4. Increase company and brand visibility. Optimized releases drive traffic and increase brand awareness for corporate or brand website.
5. Expand your reach. Get more media coverage with online outlets not reached by traditional dissemination services.
Four Steps of Release Optimization
Getting the best results for your release is a four-step process: optimizing, distributing, tracking and archiving.
1. Optimization
Optimize the contents and links of each press release based on relevant keyphrases. This includes the generation of a static HTML version for posting on your main website to enhance your website rankings.
2. Distribution
Select the most appropriate media and news channels and disseminate your release across the best networks to maximize distribution in the most cost-effective manner. This includes the creation of an RSS feed for static sites and submission of the feed to a variety of services in conjunction with PRNewswire and BusinessWire.
3. Tracking
Monitor and measure your release’s success with metrics including feed subscribers, press release circulation, downloads, page views and hard-copy prints of each press release.
4. Archiving
Each time you distribute a well-optimized news release it’s an opportunity for short and long-term gain. Short-term, you can secure top rankings on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Long-term, with an on-going optimization campaign that uses best practices strategy, you create a fully optimized arsenal of releases that provides an archive of information for journalists and thought leaders.
The bottom line is, through effective press release optimization, your company can achieve a significant and measurable increase in brand visibility, web site traffic and sales.
