How To Create A Great Press Release To Boost Your SEO

What is a Press Release

A press release is a brief statement outlining the major facts of a newsworthy story in a formal, journalistic style. It’s mainly created by the public relations department or personnel of an establishment, business or a personal figure to spread positive information that can be quickly picked up by journalists to create a news story.

So, how is press release useful for SEO?

Grab a journalist’s attention

You see, a press release is basically a pitch to the journalists and media.

You’re putting all these good-looking facts and information into a simple press release to present them. So an interested journalist can quickly pick it up and create a news piece out of it.

In fact, the original target audience of a press release is, precisely, the media source and journalists.

A decent press release distribution service will send your press release directly to media sources, greatly increasing the chance of grabbing a journalist’s attention.

Boost your online presence

Press release is a big, bustling industry, thanks to its going digital.

In the old days, press releases were distributed via letters and fax. But now, press releases can be syndicated across hundreds of media sites that host press releases with a couple clicks.

Here’s where it gets interesting for SEO. Content syndication means your press release is quickly getting indexed by search engines again and again, vastly boosting your signal.

That coupled up with a few well-placed links in the content, or even just a simple naked URL for the readers to follow up for more information, means you’re building up an enormous online presence and a varied backlink profile.

Backlink was and still is a part that influences search result page ranking. Take good use of a press release and integrate it as a part of your link building effort to hike up your ranking.

Reputation management

Nowadays, when we need more information on a business or a person, we tend to search about them online.

Sending out a press release means you’re actively taking a step to build your own online reputation. After all, is it easier to talk good things about yourself or asking someone else to talk good things about you?

Your business or personal website can also benefit from a press release. Websites tend to create a media tab that showcases any mentions of their business from established media sites.

A press release works perfectly for that purpose.

How to write a Press Release with SEO in mind

Now that you have an idea of how Press Release can be useful for your SEO, let’s go to the next step and see how to write a Press Release with SEO in mind.

You can, of course, hire someone on Fiverr for 5 dollars to write it for you. But knowing where to look to determine whether it’s neatly written can make your 5 dollars worth it.

1. Choose a newsworthy angle

No matter your reason for creating a press release (get backlinks, boost ranking or self promotion to media sites) you need to keep in mind that a press release is not worthy if it is not newsworthy.

Finding a newsworthy angle to focus for your press release is actually easier than you think.

Here is a list of the most common newsworthy focus for a press release

• New service or product launch
• The start of a sales, promotion or price cut period
• Opening up a new location or an expanded service location
• Showcase your achievements and awards received
• Announcing events launch or charity involvement
• Sharing news about a new hire or a change in the administration
• Announce a rebranding effort, a new logo or a renewed slogan
• Announce a new or renewed business partnership, or signed exclusive contracts

If you’re a new business, announcing your business launch is a great angle to consider.

Since a press release will usually be flushed after a period of time, from 3 to 6 months. You can then follow that up with a press release announcing the opening of your physical store, or official website launch.

A press release can also be about announcing a seasonal sales or promotions, which makes it great to be included in your marketing efforts when you’re pushing for sales during those festive seasons.

Now, if none of the focus listed above applies to your business, there is always that one angle that can work, regardless of the nature of your business.

Announcing a new marketing plan that involves SEO.

Really, it’s that simple! That is basically an angle that is 100% usable for any press release that you’re gonna put out since sending out a press release IS a SEO marketing effort.

2. Craft a descriptive headline

Now that you have your press release angle decided, it needs to be reflected on the headline.

Like all things written, the headline is the first line of contact, and your first chance to get the attention of a reader.

The headline should be packed full of information and facts only, leave the fluffs for something else that is not a press release.

Go straight to the point and let it know the Who, What, Why, When, Where in a glance.

3. A summary that gives a clear overview

The job of a summary is to tell the whole story in only a couple of sentence and make it compelling.

A good summary should do two things, repeat all the information that is already there on the headline, then mention the secondary focus of the press release. The second focus should be a slightly more direct form of self promotion.

The reader should have a good idea on what the press release is about and also know who is the main character of this story, which is your business.

4. Be informative and precise

Now we are reaching the actual content of the press release.

Unlike any other promotional copies, a press release needs to have the least amount of fluff, and that includes connectors, with the most amount of facts.

Your best shot would be to keep thing simple and straight to the point. Stacking up information after information.

Keep the tone neutral, give only positive information and facts that make you look good.

Throw in a quote from someone at the management level, telling the readers what is the cause that your business is working for.

Did you started your business because of your own passion? Or are you striving to be the best business in your niche that best serves your neighborhood, how are you achieving that?

Throwing in a quote from can make your press release looks more sincere and legit. So don’t leave that out.

5. Follow all the rules of writing a press release

I know we use a press release to self promote, and to get links, but trying to self promote too much is just spelling a disaster of a press release.

A lot of different news wires have their own standard and editorial team that keep checks on the quality of a press release. If you don’t follow their writing guidelines, your press release may be rejected and not granted distribution and syndication. Yes, even if you paid.

Be sure to check out the guidelines of the newswire that you’re using, and try to craft your press release following their rules. That will highly increase your chance of a smoother submission process.

Good press releases walk a fine line between excessive self-promotion and dry facts. – How stuff works

Best practices on creating a successful press release

The quality of your press release, correlates to the quality of the newswire service you can enter, and the better your newswire service is, the higher quality and more branded media sites it can distribute your Press Release to.

Which means having a killer press release will be essential in getting those high quality backlinks from site like Yahoo News or even Reuters and NASDAQ.

So let’s see what are some of the best practice that can help you create a killer press release that gives you killer

1. Study the tone of a press release

The most important that differentiates one kind of writing from another is the tone. A press release should have a formal, neutral and hands off tone.

A lot of businesses approaches writing a press release like writing a sales letter. Urging the readers to grab the deal or check out their website. With a lot of over-the-top adjectives, exclamation marks and even marketing slogan.

That kind of at-your-face-ness copy will make your press release looks bad, really really bad.

Keep in mind that the original audience of a press release is the media. You’re writing to journalists, try to channel your inner journalist.

2. Make sure the grammar is correct

Good grammar makes good impression.

That press release is gonna be syndicated on hundreds of websites, baring your company name and your contact info, it’s not gonna look good for your reputation is there’s some glaring grammar or spelling mistakes.

Most media outlets and subsequently the news wires do not offer any option for you to edit the press release after it’s distributed. Once it’s out, it’s out. Period.

So double and triple check your written press release before you send it out. Better yet, ask someone else to double and triple check it again for you.

Make sure everything is perfect. Remember, your reputation is on the line.

3. Be careful when mentioning other business or personnels

Issuing a press release is a really public matter that carries official weights, which is why you want to be very careful when you’re mentioning someone or some other business that you don’t represent.

It might be tempting to put that big recognizable name on your headline to get some attention, but it might end up getting too much attention.

If you used a trademarked name, logo or slogan without asking for permission and got found out, they might contact the news wire and asked for it to be taken down, or worse, they might send you a Cease-and-Desist letter.

Be really careful to not infringe the intellectual properties of others.

This doesn’t only applies for brand names, it also applies to any person. Be it a celebrity, a politician or he might not be a public figure at all. But when you publish a public statement like a press release and put a spotlight on them without their consent, it can bring trouble.

To be safe, do not mention any other business or person that you do not represent.

Industry wide practice you should know

If you’re new to press release, you should set a realistic expectation of the service that you’re getting. Here are some industry wide practice that may be lost in the fine print, so don’t be surprised when things like this happen.

1. Older press releases will be flushed and replaced with new ones

A press release is rarely permanent.

Like any news, the value and relevance will decrease as time passed. That’s why media outlets that host press releases will take down a couple months old press releases and replace them with new ones.

If you decide to check on that press release that you sent out a year ago and find out that you can’t reach the link anymore. Relax, it’s not an error and your newswire is not scamming you, that’s just how it goes in the industry.

The period that a press release is live can range from 1 month to 3 months or even 1 year. It really depends on which media sites it’s hosted. So make sure you are clear about their lifespan to plan on the frequency you need to send a press release out.

2. A press release is syndicated across multiple sites

A press release will be syndicated across hundreds of media or news outlets. So if you search on Google for your brand or the title of the press release, you can see that there are pages after pages of the same piece, the only difference being the website it is hosted.

For the first few days of sending out your press release, you will receive a period of search engine signal boost and might even got featured on Google News, depending on the newswire service you have chosen.

That is the best period to go all out on any outreach or link building strategy because you’ll be benefiting from an amplified search engine signal. So keep those guest posts or contents pumping and you will be flooding the search page with contents linking back to your homepage for your targeted keyword.

So do not be surprised if you see a flooded search result page, it means your newswire has got the job done.

3. You gotta pay more to get on the big sites

There are newswire service that can get your press release to big, reputable websites.

A hundred bucks might get you links from hundreds of press release site, but they might not be recognizable names that you can proudly showcase on your website.

If you dig around, you’ll find that there are newswire that offers press release service to big names sites like Business Insider, NASDAQ, Yahoo News and more. Now, those are some big names that will get a few eyeballs.

Granted, getting a press release on those sites can be expensive like a thousand dollars kind of expensive. And because they are big, iconic brands, they tend to have a much much stricter guideline to control the quality of press release getting in.

If you are willing to pay for the distribution fee, then again pay an excellent writer to write a top quality press release for you, then you can proudly put a “as seen on NASDAQ” banner at ysubpageite.

Getting a press release on big sites like this can increase your chance of getting noticed by a journalist, so make sure that the writing is high quality, that reflects directly to how your brand will be viewed.

4. They are hosted at a specific sub page for press release only

Now, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, remember that a press release is a press release. It’s not a sales letter, it’s not an article, it’s not even a legit news piece created by a journalist. It is just that, a press release.

In the industry, press releases are mostly hosted at a separated sub-page created for the sole purpose of hosting press releases. Links can be no-follow or do-follow, according to how the sites hosting them want to set this up.

So do not expect that your press release will be featured at the homepage of Reuters just because you paid for a press release.

Conclusion

Think of the press release as a booster to supplement your link building, outreach, SEO and overall digital marketing efforts. And also an important part of setting your brand image and tone.

A professionally written press release is a given and brings positive impact on your brand image. A lousy press release is better sent to the recycle bin.

At the end of the day, you need to know that you should not rely your link building efforts on press release alone, understand the value it can bring in the time period and use that to maximize your digital signal boost instead.

Updated: 24 April 2024

About Lo Jia Thong

A polyglot plummeted into the deep blue world of SEO and inbound marketing armed with a burning passion on letters and a fascination on how thing rolls in the world wide web.

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