Writing Effective Press Releases That Are Keyword Rich

While the practice of writing keyword rich press releases has been around since 2004, it wasn’t until 2006 that keyword rich press releases became popular. As a result, press release spam and competition for higher rankings has increased dramatically. You can still use SEO in your press releases to attract a lot of attention online, but you have to be careful which news wire services to use and craft a well-written release that includes popular keywords. Your release should give a call to action by including hyperlinks that take readers to a landing page. A landing page that asks for email address will increase your opt-in list. Including offers such as coupons in your release will tempt readers even more. CHOOSING THE RIGHT NEWS WIRE SERVICE There are at least ten major online news wire services that send around 2,000 press releases each day. Researching these services before submitting a release is important for the following reasons: - If the news wire you choose accepts most of the releases sent to them, this means that many of them are spam. The journalists who receive them do not want to read releases that are poorly written or filled with keywords and nothing else. Choose news wire services carefully so your release isn’t mistaken for spam. - News wire services cater to certain groups. While some services are free, others are not. Before spending money to send press releases to the wrong market, search for services that cater to those who will be interested in visiting your web site. Once you have found a new wire service that suits your needs, find out if there are any guidelines you should follow as some services will reject releases if they are not professionally written and if they are not the correct length. WRITING YOUR PRESS RELEASE Press releases are written to tell people about a new product, service, or web site. They should provide accurate information and hold the interest of readers until the end. The average press release is 400-500 words. When writing your release, create a rough draft and include all relevant information. You don’t want your release to sound overly academic, but you don’t want to include slang language, incorrect grammar, or come across as too conversational. After your draft is complete, add keywords. Use free tools from Google or Yahoo to find relevant keywords used for your business. Add the most relevant keyword to your headline. Add four or five other keywords throughout the text. Spread them out and make them sound natural in your release. Adding hyperlinks to your website or landing page will help increase your web ranking and if your release is printed on other websites, people can visit your site easily. Track the results of your release to see how many hits you get from it. If your first release is not a success, choose different keywords for the next one.