Though Google's entrée into the world of officially recognized verbiage was a recent occurrence (it was immortalized in the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English
dictionaries as a verb this past summer), its cyber dominance has been representative of search engines' importance for years now. Thus, given their role in helping people think,
search, process information (the list goes on and on), PR professionals should not overlook the importance of optimizing their press releases for search engine use. But, with so many
words and so little time, what are the best steps in achieving search engine-optimization success?
- Step 1: Keywords are king, so research them: The first - and perhaps most important - step in optimizing a press release is to identify the keywords people are most
likely to use when conducting searches. While it sounds simple, it is often an exercise in self control; it is easy to home in on words or phrases that seem to capture the essence of
the release--especially if the PR professional is particularly proud of a creative turn of phrase--but actually aren't terms that would come to mind during a search.
"If you don't know what people are searching for, you'll think you created a buzzword in the morning, and by the afternoon you'll wonder why no one is searching for it," says Greg
Jarboe, president and co-founder of SEO-PR, a search engine optimization and public relations firm.
The key, then, is not overlooking the obvious. Jarboe cites his work with Southwest Airlines as an example. When writing search engine-optimized press releases, the
company often just used "Southwest" as a keyword--an understandable choice. But, plug "Southwest" into a search engine and you'll come up with page upon page of information about the
southwest region of the United States. Change the keyword(s) to "Southwest Airlines," on the other hand, and the carrier is the first thing to pop up.
If you are unsure of the best keyword choice, there are programs to help. For a fee, Wordtracker will help ensure you reach your target audience; Overture Search
Term Suggestion Tool is a free alternative.
- Step 2: Location, location, location: Once the keywords have been selected, you have to decide where to put them. The Park Place of press releases is the headline, so
it's the most important place to buy real estate. The keyword(s) should also appear in the lead paragraph; in fact, keywords should account for about 2 percent of all the words in
the release (which should not exceed 400).
But Jarboe is quick to point out one common myth in the process of press-release optimization: "It is okay to write a press release and completely disregard keywords, because I can
use keyword metatags before I distribute it on the wires." Wrong. Google News ignores keyword metatags altogether, and Yahoo! News pays little attention. The conclusion?
Put them in the headline (preferably at the beginning, as Google News only displays the first 63 characters) and the lead.
- Step 3: Add links: PR professionals often embed live links into the boilerplate paragraph at the end of the release that describes the company itself. This is fine
if you want to redirect readers straight to your homepage, but the buck stops there in terms of measurement; after all, if there is traffic to the homepage, how do you know where it
came from? Instead, embed a live like to a specific page within the site--preferably the one with the product information being addressed in the release itself. This facilitates
measurement, and it increases the likelihood that the reader will spend more time with the product or service of interest.
- Step 4: Disseminate across wire services that are indexed by Google News, Yahoo! News and AOL News. Then rewrite, rinse, repeat: These are the three most popular news
services, so choosing a wire that isn't indexed by all of them only decrease the number of eyeballs that will be directed to the release. Then, once you've sent out version number
one, write another one with a different lead. This can be useful for (1) covering more content without writing one epic release and (2) appealing to different audiences with slightly
different introductions.
- Step 5: Measure results: The beauty of search engine optimization is how well it lends itself to measurement, so it's a step that should not be overlooked. It is
important to note, though, that you shouldn't only measure the revenue generated by purchased items; also measure the amount of publicity generated by the release. To do this, PR
managers must coordinate with the company's Web master, as the Web analytics software they use is capable of monitoring where traffic is referred from (this also circles back to the
importance of embedding the appropriate links in the release).
CONTACT:
Greg Jarboe, 978.549.9537, [email protected]