Optimizing PR Article

Search optimizing your PR: Maximum publicity for a minimal investment.

Recently, a publisher for a periodical on homeland defense wanted to generate some buzz about his magazine, while establishing himself as the foremost expert in his field. The upcoming Democratic National Convention provided his opportunity. He posted a press release, and tied it to the convention. The key was ensuring that his release was optimized so that any journalist web searching for topic ideas on the convention would find his subject matter. His press release went out to the world at 10 AM. By 11 AM, he had an interview scheduled with CNN for the next morning. He immediately followed his success with a second press release announcing his interview, thereby establishing the credibility of himself and his publication. What was his total investment for generating global publicity for his small, but growing, publication?

$80 dollars.

The ROI for this kind of publicity is too great to ignore. You can get your release on the main Web news services, such as Google and Yahoo! news, and put it right in front of journalists as they're in the middle of writing a story. When a topical search is performed, your story can appear right along with articles appearing in the New York Times. And your press release can also come up when a consumer is searching for a topic of interest that matches what you're offering. Search Optimized PR is direct, targeted publicity that you can easily generate for your product, service, or your area of expertise-and a far less investment than pay-per-click, or other forms of search engine marketing.

So how do I get started?

The first step of realizing this kind of potential is to tie your press release to a topic of current interest. Use a subject that people are searching for in the news. Something that can transition easily to the real topic that you wish to discuss with your audience. Don’t “bait and switch” by picking a popular topic that has absolutely nothing to do with the real subject matter of your release. That will simply alienate readers, and may even get you press release banned from the major newswire services. Your subject must be on point and align nicely with the product or service you provide.

For example, let’s say you own the firm of R.W. Kleen, fine producer of bathroom disinfectants. Let’s also say that a hot topic in the news is an outbreak of E-Coli among children. You could write PR about how E-Coli is on the rise, and tie it to how your product is approved to kill E-Coli by the FDA. You’ve now kept your press release relevant, topical, and you’ve used it as a vehicle to introduce your product. You’ve created PR that’s sure to be read by a concerned audience that sees your product as a solution to the issue that concerned them.

The next step is to get your press release into the major newswire services on the web. Third-party vendors, such as PRWeb, can help in this endeavor. Sites such as this usually have a very high search engine ranking of their own. (PRWeb refreshes their site optimization once an hour.) By placing your PR on their site, you suddenly get big site search engine rankings for your small company (it’s like obtaining an instant search ranking for your site). And these newswire services have a feed straight into Google and Yahoo! news. If your press release passes the right qualifications (such as the relevancy factor mentioned above), you could find yourself in front of millions of readers. If you need some advice in writing a press release that will qualify for Google or Yahoo!, firms like PRWeb are happy to help.

About that whole writing thing...

So how do you write good PR that delivers a high search ranking? First off, as we have said, it must be relevant, relevant, relevant. In the news business, there is usually a 28-day window of opportunity to keep you story timely and in front of the public eye. After that, it’s back to the drawing board, searching for a new way to tie a current topic of interest into what you want to talk about.

In the first few paragraphs of your release, keep the keyword density high for whatever the topic is that you feel people will be searching for. Normally, the use of acronyms or buzzwords is discouraged in ordinary journalism. But here common “jargon” may be a good thing if you think people will use that jargon to search for your specific topic.

As is the case in all good writing, use an active voice when writing about a timely subject. Keep on point to keep your readers interested in what you have to say. You should come on strong to grab reader interest in your headline and first paragraph. Then use the rest of the release to provide facts and detail. Don’t stray too far from the subject that you know readers are looking for. Avoid hype and sales copy at all costs. The user should feel they are reading news, not a brochure.

Usually 300-600 words will define a tight press release. And that should be plenty if you have thought out the message you want to get across in advance. Spend the time to proofread properly. And always spend the time to write a thoughtful, well-executed release. If you write it in a hurry, it will show.

In your release, be sure to include plenty of links back to your web site, or else provide thorough contact data so that a reader can receive more information directly from you. Provide the email/phone for your PR or Marketing department if you cannot respond to inquiries directly. Receiving a high search engine ranking doesn’t do you any good unless it drives traffic ultimately to where you want them to go.

Give thought to what “category” your PR falls under.

Many newswire services group press releases of similar subject matter into categories. That way, if a major news organization requests all subjects of a business-related nature for a given day, it can be provided easily. You should always start with a broad category, such as business, to ensure you’re capturing as many readers as possible. But then you should always add more specific categories to tighten the focus. Click-through rates increase dramatically when the reader finds your press release under the exact subject they were looking for.

What kind of results can I expect?

92% of journalists perform article research online. 73% are searching specifically for press releases about the topic that they are assigned to cover. 27 million people use the Internet news services each month to find information about a topic that interests them. A large portion of the market is still untapped, waiting for the savvy business professional. By optimizing your PR for the search engines, you can gain search engine ranking without expensive pay-per-click campaigns. And if you use a web-based PR service, you can sometimes piggyback off of their high search rankings to add more muscle to your own site—almost overnight.

Web PR is a new form of promotion based on a tried and tested concept. The desirability of creating news around one’s business has always been a solid method of marketing. But the web is a distribution medium that allows you to put your PR directly on target—in front of an audience that is normally spammed countless times a day. The difference is that you’re catching them when they’re already searching for what you’re offering. And that’s targeted delivery that can make all the difference.