Writing Press Releases For SEO

If you're running a business, no matter how small, writing press releases can be one of your most important avenues for marketing. When doing press releases, it's always best to hire a company that specializes in them, as they would be familiar with the details of what makes them work.

Should hiring professionals not be an option (if you're a startup without the budget to spare, for instance), you can always write one yourself. Make sure to follow these guidelines, though, to ensure that your press release gets a chance of actually getting attention.

1. Follow the standard format

Stick to the prescribed format of press releases. That will make it easier for editors and writers to peruse it, while they're deciding on which items to write about. Make sure to include all pertinent contact information, so people can get in touch with you, if needed.

2. Use a powerful headline

With thousands of press releases written on a daily basis, you'll need a powerful headline to make sure yours attract attention. Avoid the usual spates of "New company opens it doors" and "New product out now." Be a bit more creative and craft your headlines to pop out.

3. Never use attachments

Avoid sending attachments with your press releases. If you need to send images, you can point them towards a website containing them. A lot of editors never even open emails with attachments due to the prevalence of trojans and viruses.

4. Clean up your copy

Make sure to run your press release through a good grammar software to keep it clean from easily avoidable mistakes. Few editors will take you seriously if you can't even turn out a mistake-free document.

Ask any self-respecting writer about writing for SEO and you'll most likely notice the disdain on their faces. A lot of writers, especially those used to working in print, find SEO content a bit hard to swallow.

Many search engine experts, in their desire to stuff copies with keywords, go a little overboard with the density. The result is copy that hurts the eyes and makes your ears bleed when you start reading it aloud.

If you're writing material for online, especially search-engine-optimization, purposes, it doesn't mean you have to fashion it into a piss-poor quality document that's totally unpalatable to human readers. With a little work, you can get your SEO in while creating tolerable copy too.

1. Write for your reader too. Sure, you're writing for a machine but you want to write for your reader too. A good idea is to write for people first, then go over the document and start fine-tuning the keyword density and positioning to make it great for SEO too.

2. Use a grammar software. People will still read you document so clean it up and make sure there's not a grammar error between every other punctuation mark.

3. Use difficult SEO-required phrases as headers, titles and section splitters, instead of trying to fit them into the copy. Some words people are searching for just make no sense when used as a sentence (e.g. "no downtime review hosting linux") You can just try to use them in the title of the copy or as section splitters if you can't find a creative way to integrate the exact phrase.

4. Talk to the reader. As with web copywriting best practices, talk to the reader directly, instead of writing with an impersonal tone. Even SEO-intended copy needs to sell with content - how else are you going to make money otherwise?