By Drew Schulthess

Need to convey key brand messages to your target markets and user groups while making your website extremely visible for the search engine terms and concepts driving new business? If the answer is yes, you definitely want to consider executing an SEO press release.

Why SEO Press Releases?

Every month more than 27 million people in the United States are visiting online outlets such as Google News, Yahoo! News and MSN News to find information around their interests.
According to Neilsen/NetRatings, the unique audiences of Yahoo! News and Google News now rival the online audiences of other current events global news destinations such as CNN and the BBC. By optimizing your press releases you are creating a strong presence within the areas in which your prospects frequently visit. Below are some recent numbers related to online news searching;

Use of search engines among the press and public:

128 million American adults go online
-88% use a search engine to find information
-70% get news

54% of American adults go online daily
-31% use search engines
-26% get news

98% of journalists go online daily
-92% for article research
-81% to do searching
-76% to find sources/experts
-73% to find press releases

Advantages of SEO Press Release:

• Generate value adding and highly favored links by Search Engines
• Attain higher keyword rankings
• Reach prospects, leads, customers, bloggers and industry influencers
• Get publicity and targeted traffic
• Target all interested audiences
• Enable tracking for new pickups and coverage

Best Practices for SEO Press Release Creation:

1. Get your SEO in gear and properly extend it–prior to drafting your release you should have identified all of the keywords and search concepts that are valuable traffic generators in the form of a keyword portfolio. If you don’t have a keyword portfolio in place we strongly recommend having one created.

   Using your keyword portfolio you should identify your top 3 “champion” keywords or phrases that are consistently driving leads into your site. Also, you should look for a few words that need a little extra boost, these might be your long-tail keywords or the words that provide solid engagement and could use a jump in the search engines.

2. Get yourself ready in the Social Media sphere–If you haven’t done so already setup some accounts in Digg, Delicious , Reddit etc. Also, look for additional areas you can set up interested groups that are ready to consume news like a Facebook page or group, a LinkedIn group or even Yahoo! answers. All of these areas will help you boost the viral potential of your news.
3. Do a web brainstorm–using the general topic or basis of your release do some related digging online. What are competitors doing? Who is talking about related news? Where is related news appearing?

   Using this information think about how you can start weaving a web around your release by including additional keywords, references or links to examples. Try to imagine if your release was submitted on a stand-alone web page. How could you create ways for people to find it using relevant terms, links and references?

4. Create your release–Using what you have collected within steps 1 and 3 with the contents of your news story will be the keys to success. Below we have shared the exact guidelines and best practices to follow when creating your release:
   • Make sure to use anchor links within your release
   • Keep it newsworthy–don’t try to do to much
   • Add keywords identified in step 1 where possible
   • Use at least one champion keyword in your release headline
   • Make sure keyword density stays appropriate, 8-15% is good
   • Use information collected in step 3 for additional viral opportunities
   • Use targeted landing pages to pay off any long-tail keywords
   • Quote individuals or industry leaders to reinforce and support your story if possible

• Submit and “Viralize–In this last step you will want to distribute your release to all areas that will deliver awareness and engagement with the desired places. We recommend using a wire service like PRNewsire or PRWeb to hit your major targets. Using these services you can pick a number of different distribution options and formats that will work best for your release. In addition to using a wire service we recommend putting together a VIP list of bloggers, media and editorial contacts, friends, and prospects that would be interested in you news.
  As soon as you have submitted your release you should make sure it is up on your website and include a share this toolbar at the bottom so every visitor has the opportunity to bookmark and share your release. Make sure to follow-up to see where you story has been submitted so you track the popularity and share with additional contacts.

We encourage you to contact the MicroArts PR and Internet Marketing team when thinking about doing your next release. We will work with you in following the best practices shared within this post and take a few extra steps to ensure we create the biggest splash for your next piece of news.