Traditionally, a press release is written in an
inverted pyramid format, addressing the who, what, when, why, and how at the beginning and then narrowing it down to unimportant information.
The traditional press release was also written for people in news organizations to read and
accept the news for their publications. In the digital age, the humble Press Release is also a
great tool to improve your company’s website ranking on Google. Hence, it is important to write
in a way optimized for the search engine.
Grab attention with the first 250 words
To appeal to both humans and machines, how you start the press release is very important.
Keyword research would suggest the most searched keywords in the topic of your press release.
Use these in the first 250 words.
Keywords are the hooks that help customers find your content. The headline of the press
release should contain your keyword or your key phrase and should not be more than 80
characters long. The first paragraph in a press release is important as it covers the gist of the
news. In the SEO language, this is considered as the meta description. This brief description
should be less than 155 characters.
Follow SEO best practices while uploading the press release onto your website
Use the press release headline as the title tag for the page. The meta description will contain all
the key information about the press release. Ideally the first paragraph. Upload an image with
an ATL attribute containing the keyword.
Add links
Backlinks from websites with high domain authority will improve your SEO ranking. Press
releases are a great way to get these backlinks to your website. However, beware of overlinking.
Add links at the first instance where your keyword appears. Overdoing it will not only make your
content difficult to read for the readers, but Google may also penalize your website for
spamming.
Ensure that information in the press release is newsworthy
All effort to write a press release stems from whether your company has anything newsworthy
to share. What you want to say in the press release should be of interest to your target
audience. Newsworthiness also differs for the target audience of a news publication. You may
have a piece of information that is relevant to industrial manufacturers but not relevant to
general consumers. So, target your news accordingly.
Write engaging content
Think like a journalist while writing a press release. Tell a story, prove your point with data, and
include quotes to build credibility. More people reading your content equals a higher ranking.
If you need help in writing an SEO-friendly press release and ensuring that it is published on
websites with high domain authority, reach out to us. Publsh has worked with more than 100
brands to build their brand credibility through PR.