Everyone understands the importance of SEO for digital marketing. Most marketers also consider press releases as an essential promotion tactic. Yet, only a few combine the two tools to get both visibility and traffic benefits.
Optimizing a press release for search engines like Google is considered PR SEO. The technique arose after the mass transfer of media to digital platforms. If you are new to the term, don’t worry; you’ll find yourself well-informed by the end of this blog.
SEO Public Relations: The New Way for Branding
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the digital tactic of organically obtaining traffic to your website. The technique utilizes content and linking strategies to increase your site’s authority and rank it higher in search engine results.
Did you know that more than 90% of web searches get their answers on the first page of the search engine? Among these, over 27% of people only click on the top result.
SEO can get you all this free traffic, and applying this technique in the public relations sector can assist your ranking more than you can imagine.
Using PR in SEO can direct customers to your website, add to its authority, and improve your search engine ranking. Similarly, using SEO in press releases can help them reach a wider audience. It can enhance PR visibility, its reach, and a better image of your brand.
The Benefits of PR for SEO
SEO works through different methods for online marketing and press releases can be one of them. The two boost each other’s functioning to help your website rank. PR and SEO go hand in hand to increase your brand visibility, making it shine on top.
- Boosts Visibility
A PR with an effective SEO strategy is likely to show up on the internet. When people search for relevant topics, your press releases will pop up on different platforms, thanks to the SEO-focused write-up.
- Better Authority
When more and more authority sites link back to your home site, search engines consider it valuable. Backlinks add authority to your website, which directly improves its ranking.
- Indirect Promotion
Optimized PRs are more discoverable. News and media outlets finding your press release may repost or write articles about it. This way, it indirectly promotes your brand among the masses.
- Builds Reputation
More promotion means more audience. Now, if credible media sources are posting you, it presents your brand as worthy. Also, ranking higher directly translates into an authority site. Eventually, people will know you are trustworthy.
- Media Visibility
When you make connections with journalists, they publish your news on better authority platforms. Media getting back to your site may find your blogs or news interesting and repost them. This further promotes your brand among media and channels.
- Long-Term Promotion
SEO, individually, is a package of long-term benefits. When paired with PRs, it paves the way for long-term visibility and promotion. Compared to paid ads, SEO PR keeps yielding views, traffic, and engagement as long as they are online.
How to Optimize PR for SEO
First, bring up newsworthy content to convert it into a press release. You can swiftly reach your target audience using link-building and content strategy consulting. Let’s take a closer look at how you can optimize your press releases for SEO.
Groundwork
Background research is undoubtedly a crucial step for all digital marketing strategies, including PR. Before writing a press release, search the sources to find relevant information about the topic. See what your competitors are posting. Note the publishing sites, keywords, and content specifications for the well-performing PRs and take inspiration. You must also research their SEO practices, the quality of backlinks, site authority, mentions, and other tactics for more reach.
Perform data-driven research and include facts from credible sources in your content. Journalists love to share news based on figures.
Keyword Research
Keywords are the highly-searched words that people use to buy online. Targeting them in your content can help you rank against those words. The more you use relevant keywords in your PR, the better its chances of appearing in the search results.
Using authentic keyword research tools, you can find high-value keywords related to your press release. Don’t forget to include less competitive, semantic, and long-tail keywords, as they have more chances of getting real customers.
Insert the words naturally throughout the content body, seamlessly mentioning them in the headline and paragraphs. When writing a boilerplate, include keywords related to your services.
Structure Building & Formatting
Today, search engines are smart enough to read through your content and see if it fits the description. The press releases that are well-structured get more recognition from Google. Moreover, formatting also helps in readability, eventually making your news more helpful. The checklist of must-have structuring practices of a PR includes
- A content body of no more than 300-400 words
- An attention-grabbing, compact headline
- The date and location of the event in the first paragraph
- Justified paragraph breaks
- Quote from one or more authoritative personnel
- A relevant and inviting Call-to-Action
- A Boilerplate mentioning 4-5 sentences about your brand
- Contact details for marketing needs
Content Creation & Storytelling
High-quality content is the base of a good PR as well as a good SEO strategy. Sites backlink to news that are well-written and useful. More backlinks are the fuel for better SEO, yielding more authority and better visibility.
The latest research says storytelling is the most important skill (72%) for press releases. So, keep your pieces light, compact, and easily readable.
Answer the 5 Ws (Who, What, When, Where, and Why) in the first paragraph. Double-check grammar and spelling mistakes. Don’t overdo the keywords.
Professional PR writing services provide expert writing and optimization, relieving the burden off your shoulders. Read our complete guide on writing a press release that gets leads:
Suggested Read: A Go-To Guide to Write a Press Release Format in 2024 for Guaranteed Impact.
Link Building
Many marketers still make the mistake of overstuffing hyperlinks. Search engines mark such content as spam these days.
Instead, use limited links only where they feel natural. The anchor text should relate to the linked site or a value keyword. You may also include figures and stats to high authority sites to add value and optimize your PR.
Visuals & Multimedia Insertion
A great press release is informative and visually appealing. PRs with relevant images and videos are proven to get more engagement. Apart from logos and stock images, prefer illustrations, social media posts, explanatory videos, graphs, charts, or screenshots too.
Publishing
The final cherry on the cake is publishing to high-authority platforms. Choosing industry-specific channels and mainstream media must be your priority, as links from them will eventually improve authority to your website.
Get in touch with as many sites as possible per your budget. The best cost-effective way is to mix free and paid publishers for maximum reach.
Tracking the Impact of Your PR SEO Strategy
Your SEO PR strategy is not over yet. The next challenge is up, and that is to check the progress of your doings. Tracking helps you modify steps or plans to see what works better. The following are some of the ways to check the impact of your SEO-focused press releases:
- Website Traffic
If your website shows marked improvement in site ranking or gets more views since your PR was published, it means that the applied SEO strategies are doing their work.
Access the click-through rate (CTR) of your PRs by checking if there’s any increase in your website traffic. You can do so by utilizing data traffic analysis tools. Improved site authority is also a sign of positive results.
- Keywords Ranking
Track the ranking of keywords you targeted in your PR body. See if your press release appears when you search those words. You can utilize third-party assessment tools and Google Search Console to assess if your keyword ranking has improved.
- Publishers & Media Houses Interaction
You get defined media coverage when you publish your press releases on relevant news platforms. Combining all the strategies, track the final media attention you received.
To detect the scope of coverage you gained, simply assess the media mentions and reposts to other publications your PR received. Any inbound leads, interview requests, emails, or journalist connections you made also indicate significant media coverage.
- Social Media Engagements
If sharing to social media was a part of your SEO strategy, which must have been, checking engagement on these platforms can also tell you a lot about your PR’s progress.
Track your social media metrics, including reposts, comments, likes, and shares. The more the numbers, the better the optimization. Comments or customer reviews help you identify the productivity and the areas of improvement.
- Backlinks Progress
Sites linking back to your website play a key role in improving its ranking. Tracking the quality and quantity of these backlinks is necessary to evaluate the progress of PR efforts. You can use backlink monitoring tools to get this exact information.
Check if you are getting do-follow or no-follow links. You can reach out to valuable sites for more backlinking opportunities, boosting your performance further.
Build a Solid Brand Visibility with Press Connect’s PR SEO Services
Traditional press releases are not relevant anymore in this digital era. Your audience is on the internet, and that’s where you should reach out to them. PR SEO is an effective way of getting your digital news over and beyond the digital world.
The team of professionals at Press Connect provides global and regional PR services, keeping the SEO elements in mind. The genius writeup, authority links, and timely analysis elevate your boring news into an interesting topic for search engines, boosting your site ranking and traffic. Get a tailored PR package distributed to 260+ publishers while saving money and enjoying marked results only with Press Connect!
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