How to write a SEO-friendly press release
June 30, 2009
Today it is more important than ever to understand and appreciate the nuances of how authoring content for the web differs from old-school press release and marketing copywriting. Gone are the long and elaborate introductory paragraphs. As search engines treat the information at the beginning of a string (i.e. title or sentence) with greater importance than the copy that follows later, it is critical to be terse and to the point. Get your message across as efficiently as possible and you’ll be sure to reap the benefits of this new thinking. The way in which Twitter has become a real-time search engine further underscores the fact that brevity has its merits.
Mike Kalil recently wrote about this topic over on SEOmoz.org. The following is an excerpt from that post:
Get to the point. Make it clear from the get-go what your release is about. Don’t try to be cute. I used to get releases all the time from PR people who buried the news or tried to get creative with their writing. Sometimes, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what some releases were even about. If you’re looking for a creative outlet, press release writing is not the avenue. Try writing a short story.
At least pretend you’re objective. Obviously, you have a vested interest in what you’re writing about, but it’s still important to craft your releases like down-the-middle news stories. Avoid unnecessary adjectives; most adjectives are unneeded. You don’t want your release to read like an advertisement. Pick out the newsiest element and concentrate on that.
Speak English. I see releases all the time that are stuffed with industry jargon that most people do not understand. Don’t assume that what you’re writing about is a familiar subject for the people who’ll read your release. Dumb it down. Assume your release will be read by the densest guy in the room.
Send it out manually. Instead of just dumping your releases into submission sites and hoping someone important notices, email it yourself to media outlets and bloggers you think might be interested in it. If you’re publicizing a new product, send your release to newspapers in the company’s area. If you can, find out which reporters cover the relevant beat and send it to them directly; that usually only takes a phone call.
Have good timing. If you’re looking for coverage, sending your release out on Election Day or after hours on a Friday is goofy. Those are good times to release bad news you’re obligated to report – any White House spokesman will tell you that – but it’ll do you no good unless your story is wildly sensational. News outlets are typically more desperate for copy during the summer months and around holidays.
Act like a human. Interactivevoices’ post about getting a link from CNN.com – the only PR10 news site – illustrated this perfectly. There’s no harm in picking up the phone and calling reporters directly to see if they’re interested in your story. For all you know, the only thing preventing your news from being published is an over-finicky spam filter.
Don’t beg. When I was working as a reporter, I didn’t realize why some sources were so hellbent on me including links in my stories. Now I know. If your link is relevant to the story, the reporter will probably include it. If not, you’re still getting good publicity.
Of course, all of this will only help if you actually have something worthwhile to say. If you think there’s nothing interesting to say about your enterprise, you’re probably wrong. You just need to think long and hard to figure out what it is.
In the end, content generation is about providing value. Give you audience something they can use and they’ll be sure to be back for more.
Social Media for Realtors
March 16, 2009
Its no news that realtors are looking for innovative ways to generate leads these days. What is different is how they’re able to efficiently leverage technology to achieve their goals and set themselves apart from the competition. As we’ve discussed in the past, merely having a website is hardly enough to make a difference. Furthermore, most realtor websites are merely sub-accounts on their parent-organization’s main site. From a SEO (search engine optimization) perspective, this is troubling in that the individual agents aren’t fully in control of their own site content and are therefore unable to effectively leverage SEO best-practices. In most cases, establishing a web presence outside of the parent organization is crucial to distinguish yourself from the pack.
While plenty of SEO and social media experts will tell you that you need a blog to attract search engines to your content, the reality is that most people do not have the time nor the resources to properly maintain a quality blog that would attract search engine attention. Luckily, there is a simpler solution. Micro-blogging websites such a Twitter are ideal places for realtors to talk about their listings and easily publish links to photos and MLS information. This capability is further extended through the use of mobile devices that can post content on the fly to Twitter (especially with plugin apps for the iPhone, Blackberry and other PDA’s). Once you combine this with the fact that Twitter is FREE and can be automatically linked with a Facebook account, the amount of reach to potential clients expands dramatically.
Another effective, albeit expensive, option is PPC or pay-per-click advertising. Sure Google AdWords can be very effective. The issue comes down to advertising budget. Especially in saturated markets such as the north east, the cost of entry can be prohibitive for individuals. In cases such as these, it may be more effective to pool money in a co-op or through the parent organization as opposed to individually created advertising campaigns.
How to Improve Traffic with Micro-blogging
July 24, 2008
One of the most popular off-shoots of the Web 2.0 space has been the advent of micro-blogging. This capability enables users to post short “updates” (usually no more than 140 characters long) in lieu of lengthy blog posts and has means to share this information within a specific community or the internet at large. While this can be as simple as status updates on the popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, there’s more to it than just that. Micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, Pownce and Plurk take things further and enable users to embed url’s and rich media items (pictures, music, video, etc).
However, just because you have these new capabilities doesn’t mean you’re going to generate SEO gold. You have to know how to author your content properly.
When promoting url’s via micro-blogging, its important to give the link context as concisely as possible without coming across has being spammy. Use these resources to share things that you think others will find useful or entertaining. If you’re promoting a product or service, position the link so that it comes accross as being useful or entertaining to others.
So if you’re going to mention that you really like the content of a particular site, be sure to mention “why” so that your post has context so that Google, Yahoo and the other search engines have something they can sink their crawler’s “teeth” into.
Is Social Networking Right For You?
May 19, 2008
With booming sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, etc., many of my clients have asked for my help in the social networking space. Many are surprised when I suggest that they shouldn’t do anything at all. Sure, its a very powerful area to participate in, and has far-reaching capabilities. The ability to build online communities and manage them from central locations is truly something marvelous. However, to truly take advantage of the benefits that these sites and services offer, it takes time. More specifically, its not enough to just create a MySpace or Facebook profile and say you’re an active participant in the social networking world. Quite simply, you have to live in it and make it a part of your daily routines in order to see the benefit of that space. Nobody wants to see an abandoned MySpace or Facebook profile. No one is going to follow you on Twitter if you never post. No one is going to subscribe to your RSS feeds if you don’t have anything to say. So before you take that leap into the social networking space, consider for a moment if you’re willing to shift the way you work and communicate.
Phaseous Phact: If you want to dive into social networking, designate one person in your company to monitor the pages daily. This is an ideal task for interns!
