Get Better Results from Your Press Release: 7 Simple Tips to Consider
Mastering the art of creating and distributing press releases can help you get extensive media coverage for your small business, help you rank higher in the search engines, and drive more traffic to your site. With all the good things you can get from writing an effective press release, you really need to learn everything you can to master this essential skill.
How to Get the Most from Your Press Releases: Some Tips to Consider
Make it newsworthy. Before writing a single line of your press release, you need to make sure that you are sharing something that people would like to learn more of. It should be something that people find interesting, surprising, unusual and/or unexpected. In addition, it should be something that they have not heard of before or something that can solve their problems.
Use the right title. Use the desired keywords in your title. Your headline should not exceed 20 words to ensure its compatibility with search engine results pages (SERPs), Google News, Twitter and other social media sites.
Grab attention right from the start. Keep in mind that the first two sentences after the dateline are critical to the success of your press release. This is the part used in the META description tag as well as in social media sites so make sure it contains the gist of the story. For best results, include the five W?s (who, what, when, where, and why) in the opening line.
Make it short and to the point. The ideal press release should be about 300 to 400 words.? Anything longer than that would not do you any good. Use sub-headings and bullet points to make the information easier to understand.
Use quotes properly. Quotations should be used to provide an insight or opinion, and not to state factual information. The use of quotes provides more credibility and a human touch to your story.
Do some crosslinking. Use your blog and social media accounts to link to your press release but don?t overdo it to avoid having your news deleted. You should also consider adding an infographic to your news release and pin it on your Pinterest board to share it with a wider audience.
Don?t use any anchor links. Google has finally addressed the issue regarding the abusive use of anchor links in press releases in July 2013 by taking down all its SEO benefits. If you need to include anchor links for reasons other than SEO, make sure they add some sort of semantic benefit to the link. Otherwise, use visible URLs.
