If you should not duplicate data online, then a press release sounds like a bad idea, but is it?
Since many of our SEO plans include a quarterly or monthly press release we get this question from time to time. Many SEO experts say that you need to “rewrite” your articles for different websites. Generally this is a true statement. When robots crawl a site and see that the information is exactly the same on another website it can result in reduced SEO scores. But is this always true?
The answer isn’t so easy. News sites are given a slightly different set of rules. Online magazines like BayBridgeNews.com and BeachStreetNews.com fall under the rules for news sources if they are managed correctly. The trick is that Google, Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go need to recognize that the website is not an expert in one area, but an information source for many areas. This means it needs hundreds or thousands of unrelated articles that link to those coveted expert sites.
The Magic Of the Press Release
Using press releases as part of your SEO Plan can be hugely beneficial if done correctly. The press release should still follow the rules of story selling. A bad press release doesn’t do anything for anyone. Poorly written press releases that don’t clearly explain a story and link an expertise don’t add anything to the SEO plan.
A well written press release that tells a story and links to the expert website in the area of that story is a super secret sauce bonus. Thankfully for us, most SEO companies have no real writing or story telling skills. In SEO, story telling is story selling. There is no two ways about it. A press release is a great way to do that.
It’s about links and expertise.
If you run a pizza shop, and want to get out a great press release, it isn’t as easy as saying “Three Blades pizza is having a two for one pizza special”. That is an ad and there is a big difference.
There needs to be a story, like why the local little league champs came in for your pizza. Maybe a story about finding glyphosate free flour for your dough. Winning the local fair food competition with your gluten free pizza could be another story. All of these stories set up your restaurant in a way that is both compelling and news worthy.
When news sites look at press releases, they usually have an editor that selects what gets published. The editor may or may not edit the story. Ideally you want a slightly longer story they can edit which creates both a news story with back links and unique content for the search engines. This isn’t always an easy task.
All business can use press releases.
Your press release doesn’t need to be a save the day story. It just needs to be something can connects a person similar to your regular customers to your business. Kids that like Pizza for instance. If you owned a clothing store, maybe a story about a young person getting a great job and feeling great in an outfit you put together for them. The possibilities are endless. The limitation is the imagination of your marketing mind. That might be you or someone you hire.
At the end of the day, you should have press releases as part of your SEO plan. A well written press release can appear in hundreds of publications both online and in print if they are well written. When I say well written, I mean a press release that is SEO ready. Your SEO program should be at the core of your press release program, not the other way around. You can’t add a press release and hope it boosts your SEO rankings.
When done right a press release is one of the best values for your marketing dollar out there, but only if done right. If you don’t have a plan that includes a press release program as part of your online marketing, give us a call today and let us help you fix that.
