Do press releases affect SEO results?

Press releases are a way to distribute and announce events to the media. You can use the press release for many things, such as announcing the opening of your company, publicizing a new invention or promoting a new product. Many topics are suitable for writing a press release and sending to the media. 

Originally, press releases have been a self-promotion tool for companies, either to publicize new products/services or to provide corporate information to the media. Although there has been much debate about its usefulness, press releases can also be a good resource to position our company within search engines.

What to target with a press release?

Press releases should meet various criteria so that they have a higher chance of success. One structure is particularly common: After the well-considered heading, the 5W1H-questions are answered and then further, more detailed information is given. Concise, factual and to the point. The information content is also important. Journalists want to be able to get a quick overview in order to decide whether to publish it or not. In order to attract attention, it is important to formulate the press release as interestingly as possible and emphasize the relevance.

Those who deal with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) from a technical point of view will struggle to avoid "optimizing" the titles, meta descriptions and everything else in order to reflect - often even exactly - the search keywords, but these activities can also result in the opposite effect: keyword stuffing and over-optimization will row against your SEO, in content as well as in press releases.

Your aim should be to create your press release as an interesting and valuable content. If a press release isn't considered newsworthy, it can also be bad for the SEO strategy.

How to use press releases for SEO

Press releases play an important role in search engine optimization. It is not about writing press releases that make no sense. But if a communication strategy includes sending press releases frequently, why not optimize them for SEO?

It is true that many times, for those who work in communication or marketing, talking about SEO can cause panic. But don't despair, you don't have to be an SEO expert to optimize the press releases. Taking into account some points, it is easy to write good press releases that will improve the visibility on the internet:

• The title must not exceed 70 characters in addition to including the keyword that you want to position.
• The press release must be at least 300 words long.
• Publish quality press releases, with interesting information and that add value. 
• Keywords: It is about detecting those words with which people are going to search for you on the internet and, at the same time, are related to your website or product. Of course, always with a head, do not abuse the keywords or they will penalize you. Some interesting tools to do this search are the Google Ads Keyword Planner or Google Trends.
• Links: Use both external links that point to third party pages (always related to the product or company), and internal links that point to pages of the website.
• Include a summary of the press release as a spot with two or three keywords and that does not exceed 3 lines in length.
• Include images and multimedia content. Videos are a good resource to keep users on your page longer and thus be valued by Google as a quality website.
• Use social media. It makes it easy for your content to be shared through different social networks and email.
• Last but not least: Choose a good news distribution platform with quality content and traffic.

Let’s not forget: A press release is not a panacea, but it helps a lot to improve the online positioning of a brand.

What are the benefits of press releases to SEO?

The real benefits of a SEO-friendly press release lie in the indirect value it generates. If your press release is useful, unique, original and capable of attracting attention, then it is more likely that a newspaper, magazine or blog will write about it and distribute it through its channels. When this happens, your business will get very high-value links, mentions, citations, buzz, referral traffic, and more - all from several external sources, not just the sites that republish press releases.

The SEO advantages deriving from a good press release are:

• Natural links from external sources 
• Brand visibility
• Brand recognition
• Referral traffic 

Bottom line: Are press releases still beneficial for SEO?

A press release has a “SEO value” and plays an important part of the SEO strategy. But keep in mind that the press release itself represents that value and will be successful, only if it enriches readers, if it leaves something to them. This will lead to its resumption on external sources, bringing backlinks or referral traffic.

From this point of view, help SEO. But remember that you must have something to say. In this regard, here is a handy list that will help you evaluate whether it is worth writing a press release or not:

• Is your content meaningful?
• Is it newsworthy for the press or external editorial sources?
• Can you make a contribution to the content which is interesting for the readers?
• Do you know the best way to send out press releases to the media?

If you answered "Yes" to all of these questions, then continue with your activities without any fear. Only if you answered negatively to the last question, then you are in the right place!

As B2Press | Online PR Service, we bring together content, PR and SEO in press releases. We write SEO-friendly press releases, distribute them via news agencies and segmented media lists, monitor media coverage and report. We offer what you can get from a traditional PR agency as a “service”. No fixed monthly fees or commitments! Use when you need, pay as you go. Select your target country, check our PR packages and get detailed information.