PR – The Low-Hanging Fruit of Off-Page SEO Strategies

Social media engagement and other off-page SEO strategies are important in helping to enhance your online presence and authority. One strategy often overlooked, however, is high-value content delivered via free or low-cost through relevant industry websites and PR wire services.

It has been my experience that for best results, press releases should strive for original content and contain important and unique new information about your company’s products or services. Search engines like Google increasingly rely on the quality and relevance of content. Mass-produced press releases with lazy content will likely not yield good SEO results.

For the best results, your press releases should contain relevant and valuable information and be strategically distributed to reach your target audience. Three areas important for the success of any press release include keyword optimization, quality backlinks, quotes, and images.

Including relevant keywords in your press releases can improve the chances of your content being found through search. When your target audience searches for those keywords, your press release may appear in search results.

Don’t limit keywords to your proprietary product names and brands. Think of all the possible general industry names for your product and use them in the press release.

Press releases should contain links to relevant pages, documents, or forms on your website. When reputable news websites link back to your site, it can improve your website's authority by search engines.

Quotes and statements from individuals recognized throughout your industry can improve visibility. Testimonials from users can sometimes work even better.

Original images with descriptions increase the likelihood of your press release being recognized by search engines. Publishers often pay more attention to press releases containing original images.

Strategic Distribution and Timing

Be strategic in your distribution. I have found that publishers relevant to your industry want to be the first to know about your announcements. Give them a heads-up and the first shot at releasing your content information to their readers.

At the second level are the PR wire services. There are many free and paid services available, but one free service I have had good user experience with is PRLog. They offer both free and low-cost premium services for press release distribution to search engines and discounted distribution to journalists and news sites.

Two other good PR wire services include PR Newswire and Business Wire. When choosing a PR wire service, it's important to consider factors such as the service's reach, distribution network, pricing, additional services (such as media monitoring and analytics), and customer support.

The “Ultimate PR Guide to Search Engine Strategy” offers additional tips and explanations for effectively using PR as part of your overall SEO strategy.

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