Download The Ultimate Guide to Press Release SEO: 2016 Edition for practical tips on improving how your releases rank in search engines. The following article is excerpted from the guide.
Keywords are crucial to getting your message seen by as many people as possible, and getting your release in front of the maximum number of eyeballs — including those of journalists and analysts — requires keyword research as an initial step.
To do that, you’ll need to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and brainstorm a few keyword categories that address the kind of searches they will perform when trying to find news about your company or a related topic. While we’ve provided some helpful strategies for creating keyword categories on your own, you’d be surprised how often your own expectations differ from what consumers are really typing into search bars. Let’s look at some useful tools that take much of the guesswork out of keyword planning.
Autocomplete (Search Assist)
As soon as you type something into almost any search engine, this feature (called Autocomplete for Google and Bing, Search Assist for Yahoo!) will instantly suggest four to ten potential search queries. It provides a quick and easy way to find out what people are searching for that’s related to your company or the story you’re telling.
Google AdWords Keyword Planner
The AdWords Keyword Planner is the industry standard in SEO tools, able to deliver millions of potential keyword combinations with data that is highly accurate and objective. While the platform was designed with marketers in mind, it remains an indispensable tool for all communications professionals.
The Keyword Planner feature of AdWords has two tools that are useful for doing SEO research:
- Search for new keyword and ad group ideas. If you haven’t done your keyword category brainstorming yet, or if you need some more fresh ideas, this will be an incredibly useful tool for you. Type in the keyword ideas you already have to get related keywords, enter your landing page to get keywords specific to your company, and input your industry in order to get crucial “niche” keywords.
- Get search volume for a list of keywords or group them into ad groups
Once you’ve got your long list of keywords, punch them into this tool to see exactly what the search volume is for each. This will allow you to see which keywords are higher priority. If you see something that’s a little awkwardly written but gets a lot of searches, it might be worthwhile to try and work it into your release.
When selecting keyword phrases generated by AdWords, keep in mind that the terms with very high search volumes are commonly entered, but very difficult to win. A crucial part of any keyword strategy is to set realistic goals and expectations, as it’s better to achieve modest success than it is to miss your lofty ambitions and come out with nothing.
Many keywords are simply too popular for you to realistically top the search results for them — others are put out of reach by the Google algorithm. For example, a company that sells “analytics software” may be tempted to optimize and rank for the term “analytics.” However, a quick scan of Google’s results of that search shows that, in an effort to serve users only what it anticipates they’ll want to see, the engine does not include businesses in this space, and it’s therefore not a term worth pursuing.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to create unique content that will appeal to a niche audience. Try to choose fairly industry-specific keywords with moderate search volumes that are related to more coveted, general ones. This method results in what are referred to as nesting doll keywords.
A nesting doll keyword is a long tail keyword that contains other, more general keywords within them. This allows you to maximize the overall SEO value of your press release and score for high-volume keywords that might not otherwise have been worth aiming for.
For instance, it’s much easier to score for “Nasdaq newswire service” than it is for “Newswire service,” but by using the first, you’re able to score for both. The same goes for “Newswire service” and “Newswire.” The lesson here: nesting dolls allow you to make the most out of your limited space on the page.
Google’s Panda Update
Providing relevant, targeted linking within the press release can drive readers deeper into the website, leading them to content that serves their specific needs. This tells Google that your website provides a good user journey and can drive up organic visibility and, in turn, the number of customers on your website. Exactly how highly your release ranks for a given search query depends on how well it anticipates and plays into a given search engine’s ranking algorithm. These algorithms are used to determine how often and on what sites a certain release appears online. Google keeps the number and influence of factors involved in each algorithm highly secretive and often alters them to prevent people from “gaming” the system, but the search engine giant has released a set of “Quality Guidelines” by which you can judge your releases:
- Was the content edited well, or is it sloppy and appear to have been hastily produced?
- Does the content provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
- Does the content contain insightful analysis or interesting information that will engage the audience?
- Are the articles unsubstantial or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
In the past, an important part of what made an optimized press release so valuable was the embedded links that channeled link equity back to the target URLs (e.g., your corporate website). It was a convenient and easy way for optimizers to manufacture authoritative links and inflate the value of their link profile, driving up their rankings. But Panda, an update to Google’s algorithm meant to punish these exploitive tactics, neutralized the impact of those phony links.
That doesn’t mean that the value of optimizing press releases has been eliminated — it’s simply been changed. An engaging, well-optimized release encourages other credible sources to construct their own content based on that release (i.e., write a story about your announcement). This derivative content will also be shared over social networks, and any links established from those sources have potential SEO value.
Get your free copy of The Ultimate Guide to Press Release SEO: 2016 Edition
Allison Gosman is a Marketing Associate supporting Nasdaq Corporate Solutions. She recently graduated from The George Washington University receiving her B.B.A in Marketing. Allison started in Nasdaq’s Global Internship Program and then as a consultant through April 2016. She will be bringing her expertise in social media marketing and event planning to partner with the entire Corporate Solutions team in the development and execution of our social and event marketing initiatives.
ABOUT NASDAQ CORPORATE SOLUTIONS
INVESTOR RELATIONS I PUBLIC RELATIONS I COMMUNICATIONS I BOARD MANAGEMENT
Nasdaq Corporate Solutions helps organizations manage and master the two-way flow of information with their audiences. Around the globe, market leaders rely upon our unmatched suite of advanced technology, analytics and consultative services to maximize the value of their work—from investor relations and corporate governance to public relations and communications.
Nasdaq Corporate Solutions – Public Relations Services
Get everything you need to power your PR programs and spotlight success to your stakeholders from one strategic partner. Global press release distribution and accurate media contacts. Interactive webcasting and multimedia to bring your story to life. Monitoring services to track your coverage, and intelligence to see the big picture.
Follow us on Twitter: @MyCorpSolutions
Follow us on LinkedIn: Nasdaq |INTEL
This communication and the content found by following any link herein are being provided to you by Corporate Solutions, a business of Nasdaq, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, “Nasdaq”), for informational purposes only. Nasdaq makes no representation or warranty with respect to this communication or such content and expressly disclaims any implied warranty under law.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
