The following is a guest post by Greg Elwell, founder of B2B Inbound , a San Francisco Bay Area, Certified HubSpot Partner. You can read more from Greg on his B2B Inbound Blog or follow him on Twitter .
News releases can be a magnet to help
improve search engine ranking
for your business website. This alone is reason enough to add a newsroom feature to your website, and publish optimized news releases.
Optimized news releases, much like your other valuable content, revolves around your primary keywords and is bait for search engines and interested readers alike. Your goal is to gain more visibility, and provide useful information to your target audience.
Here are 4 reasons to publish optimized news releases:1. Increase the number of Google indexed pages. Most likely you are aware of the SEO benefits of building your authority and visibility by increasing the number of Google indexed pages on your website. Data shows the more of these pages you have on your website, the more traffic, and inbound links and leads you're likely to attract.
2. Diversify your content strategy. Are you looking for another way to generate more content pages? Having a news release marketing strategy is a great way to diversify and enhance your overall content marketing plan. Don't just think about publishing "Big News." With a little thought, you can generate numerous ideas for creating newsroom articles . The key is to think about what's happening internally and externally with your company that you could create a story around. Perhaps you've launched a new internal training program. Why not tell the story of what led you to develop it and how it will benefit others? B2B companies may especially benefit from publishing news in such a way that positions them as thought-leaders in their industry.
3. Blow your own horn. I like to think in terms of "news release" vs. "press release" even though the terms today are virtually interchangeable. The term, press release reminds me of what I did 10 years ago as a marketer: send news to the press with the hope they'd publish it. Gone are those days. Today, with access to Web 2.0 technologies and an Internet connection, you are the press and your own media outlet. There's no longer a dependency on press reporters, journalists or editors to pick up your news and publish it.
4. Easy to set up and manage. The main components you need to set up an online newsroom on your website are a blog application and RSS Feed. These technologies are readily available and often included in many of today's Content Management Systems. You'll likely want the RSS module on a page called, "News" or "Newsroom." Set it up to display 6-7 news articles with 250 character summaries. The titles of each article and its "Read More" link will take the reader to the full article which is presented on a blog content page. You can check out the B2B Inbound Newsroom as an example.
Does your company have an inbound marketing plan that could benefit from an online newsroom to publish optimized news releases? Give it some thought, I think you'll find it to be an effective strategy to improve search engine ranking - and gain more visitors, links and leads.
Additional information on setting up an online newsroom, creating and publishing optimized news releases can be found by downloading the Newsroom Marketing Kit from B2B Inbound.
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Steve Braund 9:45 AM on August 05, 2010
This is just the approach we adopted shortly after I joined Capula - adding regular news not only helps with SEO, but makes your site dynamic. There is nothing worse than finding a website on the 'net that hasn't been updated for the last three years - it does nothing to inspire confidence in the company itself!
Kumar 10:44 AM on August 05, 2010
I think it makes sense to have a regular news update. It would be much nicer if you have a sub-domain that is specific to news pointing to main site. It builds more link juice and good for SEO.
Monika Maeckle 10:55 AM on August 05, 2010
Greg, we couldn't agree more that press releases are a great tool for SEO! Press releases have vastly expanded their role from media relations. For more on that, you may want to check out our recent white paper on the State of the Press Release.
http://bizwire.pr/stateofpr
Also, a PR Peeps Poll we conducted in June of 2009 showed 56% of 370 polled preferred "press release" while 44% chose "news release." Old habits die hard. ;-)
Monika
Nick Shin 2:15 PM on August 05, 2010
Disclosure: I am the SEM and Social Media Specialist @Marketwire.
Greg, nice article and thanks for the hyperlinks to the other pieces of info. I'll have to check those out as well.
To delve a bit more about why a news release boosts SEO is the deeplinking factor. Most of the time, you are linking a particular page on your website as opposed to the home page. The anchor text used should match the title tag of the destination page, which helps boost SEO.
I personally use "news release" and "press release" interchangeably because there is a big difference in search engine rankings. I agree that the term press release has a bit of an old school feel to it, but you have to keep in mind SEO and SERPs.
HubSpot is the champion of inbound marketing. For an example of what TO DO when sending a news release, HubSpot has got it down pat. Deep link structure, mixture of full URL and anchor texts, calls to action. It's a model of reference for sending a news release to help boost SEO.
Recent example: http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Social-Media-Deadheads-Launch-New-Book-Marketing-Lessons-From-the-Grateful-Dead-1291269.htm
Great job on the article!
Nick @shinng
http://www.facebook.com/marketwire
http://www.twitter.com/marketwire
http://www.marketwireblog.com
Mel 7:37 PM on August 05, 2010
Great tips. Like for all inbound links, I'm sure it's important to use keywords in the links you put in your news release, instead of just including your URL or linking your company name. Is that right, in terms of getting maximum SEO value?
Giant Piggy Bank 2:13 AM on August 06, 2010
hmm... I like the tips, wouldnt of thought of using new releases to boost SEO. Thanks a bunch
Mert 6:47 AM on August 06, 2010
Good tips. Especially the third one:
"There's no longer a dependency on press reporters, journalists or editors to pick up your news and publish it."
I completely agree with you!
Greg Elwell 10:11 AM on August 06, 2010
@Steve - Great point on benefit of publishing news releases on your site to keep it fresh and updated for users.
@Kumar - It might depend on your goals, for most I think a newsroom off main domain (mysite.com/newsroom) is simple and effective for SEO to root domain.
@Monika - Thanks for link to whitepaper, and sharing your poll - not surprised by poll results. We may see this shift over time?
@Nick - Thanks for sharing your insights and adding to the discussion. I strategically use, for SEO purposes, "news release" vs. "press release" in my content. Reason being is it's easier to rank for news vs. press and there's sufficient searches to drive traffic if I can get on first page. Tip for newer sites trying to build traffic, links, SEO authority is to go for less competitive terms - and longer tail terms (3-4 words).
@Mel Yes! Use keyword terms as hyperlink anchor text in the body of your news release that links to an interior page on your site. That linked-to page should have content relative to the keyword. In example from my guest post on HubSpot, the term, "improve search engine ranking" is an example of this. If you're also going to distribute the release through a service like PRWeb, BusinesWire or MarketWire, also be sure to put the full URL in the "About us" section. Some media outlets that pick up the release via syndication will strip out the links associated with anchor text.
Thanks all for your great comments and ideas!
Greg Elwell
B2B Inbound
Bo Kauffmann 8:51 PM on August 06, 2010
Excellent post. I've been using "News Releases" or "Press Releases" for a couple of years. A great free service is found at www.prlog.org.
Its totally free, although they will ad advertisement spots to your press releases.
Herb Lawrence 9:16 AM on August 07, 2010
Thanks Greg good information for us to use and to pass on to our University PR office. We send out a lot of press releases as part of our work with small businesses through our University with varying degrees of success I like being able to take more control and to not be dependent upon local media to decide if we are "newsworthy" Thanks again
yosef 11:48 AM on August 07, 2010
I think it is a beriliant idea and i would defently use it in our website and it will give a much more exposuer for our website and all the think which would be in the pipline for our user to know
Brent Mann 12:48 PM on August 08, 2010
Thanks Pete for the insight those that wished it happened....those that watched it happen....and those that made it happen!! Understanding internet marketing today is one of your Golden keys to successes for your business and your clients businesses...See You @ the Top of Page #1....
Brent Mann
V.P. of Sales & Marketing
http://www.golocaltampabay.com
http://www.kissmarketing.com
727-421-2656 Diect
Steve Shinn 1:35 PM on August 08, 2010
Thanks to everyone for their great input on this topic. I haven't included a news release section to my site yet but your blog and the resulting comments makes it look like it's about time.
Elise Redlin-Cook| Internet Marketing Services 2:02 PM on August 08, 2010
I completely agree that optimized press releases are a great tool to add fresh new content to your site, and when syndicated drive traffic, increase brand awareness and improve search engine ranking. Good post!