5 Killer SEO Tips On Writing A Social Media Press Release

Social media press releases are once again hot in the world of SEO. When Google introduced their new Google Freshness update, it was a blessing for social media press releases. Why? The new update reward sites that update their content more frequently than the other sites. Certain Businesses submitting press release on sites such as PR Underground are reaping the benefits. I say certain because not everyone submitting a social media press release is using the new update to their benefit.

Here are 5 killer SEO tips if followed correctly, can help you not only get more traffic to your website, but also rank higher for hard to target keywords and obtain more followers on your social networks:

1. 1. Think outside the box – I see many clients submit a social media press release and not think of the SEO benefits. It is no longer just about announcing a product, service or company news. You can now get tons of relevant backlinks, target hard to find keywords and create a fresh link back to your website. With the new Google Freshness Update, the fresher the content on the page that links to you, the more benefit to your site. Social media press releases have fresh content.
   2. Think of your target audience – Make sure your release provides information that is useful and people care about. Think of the audience you are trying to target. Too often I see a release written about a website that offers tons of services or products. The release is usually all over the place because they are not sticking to a specific topic. Concentrate on one specific service, product or topic. For example if you are an auto dealer, don’t make the press release about your dealership, make it about a specific car you sell in your dealership. This tactic will help you narrow down your target audience.
   3. Research keywords – Imagine ranking on Page #1 of Google for under $40.  By adding a keyword phrase in the title of your release, you can achieve first page visibility for that hard to rank phrase. I had a client who wanted to rank on page #1 of Google for the term “New Facebook Timeline Page Layout”. As you can see in the example below, he added the term within the headline of the release. Within 5 minutes of the release going live, he was ranking on the first page of Google and Google News. This was on March 15 and if you do a search for that term, he is still on page #1.

1. 1. Trending Topics – Try to incorporate your release with a trending topic. Google loves anything trending. Use tools such as Google Trends & Google Insights. A few months ago Google and WordPress were trending. I decided to write press release with this title: “Google Loves WordPress: An SEO Dream For Beginners“. Within 24 hours of the release I was ranking #1 on Google for multiple search terms such as Google Loves WordPress and WordPress SEO for Beginners. Something else happened….because it was trending, the search results took the first 7 pages of Google. I had over 50 relevant backlinks within 24 hours.

1. Share, Share, Share – It is called a social media press release for a reason. 80% of users who submit a release do not share it on their social networks. I know it sounds funny doesn’t it? We check every release to see if the client shared it and most of the time they do not share the release on networks such as Facebook & Twitter. Add the release to your website. Send an email campaign with a link to the release. There are so many ways to share and unfortunately most just submit it and do nothing else with it. It’s the difference between 30 pageviews and 5000 pageviews.

Remember that SEO can be very expensive. If you incorporate SEO into your social media press release, it will work very effectively and not be as costly.

What is your toughest challenge when creating a press release?