What’s in a Good Press Release?
I thought it would be useful to share some points on writing strong press releases that can be noticed by people and search engines alike. We all need to write them from time to time – to announce a book’s publication, a company milestone, or a new venture. Press releases for the web are very different from the old ones we all used to write for print media, and the copywriter who ignores those fundamental differences does so at his or her peril.
These days, press releases really are targeting the search engines. They need to get seen and get seen quickly. So bear in mind the first adage of good SEO and choose keywords that are specific – and that you can use several times in the press release. Just be sure that you use them naturally: being reader-friendly is as important as being search-friendly.
Take your tongue out of your cheek: search engines don’t “get” jokes, puns, or double meanings. (Neither will most of your email correspondants, but that’s a topic for another day!)
Remember that you’re not just writing for search engines, and make your copy easy to read. Don’t forget to use bold characters, italics, and so on – but leave the multiple exclamation marks and the screamers (words all in capital letters) behind. Press releases are a little classier than that – or, at the very least, should pretend to be.
If you’re trying to choose between one press release and several, go with more. The fresher they are, the better: search engines will let them drift down in the results pages as they age, and you want to keep your news in front of as many people for as long a time as possible. Several times is always better than once.
It’s not voodoo and it’s not magic: good press releases are the result of hard work, inspiration, and knowing a few tricks. And that will keep you … beyond the elements of style!
Posted in Publicity, Tools, About Writing, Words on May 1st, 2007