3 Tips for SEO-Friendly News Releases

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By Rebecca Chappell, Account Executive

Did you know more than 70 percent of Americans read their news online? Research also shows that 19 out of 20 journalists use search engines or news search engines during the course of their research for a story. So in a galaxy of thousands of possible search results, how can you make your news stand out?

Use keywords

One of the easiest ways to elevate a news release in a search is by the use of keywords or phrases. Choose terms wisely, and limit them. Overuse of keywords risks confusing both the reader and the search engine. A good ratio is three to five per 400-word release. But don’t count your company’s name a keyword. People who are conducting an online search for a company by name already know it exists. Instead, count more generic terms such as “San Diego PR firm.” And don’t overlook the power of a strong headline. It’s your first, and perhaps only, opportunity to grab your audience’s attention!

Integrate Hyperlinks

Also known as anchor text, hyperlinked keywords and phrases allow you to offer readers the option to explore additional information. It’s also a chance for you to direct readers to other relevant pages. For this reason, make sure at least one of your links asks for a call to action. For example, rather than always linking to a homepage, why not provide a link to where a customer could book an overnight stay, make a reservation for dinner, or purchase a product or service?

Include multimedia

You know the old saying: a picture is worth a thousand words. In addition to keywords and anchor text, today’s most effective news releases often contain photos, graphics, video, and more. Apart from helping your release visually stand out from the pack, one major advantage to including multimedia is that search engines index images and video separately from text content. Not quite sure how to embed video into a document? Why not just provide a hyperlink to a video uploaded on YouTube? Bam! Now you’ve got a “multimedia press release.”

Of course there are many other SEO techniques available. It’s when you put them all together that you greatly increase the likelihood that your news will be picked up by media, consumers and search engines. What’s more, an optimized release will rank higher in search results and therefore have a longer shelf life on the Web. Love that!

Don’t Block Your Own Shot

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With newsrooms downsizing and the subsequent workload being shouldered by journalists lucky enough to retain their job, knowing a reporter's pet peeve could mean the difference between your news being covered or disregarded.

Here are a few journo pet peeves that you’ll want to be conscious of.

Sending a press release as an email attachment

As a PR professional, you have to assume every pitch you send is just one of over 250 emails a reporter receives per day. With this volume of emails, the two seconds it takes to open the attachment is two seconds too long and you can bet the house your email will be deleted. What’s more, attachments are known vehicles for viruses and phishing scams. They pose a real threat to everyone, but especially journalists. To increase the odds that your press release will get read, take the minute and a half to copy the text of your press release into the body of an email and format the accompanying image; it’s the golden rule when pitching.

Typos

Typos happen. However, make sure they don’t happen when initiating dialogue with literary professionals. These people spent countless hours, and big bucks, studying and perfecting their use of the English language. Overlooking simple rules – using “then” instead of “than” or mixing up “there” and “they’re,” for example – can be interpreted as careless. If you don’t care enough to get your press release right, why should a journo care to read it? Try thinking of all journalists as the fictional author Hank Moody from Californication, an individual whose personal mission it is to protect the written word. Proofread after you proofread.

Lengthy subject lines

Crafting your subject line can be a real balancing act. The key is to grab a reporter’s attention without your subject line getting cut off in their inbox by their email server. Typically, subject lines should be about 40 characters, including spaces. Write subject lines using the inverted pyramid model, placing less meaningful words, which may be cut off, toward the end. Emphasize the most important information, the attention-grabber, at the beginning of the subject line.

Late Friday pitching

Some argue that there is no best day to pitch journalists. With that said, journalists are people, too, and unless they’re weekend assignment editors for a news station, their weekend starts Friday at 5:01 p.m. It’s easy for journalists to disregard information over the weekend and when they’re cleaning up their inbox Monday morning, including your pitch in the list of highlighted emails destined for the trash folder is even easier. Unless you’re sending your news to a weekend assignment editor or a nightclub’s VIP manager, pitching on a late Friday afternoon should be reserved for breaking news necessitating an immediate release. Do yourself and your client a favor: get the news out earlier in the week and in the morning whenever possible.

Acknowledging these pet peeves won’t guarantee your press releases will get read, but ignoring them pretty much guarantees they won’t.

Size Matters as PR Goes Mobile

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By Grant Wright, (W)right On CEO

Is smaller better? This has been on my mind lately, especially since reading that for the first time smart phone shipments have surpassed PC sales.

According to the analysts at IDC, in the 2010 fourth quarter 101 million smart phones were shipped, a whopping 87 per cent increase from the same quarter a year prior. Meanwhile, only 92 million PCs were shipped with this representing just a 5.5 per cent increase from the same period 2009. On entire year sales, PCs still ruled at 346 million to 302 million smart phones.

But with smart phones increasingly capable for many of the functions that PCs are bought for – surfing the web, checking email - I think the trend is clear. Why lug your PC around (or camera and camcorder for that matter) when you already have much of what you need in your pocket?

From a PR industry standpoint, this has profound implications. ‘Surfing the web’ no longer means just looking up a coffee shop or checking a company’s website in a passive sense, and it no longer means using a computer to do it.

Pew study data from May 2010 found that 38 per cent of US adults who have a mobile device access the Internet with it, up from 25 percent the year prior. Pew also found that 82 per cent of US adults have a mobile device, meaning just more than 31 percent of all US adults use a mobile device to log into the Internet. And what are they doing there? 23 per cent accessed social networks, 20 per cent viewed a video and 11 per cent even contributed to a charity. With cell phone carriers’ push to implement 4G wireless networks throughout the country, these percentages will continue rising.

For example, Verizon’s brand new LTE 4G wireless network launched in December achieves 10 times the speed of their EV-DO 3G network and is already available in about 40 cities and growing – the wireless brakes are off! Stream a two hour hi-def movie to your pocket without annoying buffering? No problem!

So what are the PR implications? Well, like the devastation wrought on traditional print media when consumers could go to their computer and receive richer content faster, consumers are about to be unshackled from their chair and computers when interacting with content.

But here’s the catch – the experience is crammed into about three or four inches of screen. Your favorite artist’s new music video? Chances are increasing that it will be consumed from a four-inch window. Imagine the fourth row of dancers behind Lady Gaga now being a fraction of an inch tall and you get the idea. The great new splashy online ad? Yep, four inch window. And how many screen changes will it take to scroll through a news article? A lot.

“Ah!” you say. “Screens can be bigger!” What about the new iPad or the new Samsung tablet!? Cool, yea, but there’s a limiting factor - the form-factor of the lowly pocket or that cute little purse! Who wants to look like Urkel, all device bulked up? Most guys I know still haven’t figured out where to comfortably carry their wallet. And I just can’t see anything bigger than a smart phone as the grudging must-have accessory in women’s fashion.

And for the argument that people just won’t want to consume multi-media on a tiny device due to the inferior experience, well, that’s what the music industry thought about inferior MP3 files and their inherent quality loss. iTunes seems to be doing just fine, and in the “Price, Quality, Speed – Pick Two” game, quality of multi-media consumption so far seems in a losing battle.

I think history will record that 2011 was another game changing year, when size really came to matter for how good communications should best be adapted for an increasingly tech savvy world.

So is smaller better? It better be.

5 Reasons it Pays to Pitch the Competition

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When I suggest pitching your competitors, you might think I'm talking about pitching them overboard.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but including information on your competitors when you pitch your company/client to the media can be a best practice.

Here are at least five reasons:

1. They will look at your competitors anyhow
Any journalist worth his or her salt is going to dig around to see what other company, venue or event is similar to yours. Save them the time while also putting your competition in context. [TIP: Never say anything distasteful or disparaging about your competition.]

2. You need other examples to show a trend
Trends are newsworthy--they're current and topical, but one company's experience is not evidence of a trend. Go ahead and share data in your pitch like market growth statistics or scientific research to substantiate a trend, but also share examples of other companies or events that prove out your point. If the reporter does the story, typically he or she will lead with your client/company as the primary example. [TIP: It takes three exampeles to support a trend.]

3. Profiles are the exception, not the rule
Journalists occasionally profile companies and leaders, but typically that is a once per publication opportunity, and even in a profile of a successful company or CEO, you'll see the reporter cite examples of similar companies or the experiences of similar executives. If you don't have a stand-out product, service, event or leader to submit for a profile, try positioning your story in terms of trends in your industry (see #2) and seek to be the lead example. [TIP: This is particularly effective in more mature industries or with products or services that are viewed as commodities like financial services.]

4. It enhances your credibility
When journalists see that you've included competitor information in a pitch, the very fact that you acknowledged other companies builds your credibility and shows you understand the information they need to do their job.

5. It works
When I have used this technique, I've had journalists respond telling me how much they appreciated it. Plus, it has produced coverage, and each time, the coverage focused on my client, and the effort and extra work paid off.

It's not always the answer but can be an effective technique when needed.

A Taste of PR and Guitar

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Why is SDSU senior and classical guitarist Pauline France serenading the (W)right On team? Call it a quid pro quo.

I spent the morning of Oct. 29 sharing my passion for PR with Pauline through the "Taste of PR" program organized by the local PRSA New Pros committee. The program matched seasoned professionals as mentors with young, promising professionals just starting their careers. In exchange, after lunch, she rocked our world with a taste of her passion for music.

Pauline was an excellent candidate for this kind of program. She shared in advance what she hoped to get out of the experience so that we could do our best to deliver. And she asked terrific questions. Best of all, she captured the experience in a great blog post of her own. She seems to have taken away some of the key principles of agency life and, possibly even more impressive to this agency president, knows how to use the plural possessive (*swoon*):

"Some of the things I learned at the firm include time management, managing conflicting priorities, managing clients’ expectations and developing PR proposals. A topic that was often brought up was keeping a healthy balance between your personal and professional life, something that Julie does admirably well!"

Not sure where she got the idea I've figured out how to balance the agency with having a life. Let's just say I try...

Having her job shadow me and lunch with Chance Shay, Heather Hinman and I was a pleasure. Kudos to the New Pros committee for this program, and I encourage other agency executives to consider supporting it next year. You'll get as much as you give!

P.S. Shout out to Sandy Young for the push I needed to participate.

Google's first video doodle

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Oh Google! So creative and always pushing the envelope. But also protective. If you click through to YouTube where this video is hosted, you'll see the number of views has been disabled.

Newspaper column born from social network

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Today I helped launch the San Diego Union-Tribune's "Social Media Monday" column in its business section by authoring its first weekly installment. (I shared tips for local businesses trying to grow their following on Twitter.)

But how did I get such an opportunity? After all, authoring a social media column in the market's major news daily is pretty sweet.

The opportunity was all the result of my social network, and I thought it would be fun to show how that worked:

• June 2008: Get on Twitter. Figure out how it works. Make friends.


• March 2009: When Twitter friend @tawnypress in Orange County offers up her ticket to hear @chrisbrogan speak at @bryanelliott's SoCal Action Sports Network event, I go. I enjoy meeting and learning from Chris Brogan as well as hanging out IRL with another OC Twitter friend @kirstenwright. But I also meet @ronploof. Ron is an author, blogger, storyteller, and speaker who helps executives understand the business of new and social media. I stay connected with Ron through Twitter but also subscribe to his blog. Ron shares great insights and advice, which I often ReTweet or post to Facebook to share with my network. It's really good stuff.


• May 2010: Ron suggests I take his place on a social media panel at Cal State Long Beach's Journalism Day since he has a conflict. It's a fun experience, and I enjoy meeting the other folks on the panel including OC Tweeter and blogger @tednguyen. A former Orange County Register reporter, @mcdiana a.k.a. Diana McCabe, is auditing the panel, and we connect after the event on Twitter.


• June 2010: @mcdiana becomes a business editor at the San Diego Union-Tribune, with a focus on the interactive side of the paper's business reporting. We share advice and observations on running in San Diego, among other local tips.

When it's time to kick off her idea for a "Social Media Monday" column, I come to mind. Why? Because in 2009, @tawnypress Tweeted that she had an extra ticket to an event, and I went. Because @kirstenwright Tweeted that she would be there too so I wasn't going alone. Because @ronploof and I connected there and then stayed connected via our shared social networks. This led to a shared mutual respect which resulted in a speaking opportunity that led to a column opportunity.

See how that works? It might sound like a lot of work or a long time to work, but it's just one example of the many great connections and opportunities that social networking activities have produced for me and my business.

If you missed it, here's the column:

How to grow your Twitter network

Welcome to the San Diego Union-Tribune’s first installment of Social Media Monday, a new weekly feature that helps businesses and consumers understand how to use social media tools to their best advantage. This week's tips come from Julie Wright, president of (W)right On Communications, a San Diego public relations agency. She frequently speaks and consults on social media best practices. (Find her on Twitter at @juliewright).

SOCIAL MEDIA MONDAY: Building quality connections

The social networking site Twitter has allowed me to make new connections at a pace that I could not possibly have achieved in person or, as they say on Twitter, IRL (in real life).

This ability to connect with others so easily is a seductive feature of online social
networks, but they are not simply about collecting followers. It’s the quality of your connections that makes your social network valuable...: https://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/sep/26/quality-of-connections-content-can-help-grow-your/