“Content is KING!” We hear this phrase all the time in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) industry.  The reason why content is so important is because the search engines give it high weight in their ranking algorithms. Often times small businesses hear this but don’t quite know how to get ahold of new content to add to their site so that they can rank higher organically (not paid) within search engine results. An easy solution: write and optimize press releases.

Traditionally press releases have been used to alert the media of a happening within an organization, but recently the use of press releases has expanded. They are now being used to add fresh content to websites, build links through submission to news and article sites across the web, keep clients informed of what’s going on with a company by way of RSS feed, and more.

Here are a few key elements you should consider when using a press release to help your SEO efforts:

• Make sure that your Content Management System offers an RSS feed for your news page so that anyone interested can subscribe to your feed and of course share your content (Bayshore Solutions provides an RSS feed in one of our custom modules.)
• Conduct keyword research and include keywords in the body of your release making sure not to over stuff the release and seem “spammy”.
• Post your release on your site.
• Link keywords to relevant pages on your site. Search engines like to see links coming from websites with high page rank, but they also like to see internal links going from one page of your site to the other. So creating links will help with both cases.
• Optimize titles and pictures- make sure to include alt tags with pictures and include keywords in the title for better results.
• Submit your release to a PR distribution network. Some are free, but you can find a huge benefit to submitting to a stronger paid network. These networks distribute releases across the web and also to some offline channels. This will help with organic placement, and will boost company branding efforts.

Creating quality content that is relevant to a user is key in getting a website to rank high in the search engines, and writing press releases is a great way to feed this kind of content to the search engines. When writing press releases it is important to keep in mind that contrary to days of old, you are not just writing for journalists and reporters anymore. Now when you write a press release, you have a huge network of online users to consider. To take advantage of all the Web has to offer, companies must understand what the user is looking for, and what the search engines are looking for.

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