Optimizing Press Releases for Search Engines and People

Li Evans has a great post over at Search Engine Gurus where she explains how to not only optimize press releases for search engines, but people as well. Press release submitted online are a good way draw attention to your products and services. They also provide opportunities to increase the amount of inbound links that are pointing to your site. However, as Li explains, "understanding who will find this information intriguing enough to call you to investigate a little more and create a story out of your information is the key to creating successful press releases."

She has the following pointers which I will only summarize here.

Define Your Target Audience - Your target audience is not "everyone."
Create an Interesting Hook - Stop and think about what will make this press release stand out. Why is it newsworthy? Who will care?
Define The Keywords for the Press Release - Keyword research helps you to hone in on reaching that target audience. It helps you to be found in a sea of thousands of other press releases.
Write an Optimized and Intriguing Title - Each press release should have an interesting and intriguing title that will entice the reader to want to click in and read more.
Include an Image with Your Press Release - Including and image that is related to your press release makes the article more appealing than something that just contains all words.
Have an SEO Look at the Press Release - A fresh set of eyes, that are specifically trained in helping content to be optimized for the subject matter it should be found under can go a long way in helping your press release be found in the search engines. A sales plug - we can help you with that. ;)
Decide Your Distribution Channel - Believe it or not, blasting your press release out on services like PR Newswire or PR Web may not always be the best course of action to take when distributing you press release.