Using SEO in Press Releases for Small Business Exposure

At this point in Internet commerce SEO has become one of the number one methods used to market small businesses, websites, and forums. Keyword rich articles are found all over the net, blog posts are often written as spam posts for anchor links, and even medium and large businesses have begun taking advantage of this new form of backlinking.

Quite often it is misused, which makes many people wary of using there backlinks. This is why it is not only crucial to take care in using effective content to host such links, but in finding more creative ways to get them out onto the Internet. Using press releases is a great way to do this legitimately, and have those press releases picked up for mass distribution.

Writing an SEO rich press release with anchored backlinks can be tricky. It is nothing like writing an article, and if you don’t write if effectively it will be removed by it’s host site. You should always be sure to follow all PR distribution website’s guidelines for any piece that is submitted, and follow these tips to make sure they stay up, and get seen:

1. If you do not know how to write a press release, hire a writer who can. All language should be professional and written from a third-party perspective. It should all be relevant to a single piece of news relating to your business.
2. All keywords should mix in well with the subject and content. Do not use the keyword more than a few times in a 500 – 750 word press release, and don’t make it obvious that they are there for SEO.
3. Look for sites that offer you the ability to put a hyperlink into the text with an anchor word. This will cost extra, usually between $10 and $30 per link for most distribution sites. But it is worth it for increasing backlink potential.
4. Make sure that your release is newsworthy. This isn’t an article, and it isn’t a sales page. It should hold enough on it’s own to catch the reader’s interest, and make them feel as though they are reading a piece of news. An example of this is writing about a new, exciting function on a website, not just about the website itself.
5. Use simple, easy to understand language. Industry jargon is a no-no, as you are writing this as a press release for the general public. Do not use terms that will only be understood by people in your industry, as this is not just for them, even if the backlinks are going to be mostly used by that target.
6. Give plenty on contact information. Part of keeping a press release up is giving enough information that it doesn’t come off as a blatant SEO or advertising stunt. Adding in a phone number and address, or even just one of the two, is necessary to show you are a legitimate business. This is true even of small websites that use traffic as a profit builder, rather than products the way traditional small businesses do.

Writing a press release is a fantastic way of gaining exposure for a small business, in and of itself. But if you add in marketing tools for backlinking to the mix, you are sure to boost those benefits even further. Just follow the guidelines above, and you will be writing an effective, SEO rich press release in no time, and reaping the positive publicity.