Drafting Press Releases that Maximize SEO

Transcription

1 Drafting Press Releases that Maximize SEO New ways to promote any business on the Internet using press releases created for search marketing. Brian Pasch, CEO PCG Digital Marketing

2 Terms of Use The contents of the document are not to be copied, mailed, transmitted via or altered digitally for any purpose other than to facilitate this seminar. All seminar attendees have permission to print or keep an electronic copy of this presentation in downloadable PDF format for their personal use and reference. Anyone or company interested in reproducing any part of these materials must first contact the author for permission. The logos, screen shots and graphics used in this presentation are the property of the registered companies and permission to use those items must be obtained directly by the rights holder. Date of original publication: 6/15/2009. The screen shots presented in this webinar were taken before June 6, Changes made to individual websites after 6/6/2009 will not be reflected in this presentation. Copyright 2009 PCG Digital Marketing 2

3 Seminar Outline SEO Fundamentals Testing & Measuring : Determining the ROI of your online marketing How does Google, Yahoo and Bing Really Work Dow to Reverse Engineer search listings Effective Marketing with Press Releases Good writing skills are critical for Internet marketing Traditional press releases writing falls short on the Internet Writer have to research what consumers type into the search engines Press Release Writing For the Internet Titles & Teasers Content & Links & Keywords Formatting Measuring the Effectiveness of PR Portals How to choose a PR publishing website? Determining the cost/benefit of PR fees. Are free PR websites effective? Tracking views and clicks on your press releases (Budurl) Press Release Marketing Strategies How to target your competitors How to supercharge your press releases How to leverage PR content on blogs 3

4 Fundamentals: SEO vs. SEM This seminar will focus on the green area of a search results page 4

5 Internet Marketing Opportunities Traditional thinking Supplemental Thinking Own one website. Drive consumers to website via newspaper, , TV and radio. Our press releases are targeted to get into print media SEO Doesn t Increase Sales Twitter? Facebook? What? Own multiple websites and leverage social blogging platforms. Drive consumers to their websites based on content they control. Press releases are targeted to get on Google Page One Without SEO you will be invisible Test & Monitor how to utilize Social Networking tools and platforms to get your message to consumers. 5

6 Internet Press Releases Challenge Solution My website is new or invisible. My website does not have many content pages. I can not add content to my website with a web programmer involved. My press releases don t impact sales or interest. Our marketing budget is very low. Press release website have the rankings and traffic built-in. Press releases represent unlimited content publishing and linking. Press releases can be created and published with no HTML knowledge. Google can be a great driver of new business or calls when press release are formatted properly. Internet press releases can be very inexpensive outside of writing costs. 6

7 Think like a CFO Without measurement tools in place, your hard work will be not be appreciated and funding may be pulled. 7

8 Put on Your SEO Hat SEO Fundamentals 8

9 Testing & Measurement Unique Web Phone Numbers Who s Calling Unique Lead Form Subject Tags Unique Addresses In Press Release On Blog Posts Inside Content Writing Create Specific Landing Pages Google Analytics Webmaster Tools Proprietary Tracking Example: Unique Phone# Unique Lead Tag 9

10 Testing & Measurement How Do The Search Engines Really Work? Google SEO Starter Guide What Matters For Rankings? Domain Name Domain Age Site & Page Architecture Page Content Links Pointing to Website Traffic to Website Frequency of new content being added Press Release Websites win on many of these items. 10

11 Testing & Measurement Reverse Engineering Search Engines Type in a Phrase you want to optimize Look who is on page one Examine: Page Titles Meta Description URL Inbound Links PageRank Score Once you start de-coding the search engines you can become a powerful Internet press release writer. Google example: 11

12 SEO Diagnostic Page Titles Play Doctor with the Site Command Format: site: Example: site: 12

13 Quick Diagnostic: Duplicate Page Titles Duplicate META descriptions META descriptions could be stronger 13

14 Effective Marketing with Press Releases 14

15 Google & Press Releases Press releases and press release icons are getting a good amount of attention in Google SERP 15

16 Website Content - PR Challenges Most web platforms don t have a blogging module installed. Creating additional content pages often requires assistance from your platform vendor The more content you add to your primary website, the wider your search visibility will be. However, all marketing budgets are being cut and good Internet trained writers are hard to find. New content is often the first thing on the chopping block and the LAST thing that should be cut from Internet Marketing. Professionals who can DEMONSTRATE that their writing skills drive traffic to a company website will be funded. 16

17 Press Releases to The Rescue Press release solve the limited content capabilities of most websites. Where traditional press release fall short, Internet press release can provided instant feedback. Press releases can get on Google Page One in hours. Internet press releases give clients measurable results. Press Release costs are scalable to the NET effect you want to accomplish. Press Releases can stay in Google search results for a very long time. 17

18 How To Research Keywords There are many free and paid tools on the market and for most people the free tools are fine. Google Yahoo and MSN all offer free tools for keyword research. Link to Google s Keyword Research Tool Keywords should be prioritized and a checklist created to mark where phrases have been targeted with press releases. 18

19 Press Release Writing for the Internet 19

20 Publicist Training 101 Internet Press Releases are different than traditional press releases. A special focus needs to be on Press Release Titles, Teasers and keyword targets. Don t overstress on creating content, you can often repurpose information that has already been written words is an ideal target for press releases and always include links back to your website, and not just the home page! Develop your Press Release in Word with multiple Titles and Teasers. Good Press Releases = Traffic and Links 20

21 Sample Working Document Create multiple version of your titles Create multiple teasers to go along with the titles Your body should open with your strongest keywords Include 1-2 live links in the body, if allowed, and hyperlink key phrase to go to a good landing page. Use this document to make it easier to post on multiple sites. keep track on where you posted with a note on the bottom of your worksheet. 21

22 Sample Press Release 22

23 Sample Press Release 23

24 Sample Press Release 24

25 Example of Publicist Power 25

26 Measuring the Effectiveness of PR Portals 26

27 PR on a Modest Budget * Some of these services are free and some have small fees associated with publishing a press release that can range from $ $

28 PR Campaigns With a Large Budget

29 budurl allows you to track how many people visit your web pages. Instead of recommending your normal web page (url) in a web post, you will recommend a budurl. You can measure which posts have the best net traffic patterns to your web pages. The advantage over Google Analytics is that you can tag each budurl with a comment to describe the post so its easy to see what is working. Analogy: Color coded tickets to an event can show who sold them. 29

30 BudUrl Example Ford Dealer Example For example, if you write a press release announcing your car service specials, the page link you would normally post would be something like this: If you wanted to track visitors, you would replace this URL with a budurl that would look like this: If you click on both URL s you will see that they take you to the same webpage. The trick is that you can now log into your budurl account and see how many people clicked on your link. Each budurl can have a description CRS help. Application #1: This is also a great way to test interest in cars on Craigslist Application #2: Test Outlook campaigns that are small and outside of your normal CRM based blasts. 30

31 Let s Post a Press Release

32 Repurpose Press Releases Use Free Blogging Platforms Merchant Circle Wordpress Content Delivery Platforms Fast Company Vox Blogger Merchant Circle Example Fast Company Example Wordpress Example 32

33 Press Release Marketing Strategies 33

34 Internet Press Releases Topics Talk About Your Reviews Talk About New Promotions, Sales or Special Events Talk About Industry Tradeshow Participation Detail Specific Products Detail New Services Announce new Clients Publish Opinions on News Try to piggy-back on things that are hot! 34

35 What About Your Reviews? Popular Review Websites Have you setup an IRM process? 35

36 Leveraging PR on Wordpress Blogs Wordpress software is free. It allows anyone to create content for the web with tools as easy as Microsoft Word. The costs can vary but you want to place the site on a good URL, which you may already own. Hosting will run < $100 a year. When setup properly, Google loves to index Wordpress blog pages. Visibility for G37 cars 36

37 Press Releases Help Visibility The combination of: Web Directories Blogging Platforms Press Releases Social Networks Link Building Can create additional listings in Google Search and prevent competitors from pulling customers away from your website. 37

38 Google Search For: Montclair Volvo 3/8/2009 PCG Blog 2 Press Releases Dealer Website MerchantCircle Yellowbot 38

39 Google Search For: BMW Peabody 3/8/2009 Map with Web Link Company Website Spoke Directory PCG Blog Post Yelp Directory Used Car Microsite Press Release Merchant Circle 39

40 Google Search For: Infiniti G37 Arizona 3/8/2009 Press Release Vox Blog Dealer Websites Press Release PCG Blog 40

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42 Automotive Advertising Network The AAN allows car dealers to post their press releases locally and nationally. The website network consists of automotive optimized content which further adds relevance. Press releases provide links as well as SEO Visibility Learn more about the AAN by visiting: ww.automotiveadvertisingnetwork.com 42

43 Link Building Strategies Automated Paid Services Manual Paid Services Actively engaging: Industry Forums Press Releases ** Blogging Video/Photo Galleries Selects sites that will give you the best ROI. Don t build all your links to the home page. Hyperlink the text if your Top Phrases Avoid Sites that use No Follow Identify High Page Rank Website 43

44 Free Internet Links The goal of using these free directories is to: Build quality inbound links Create visibility for top search phrases Leverage their content tools Leverage their review tools Push competitors off SERP s Always signup for the free basic listings. I don t recommend paid listings on the yellow websites for car dealers; it may work some other businesses. Make sure all of these websites have correct information and live web links. Merchant Circle Insider Pages Yelp Judy s Book DMOZ Yahoo Local Spoke YellowPages Yellowbook Yellowbot SuperPages 44

45 Play Detective with the Link Format: link: Example: link: 45

46 Yahoo Link Command The Yahoo link command works better for public sites than the Google link command. 46

47 Free Marketing Tools Bonus Discussion Create Sitemaps and RSS Feeds Get Snapshots of web pages Automated Pings Google SEO Starter Guide Download PDF Booklet 47

48 Post Webinar Questions Brian Pasch, CEO PCG Digital Marketing 45 W River Road Rumson, NJ brian@pcgdigitalmarketing.com office cell