Key Places To Place Keywords – Optimizing Press Releases
There are a number of key places to place your most important keyword and/or keyphrases in order for your press release to get discovered by the right journalists. Letís look at the most important place for adding keywords when you post your press release at your site or a press releases distribution service.
The headline
Each headline must have at least one keyword in it to indicate the topic, niche or industry the story is about. This makes is searchable for spiders and bots such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing, and for humans scanning the headlines or using a search box on a site such as a press release distribution service. The keyword should be about the topic, but it can also be a known brand name, like Microsoft of Coke, or a person, such as your name if you are marketing yourself.
The sub-head
The sub-head reinforces the headline, giving more information about what the reader can expect to learn if they continue reading. The sub-head can also be a summary of what the article will be about.
The lead paragraph
The lead paragraph is always the most important, because it will usually contain the most important facts in the press release. When writing a good press release or newspaper article, there are a couple of essential rules to follow.
The first is the 6Ws of journalism:
Who
What
Where
When
Why
How
This is a convenient checklist to make sure that you donít miss out any of the most important details that need to be including in the story. Once they are covered, all of the other material is extra, such as quotes, statistics and so on.
The second important structural guideline for any press release, but particularly the lead paragraph, is the inverted pyramid, or triangle. In this case, the broad base is at the top and the narrow tip is facing downwards.
If we think of the headline as the very first layer of the base or foundation, then the sub-head, then the lead paragraph, we have a solid basis for our story. Again, the other extra information after we have covered the essentials is just an added bonus.
However, it is worth paying attention to the point, for a couple of reasons.
The point
The point of the pyramid reminds us of 2 things in relation to each press release. First, what is the point of it? Why should anyone care about it? The second is the point in creating it in the first place. What do you want to achieve? Is it brand building, getting more email subscribers, or making sales?
The anchor text in links
Depending on the point of the press release, you will be creating links to pages at your site. Donít just use the words ìclick hereî and highlight them. Instead, use important keywords with your link and call to action, that is, what you want them to do once they have read your release.
The names of images
Press releases that include media get more pickups, so include images, with captions, and other kinds of multimedia files. Include your main keyword in every file name.
Keyword your content in all of these places and see what a difference it can make to your media pickups.
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