by Claudia Bruemmer

Wholesalers and manufacturers, as well as importers, dropshippers and distributors can optimize company press releases for branding, increased site traffic and more online sales by creating newsworthy SEO press releases. This article explains how to optimize your press releases (also called news releases) to ensure they are read by journalists, propagated worldwide and gain better search visibility for your site.

Announcing company news is an excellent way to increase traffic while gaining exposure for your company worldwide. You can announce events, new product introductions, company developments, personnel hires and promotions – all kinds of newsworthy content about your company that will travel far and wide in a press release. Your press release can do more than just inform people what’s going on. It can improve your search rankings, inform investors of your company plans, increase site traffic, build website authority, bring in more customers and publicize your company through the media.

You can improve your search rankings with press releases. One thing a well-optimized press release does is accumulate inbound links, which increases your site’s authority. This is important for high rankings on search engines. As your inbound links accumulate, your site will gain higher rankings in the SERPs (search engine results pages). When that happens, you will be found more easily by retail buyers sourcing the merchandise and products you sell. The more links you have, the better your search rankings, and the more traffic to your site. Good site content combined with press release distribution helps build your site’s authority in search engines, resulting in traffic and conversions. A properly written press release directs traffic to your site by building inbound links. To learn more, read on as we describe the major elements of a press release, provide writing tips and offer some useful resources.

Press Release Elements

1. Headline: Your press release must contain an eye-catching headline to grab the media’s attention and give a brief overview of why your story is newsworthy.
2. Media Contact: Provide the name, phone number, email address, mailing address and contact information of the person distributing the release to the media.
3. Dateline: The first line in your first paragraph must contain the release date, your city and your state.
4. Introductory Paragraph: This is your most important paragraph because it might be the only part read by journalists. Give answers to who, what, where, why and when. All key information is given in the beginning with subsequent information following in order of diminishing importance.
5. Body: Provide two or more paragraphs explaining details, statistics, background and other relevant information about your story.
6. Boilerplate: This is a brief paragraph describing the company referred to in the release
7. Close: End your release with the symbol, ###, which signals the end of your release.

The above elements are structural in nature and are important for writing a successful press release. However, the most important element is your ability to write in a powerful, straight-forward style that gets your news across accurately and succinctly. Check out the writing tips below.

Press Release Writing Tips

1. Ensure your news release is newsworthy. Your object is to inform rather than to sell.
2. Identify keywords for use in your release through keyword research tools like Word Tracker (free trial), Trellian Keyword Discovery (free trial) or SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool (free with registration).
3. Grab attention with a strong headline and your first paragraph using relevant keywords in the headline and first paragraph.
4. Write factual information in a natural tone without using too many adjectives.
5. Write in the active voice.
6. Use strong verbs.
7. Avoid hype and exclamation points.
8. Write clearly, concisely and completely. State your facts in as few words as possible.
9. Proofread, spell-check, proofread again. If you have typos, your release will be ignored.

Press Release Resources

1. Help A Reporter is a free daily email service that sends you media queries from 70,000+ bloggers, authors, TV reporters and radio producers. Subscribe to get it in your mailbox. Many types of queries are available, and this is one way to do your own publicity without the expense of a PR agent.
2. Before distributing your press release, check it for strength at PressRelease.Grader. Copy/paste your release in the form and get instant feedback on how well it works along with suggestions for improvement.