New Content and Press Releases
- Original content improves on-page SEO
- Press releases bolster off-page SEO
New content and press releases: SEO’s one-two punch
Clients are often confused about press releases and articles, reminding us they don’t care about making the news and they can't be bothered publishing new content – they just want more visitors.
Since we deal with these issues so often, we thought it would be a good idea to discuss them right here.
Why add more content to your web site?
The text that appears on your website is among the most important determinants of its ranking. Since the robots that index web pages can’t see images, it’s the words that matter.
Three of the factors that matter most are:
- Amount of text (300 words per page is better than 50; 50 pages is better than 5)
- Relevance of text (determined by keyword density and positioning)
- Originality of text
Factors 1 and 2 are pretty obvious: the more text that appears, and the more relevant it is to your industry, the higher you’ll rank (all other factors being equal). So even if your site already has plenty of text, more will help. And it will help even further if the text is carefully constructed, making optimal use of key phrases.
The third factor, Originality, often takes clients off guard. Many website have a great deal of content, but it’s largely cut and pasted from other sources (brochures, other web sites, suppliers’ product descriptions, etc.) You’d be surprised at how adept the search engines are at spotting text that’s been copied – in whole or even in part – from other sources. And if they see unoriginal text on your website, you’ll be downgraded. To the search engines, original copy is king.
Adding original, keyword-optimized content to your website – and eliminating all duplicated content – is among the most important steps you can take in improving your search engine rankings.
Why submit press releases?
Though adding original text to your site is a great start, it only deals with half the problem: your on-site optimization. Equally important are the off-site issues, namely getting other websites to link to you.
“Incoming links” are among the most important factors in achieving top search engine rankings. Every time a quality, relevant web site links to you, your website gets a minor bump. The cumulative effect of many incoming links can make the difference between top 3 Google rankings and page 3 Google rankings.
Of course, getting other websites to link to you is one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of SEO. That’s why we have a team of specialists dedicated to this task alone. There is, however, one aspect of link building in which you can play an active role: issuing press releases.
Every time you issue a press release to an online media service, you’re guaranteed at least one quality link to your website (in the initial release itself). But it doesn't end there, because more often than not, other websites will pick up your press release from the media site – complete with the link back to your site – and add it to their own directory of articles. Other sites, in turn, may pick up your article, including your link, from the secondary site… and so on. Depending on the industry you’re in and the quality of your article (particularly its headline), issuing a single press release can result in several high quality links back to your website.
Don’t have any news? Sure you do. Just write an article about one of your products or services, or any topic related to your industry. We’d be pleased to help you think of topics for press releases. And if you don’t have time to write the releases yourself (or if you’re just not a writer), we have a team of copywriters trained in writing SEO press releases.
Combine new content with press releases for utmost performance
The important points to remember are:
- New content is key for on-site optimization
- Press releases are great for improving off-site performance
Together, new content and press releases form a powerful force in improving your organic search engine rankings.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.
