A Checklist for Search Engine Optimization
A checklist for search engine optimization from Joan the Publicity Hound [www.publicityhound.com]
Here's a quick checklist of how to optimize your press releases for the search engines.
1. Identify your key audience for the press release. In other words, who do you
want to reach? Jewelry consumers? Fashion Editors? Lifestyle Writers?
2. Do keyword research. Determine up to three keywords or keyword phrases
that those people use to find information that's within the press release.
You will optimize the release for no more than three. Use the free
Overture tool [http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/]
to learn if certain variations of the keywords you've chosen are searched on more often. If they are, consider using those variations instead of the ones you chose.
3. But what about keywords you haven't thought of? If you're serious about
search engine optimization, buy a program like Wordtracker [www.wordtracker.com]. It helps you find all keyword combinations that bear any relation to your business, service or product--many of which you might never have considered.
4. Write the release and include keywords at the beginning of the headline.
5. Place keywords in the sub-head just under the headline.
6. Also place keywords in any sub-heads within the body of the press release.
7. Sprinkle sub-heads throughout the copy so the search engines can see there's a theme to the entire release.
8. Aim for a keyword density of 2 to 8 percent. Use the Live Keyword Analysis
which will automatically calculate your keyword density ratio. If the ratio
doesn't fall within those guidelines, add or remove keywords until it does.
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