Press Release Tip 33

Use keywords in your headline

If you’re writing press releases and publishing them online so people can find them, but you aren’t including in the headline the keywords that people use when they search for the kind of information that’s in your press release, you’re wasting your time.

I’m devoting all of Week #10 to search engine optimization,  including kewords. But this discussion is so important that I’m mentioning it here. You should use keywords in the headline, as long as they sound natural, so people can find your press releases when they search. 

Author and therapist Barbara Bartlein of Milwaukee, Wisconsin wrote a release below as soon as news broke about Jennifer Wilbanks, the 32-year-old Atlanta woman who fled in April 2005, several days before her wedding, and surfaced in New Mexico. Jennifer became known as “The Runaway Bride,” and Barb realized she had a great opportunity to piggyback onto the news.

So she used the headline Runaway Bride–20% of Engaged Couples Call Off The Wedding. Notice the important keywords at the beginning of the headline. The release was so timely that more than three dozen radio stations in the U.S. and Canada called her for interviews—even weeks after the news broke. And because so many people were searching for the keyword phrase “runaway bride” in the search engines, they ended up at Barb’s website, and some of them bought her book “Why Did I Marry You Anyway?–12.5 Strategies for a Happy Marriage.”

Opportunity #33 to write a press release: Holiday events

Write press releases about any holiday events, especially those open to the public. Submit a photo from the previous year’s event along with your press release, and write the caption.

Next: Use simple statistics.

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