Since its inception, the Internet has played an increasingly important role in a PR professional’s communication strategies. Over time, it has developed into a mainstream form of communication. As a result, you now have an interactive, instantaneous tool to convey your message to your key publics.
Of course, to generate online publicity for your organization, you need to get your message in front of your key publics. The first step is posting the information to your organization’s Web site. If investors, reporters, and other important publics visit your site, they will be able to read it.
The second step, however, is one that is commonly overlooked: ensuring that your news releases and other PR documents can be found in search engines. The search engines provide a natural outlet to connect with your target audience. Reporters and other stakeholders use them to find company and industry news – in fact, they are actively looking for it!
Unfortunately, if your news releases are not included in search results, you will miss the opportunity to communicate with them. You may even frustrate users if they are specifically searching for your organization’s information.
Are your news releases being found?
Finding out if your news releases are included in the search engines is an easy task. Simply copy a sentence or two from a release, and paste it (inside quotation marks) into the search box at your favorite search engine, such as Google. If it is indexed, you will get a result similar to this: (Screen shot image)
If you don’t see your news release listed, or if the listing directs you to a site other than your own, you will want to investigate further to find out what is actually happening. However, if you follow these tips, chances are you will have success getting your news releases included in search engine results.
Tips to make sure your new releases are included in search engine results:
Post your news in HTML format. Include a link to a PDF version as a courtesy to people that may wish to download it. To avoid trapping users inside the PDF file, include active hyperlinks back to your Web site (and contact information) on every page of your PDF document.
Check that links to your news releases point to a page in your domain (www.yourcompany.com). If you use a third party to post your information, the links will probably point to their domain. While it doesn’t necessarily mean that your news won’t be indexed, it is better to direct visitors to your own site. This way, you have control over how your message is presented, as well as the opportunity to introduce them to additional information about your company. In addition, if the third party site is not search engine friendly, you will not be able to make the necessary changes to get the releases indexed.
Make sure your news releases are not deep inside your site. This means checking to see how many parameters are in the URL. Search engines have trouble digging more than three to four parameters deep into a site.
If you have followed all of these guidelines and your news releases are still not getting indexed by the search engines, it is time to contact a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist. There are several factors that can stop your news from reaching its intended audience: Web site architecture, code and format. A SEO professional will be able to better determine which of these is causing the problem, as well as provide you with additional tips on how to make sure your key publics find your news releases in the search engines.
Melanie Broemsen, SEO Specialist, The Karcher Group, serves on the IABC District 7 Board. For more information on this topic, contact her at Melanie@thekarchergroup.com or 330.493.6141.