Greg Langston

1. Identify three keywords or phrases that relate to your press release topic. Why is this important? Lets say you are selling coaching software. Not all your buyers will search for 'coaching software' so you need to try and find different keywords (i.e., training software) that the media and/or buyers may use to locate information on coaching software. Doing so results in your release being viewed by more people. A great service to help you identify relevant and high-impact keywords is www.wordtracker.com. I spent three hours there today!

2. Repeat each keyword or phrase at least three times in the body of your 300-word release (the longest you should make a release thats search-engine optimized). Using the keyword or phrase too little or too much can result in a search engine penalizing you by dropping you down in the search results page, or even not listing you at all! Current thinking is that keyword density should be 2-3%.

3. Use the most popular keyword phrase in the headline, which carries the most weight with search engines.

4. Resist the tendency to shorten familiar terms. For example, if you are writing about human resources, you might tend to make the second mention HR. However, people looking in search engines will type in human resources. Repeating it as a keyword phrase will help your release be found, while HR may not.

5. Post your release on your website.