Press Release Checklist

How you write your release is even more important than where it is seen. To get the best results from EON: Enhanced Online News, follow these suggestions.

Identify up to five keywords or a keyword phrase that you wish to emphasize or "optimize for" in the press release.

• Pretend you're creating a Yellow Pages™ listing: What words will people type into the search box when looking for you?
• Ask your web team for search terms used by visitors to your website.
• Use keyword research tools. Free options include Kwmap  and Word Tracker .

Write a headline that is keyword rich and clearly states the theme of your press release.

• The headline becomes the press release's page title in the HTML source code. This is one of the pieces of content that search engines use to index your press release.
• Keep in mind that Google displays only 63 characters of a headline. Google also recommends headlines between 2 and 22 words for optimum visibility.
• You can expand on the press release sub headline and summary, but remember — these generally serve social media sites and search engines may not index them.

Create a first sentence that is keyword-rich and accurately reflects the content of your press release.

• Your first sentence should state the primary message of he press release. What are you trying to communicate? Be clear.

Use keywords and keyword phrases multiple times throughout the release.

• Search engines recognize repetition as a way of knowing which keywords are most important.
• Using the EON Press Release Builder provides keyword density guidance, suggesting how often and where your keywords should be used for the best results.

Hyperlink directly from your keywords and keyword phrases.

• Link to web pages that are relevant and contain the word or phrase from which you are linking.
• Link to your website, to social media-specific sites (your Flickr , Delicious , or YouTube  account, for example), or to other relevant web pages.
• Generally, include one link for every 100 words of your press release.

Include a quote, preferably two quotes, in your release.

• Quotation marks trigger EON's Quotables feature.
• When you have more than one quote, they rotate each time the page refreshes, signaling search engines that fresh content is available and possibly enhancing your visibility.