Distributing a newsworthy article or press release is the most inexpensive but a must method for online brand marketing. There are plenty of free press release aggregators available which has great distribution network. From SEO perspective, a good amount of one way links can be generated quickly and ethically through the press release distribution efforts. Also sometimes, a well written press release ranks top of organic search result even for very competitive keywords.

So, quality of the press release is one of the major factors to get the desired distribution results and great SEO exposure. Here are top five points you should consider to develop a great press release –

1. Make keyword research – You should have the topic and keywords in your mind before you start writing. After picking the topic do some quick keyword research and pick 2 or 3 keywords. If you have already given some keywords you can ignore that step.
2. Keywords in Headline – Try to use your atleast your primary targeted keyword in the headline of the press release. Headline of your press release will actually act as the title tag for most of the published release and is the single most important thing which can influence ranking in SERP.
3. First line or First 200 characters must be catchy – After ensuring to rank your press release higher by placing your targeted keyword in headline – concentrate to write first 150 – 200 characters of the press release body with your keywords and try to make it catchy enough. This part will act as the Meta Description and will appear in SERP as the description of your press release link. Placing your keywords in that part will make those terms in bold when searched and making it catchy will attract searchers to click on your link from the results.
4. Include http:// portion of the URL to make the link clickable in body – There are some major press release aggregators which will not allow making you anchor text links. So try to place atleast one URL reference in your news release and don’t forget to include the http:// part and make that link clickable.
5. Be Newsworthy – At last but not least, try to be newsworthy to make it fit for what it has been intended for.  This will make your release interesting to read and eventually increase approval rate in press release aggregators.

Hope that post would be somewhat helpful to get good outcome from your efforts. For all of the content writers and internet marketers out there – which tips would you add to this list?