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Now that you can write releases not only for media gatekeepers but for search gatekeepers, news releases are again a health care PR workhorse.

In the field of health B2B public relations, the way I see it, there are two workhorses: news releases and case studies. Today, I’ll share some opinions about news releases; tomorrow, we’ll move to case studies.

It used to be that news releases were just that: a way to release news about your organization to the news media. But in the age of Google, news releases have another purpose—search optimization. This second purpose can be as important as the first, depending upon your goals as an organization.

A search-optimized news release can help your organization in ways that an unoptimized release can’t. It can bring the content of your release, unfiltered, directly to your audience. It can improve the search optimization of your website. And it can be tracked as a lead generating tool.

To write an search-optimized news release, here are four tips to get you started:

Follow established news writing principles. When you’re writing a news release with the intent to make it search-optimized, you might be tempted to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. Remember: you’re still writing a news release, and your first purpose–to share news with the news media–is still in force. Also remember that if you’re optimizing for search, you’re still writing for the same readership, whether they read your news on your website, on a newswire, or in a third-party publication. The content still needs to be newsworthy: timely, proximal, impactful, novel and with a degree of prominence. It needs to be written in “inverted pyramid” format and answer the essential “who”, “what,” “when,” “where,” “why” and “how” questions. It needs a compelling headline and an informative subhead. And it needs to follow AP style guidelines. The news media have been attracting readers for hundreds of years; don’t think you can ignore their rules now.

Use keywords that match your audience’s interests. The key to any search optimization is to know what your audience is searching for and optimize your content appropriately. If your company is already doing search engine optimization or keyword advertising, find out what keywords are already in focus. Then add them to your news release.

Insert appropriate links. Search engines are all about links, and content that links to other pages improves those page’s search ranks. So you’ll want to link to your homepage and to other pages on your web properties–your corporate site, blogs, social pages, etc.–that are relevant to the content of your news release. Don’t forget to link to sites of partners, especially to sites that you know already link back to you. Linking out to these sites can prompt them to send you back some “link love,” or reciprocate the linking.

Use a newswire. Services such as PRNewswire, BusinessWire and PRWeb can do things with your news release that you probably can’t do on your own. Search engines love these services; use them and your message will show up higher in search results than if you just published your news release on your website. These services all offer ways for you to score your optimization and can give you tips on how to improve your individual news releases. Plus, if you included links to your web properties, a few links from one of these wire sites will improve those sites’ search rankings.

It’s certainly a different world for news releases today than it was 10 years ago. But the deluge of news releases that news media had to deal with everyday was making news releases somewhat irrelevant. Now that you can write releases not only for media gatekeepers but for search gatekeepers, news releases are relevant again.

Photo credit: Francisco Martins (cc)

Read More: http://healthb2bmarketing.com/2010/11/four-tips-for-writing-search-optimized-news-releases/