In these Internet fueled times, nearly everyone has to evolve. The good ol’ press release is no exception. On the web, writing a stagnant press release just doesn’t cut the mustard. Instead, the SEO press release is much more dynamic. Not only does it get the word out, it can also call to action and even help your business in unexpected ways, such as boosting your website’s SEO.

If you’d like to tackle one of these press releases, there are a few ways that an SEO press release differs from a traditional press release:

Research

While most suggest starting with the body of the press release first, I actually think that’s jumping the gun a bit. Why? Because SEO press releases rely heavily on keywords. If you write the press release and then try to “squeeze” the keywords into the body somewhere, it will come off looking deliberate and possibly ridiculous.

Coherence is key. Just because you’re wanting to get your website to rank higher on Google doesn’t mean you can write mediocre copy and expect it to fly. Mainly, because you’re better than that, but secondly because search engines like Google take this into account now. Google wants its users to have a good experience and great copy is the way to achieve that!

So do proper research. Find out what keywords will work best for your company. These words may not be the most popular words, either; a more niche phrase (i.e. a long-tail keyword) could yield better results. But you won’t know until you do the proper research. The Google Keyword Tool is a great resource for such research.

Format

Because the SEO press release is an evolution from the press release, you’re going to have basically the same format. I say basically, though, because there is much you can play with. A press release is usually a set number of words, as low as humanly possible. This is due to the fact that a press release is used by editors to develop stories … and busy editors respond to concision.

But on the Internet, you don’t have to worry about space. You’re only bound by the limits of your imagination. Of course, don’t make it too long, as most web users don’t want to read some epic tome.

Another major difference between a traditional press release and SEO press release is you’re not limited to text – you have access to video, links, pictures, and anything else the Internet provides! So if you don’t want to just have a few boring paragraphs to describe your big news, you don’t have to.

When actually writing the press release, it’s best to keep the keywords you want to use in the back of your mind (and on a handy sheet nearby). This way, you can organically include them in the press release, so as to not appear, well, like a vehicle structured solely to influence search engines. The goal of all SEO is to get your content seen by actual eyeballs, so you want to pique your readers’ interest first and improve Google searches second.

This guest post is by Mickie Kennedy, the founder of eReleases – home of affordable, next generation press release distribution. Mickie also publishes PR Fuel, a PR-centric blog that showcases advice and articles on all things social media, PR publicity, and online marketing.