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Search engine optimization for press releases could give marketers an avenue into the various news search sites online.

News engines can be good news for your business online. How have you made press releases part of your online strategy? Where have you seen your press releases appear online? Post some details about it on http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?p=266959 class="bluelink">WebProWorld.

Yesterday, our Jason Lee Miller reported from SES Chicago that getting on page one of the search rankings, especially Google's, makes an enormous difference in traffic to one's site. Today he attended a session on News Search SEO, a potential avenue to get a site in front of news viewers.

SEO-PR president Greg Jarboe said in the session that affiliate marketers have started optimizing press releases for news engines. As many people turn first to the Internet for news, this could make press releases the hot category for 2006.

Thinking about tagging press releases with metadata isn't the solution, though some in PR may think it is. Instead, Jarboe noted the "magic formula" would be to focus less on outputs and more on outcomes, as this list of approaches and desired goals demonstrated:

Getting high ranking helps, if searchers read your release.
Having searchers read your release helps, if it enhances your brand awareness.
Enhancing your brand awareness helps if it drives traffic to your site.
Driving traffic to your sit helps if it helps generate leads.
Generating leads helps, if they convert into sales.

Press release optimization being done today largely takes place in-house, with only about 28 percent performed by an agency. Wherever the optimization takes place, publishers need to do it right with the proper metrics.

"This is not about hiring an agency or doing it in-house to solve your problemsit's about doing this right with the proper metrics. 44% use site traffic and 41% uses press mentions as success metrics, and that's ok, but people should be measure end-to-end tracking-how people found it, got to the site, and brought in revenue," said Jarboe

Optimization starts with the headline. Jason said: "some prima-donna clients don't like headlines changed, but it is necessary for good ranking."

Blogs can be another route into the news engines. Nan Dawkins noted how blogs make it into Google News. Also, Yahoo has been including blogs alongside news search results, while MSN gets them via the news feeds it receives from the Moreover service.

"I don't make any distinction between citizen journalists and traditional journalists," Dawkins said. She recommended a few tips on working with bloggers:

Establish a blog outreach program.
Make contact/develop relationships just as you would with a journalist.
Send your release to trusted bloggers prior to releasing it through a wire service.

Also, Dawkins suggested paying attention to images - you may get a pick up because your image is terrific and fits the style of the blog.

Expansion Plus president Sally Falkow made the point that a mention in the media has more perceived value than a press release. "The whole premise behind public relations is building trust, building credibility," she said. This makes getting into news engines important.

She also thinks the opportunities to get the message into places have grown, as 72,000 journalists have lost jobs over the last five years. That would indicate a need for quality content to replace those producers.

Falkow suggested finding the best head and long tail words as part of the keyword strategy, and writing a newsworthy, optimized article based on them. Placing press releases in RSS feeds can help marketers get into Google Blogsearch, she said: "Google's definition of a blog is a webpage with an RSS feed on it."

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.