Today's news release is written differently than those from the past. It needs to be newsworthy and it needs to sound like a human wrote it. However, you must include the right keywords in it. Let's examine some news release optimization techniques.

Research Is Key. If you have already optimized your website, then you know what keywords to include in your releases. However, if you are starting from scratch, it is important to do some keyword research. There are some decent free keyword research tools, like the stripped down version of Wordtracker, the one from SEO Company and Google AdWords. Look for keywords that have the highest volume and the least competition. For instance, when we launched AccessURP.com, we searched for keywords that would bring people looking for commercial real estate in Charlotte, NC to the site. We used several variations of that phrase in our pay-per-click ads, in our search engine optimization, and in our news releases.

Anchor's Away. Use anchor text in your releases. I anchored the phrase "commercial real estate" in our AccessURP news release sent out via PRWeb.com. This provides an important backlink to the page you want people to visit.

Consistency. As I mentioned above, we used the same targeted keywords in our SEO, our pay-per-click ads and our news releases. They all need to work together to drive traffic to the right place.

Spread The Love. Now, place the release on your site and include a forward-to-a-friend link to make the release easier for your visitors to send it to someone else. Use PRWeb to distribute the release and use all the features it provides like social media tagging with Technorati keywords. PRWeb has a wealth of tools to help improve your release for the online environment. Additionally, PRWeb distributes directly to consumers and journalists interested in your topic. They also distribute releases to bloggers, and thousands of websites syndicate their content.

So, for as little as $120 per release, you can build high quality backlinks to your site and cost effectively reach people interested in your release.

Harry Hoover is a partner in ad agency My Creative Team. He has 30 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Bank of Commerce, CruisingTheICW.com, Duke Energy, Focus Four, Levolor, North Carolina Tourism, Premier, Rubbermaid, TeamHeidi, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX, and Verbatim.