To help authors maximize press releases, here are 3 tips to boost your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so your book comes up on the top of Google search results.
Along with getting media interviews and Nominating Your Book for awards, writing press releases should be part of your overall book marketing strategy. Every piece of content with your book title can help you attract your target audience, including press releases, media stories, book awards, videos, podcast interviews, photos and more.
Based on sending out hundreds of press releases for the past 15 years, Goody PR and Goody Business Book Awards Founder Liz H. Kelly offers these timely tips to help authors increase their reach to millions of potential readers, fans and clients.
These press release tips are primarily about how to write a powerful press release that gets picked up online, shows in the News tab on Google, and ultimately leads to more book sales.
So what are the secrets for writing a powerful press release?
1. Write a Really Catchy Headline with Your Keywords
To gain the attention of potential readers and reporters, your press release headline should stand out as an “announcement” so it is considered “newsworthy”. Your first eight words are the most important because that is what is shown initially when someone is scanning a page on Google.
Your headline also needs an active verb and specific keywords in it to maximize your reach. For example a good headline may be “Author Name announces New Book ‘Insert Title’ is available for Pre-Order.” In this phrase, the keywords “New Book”, “Pre-Order”, the author name and book title are all invaluable for the SEO. You may also want to include the type of book. For example, you could say “New Parenting Book” or “New Investment Book”.
After a book launch, you should send out monthly press releases for at least the first six months to keep the momentum online. For example, you might announce a special event, send out a book talk recap and/or connect to a timely news topic related to your subject area.
2. Include an Expert Quote in Press Releases
In addition to a catchy headline, the body of a press release should be around 800 words with an expert quote to add credibility. For PR Web press releases, they even ask you for a key quote to highlight on the sidebar that can help highlight your main message.
For a book launch press release, you should include a quote from the author, top book review publication such as Publisher’s Weekly, a book endorsement from a recognizable name and/or praise from whoever who wrote the Foreword.
For example, for “The Wisdom of Morrie – Living and Aging Creatively and Joyously” by Morrie Schwartz (beloved subject of “Tuesdays with Morrie”), the book launch press release highlighted this well-known expert quote: “Deepak Chopra describes “The Wisdom of Morrie” as; “Beautiful…those lucky enough to read this book will be inspired.”
You can also include a quote from a Founder, CEO or the Author as the expert. For example, here is an author quote that was featured in a book launch press release: “Author Alan G. Crone explains, “Because there is rarely anyone who can help address employment law questions within a company, especially at small businesses, ‘The Law at Work’ was written to reassure readers that you are not alone and offer helpful suggestions for proactively preventing and resolving workplace issues.” In this expert quote, the keywords used are employment law, small businesses, and workplace issues.
3. Add Links to Keywords and Media Articles
The last tip for maximizing your press releases is to include links to both keywords and credible media articles. For example, if you wrote a book about “positive parenting”, make sure you link to this phrase. Your link should then direct the reader to your website or a media story that includes you as an expert on this topic.
If you spoke at an event, you can also link to the name of the specific conference. For example, CEO, Executive Coach, and “Undefeatable” Bestselling Author Tiana Sanchez recently spoke at the “California HR Conference”. Her press release announcement linked to this keyword phrase to increase cross-marketing to human resources professionals who might hire her company.
In addition, you want to link your press releases to credible outside media sources. Google gives content a higher value if it connects to a recognizable source in the body. For example, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR are well-known media outlets who take the time to research and fact-check stories.
BONUS TIP 1: Add a Video to Your Press Releases
You can also attract more views to your press release by attaching a relevant video. For example, if you have a book overview video, it is ideal to link to this content. Because there are so many “visual learners” and multi-media marketing is a must, video is a very powerful book marketing tool.
BONUS TIP 2: Nominate Your Book for Goody Business Book Awards
