SEO copywriting: Searchwritten

The internet offers a plethora of information about Press Release SEO, but it suffers from an inherent lack of information:

It’s all written by SEOs, for SEOs.

But what about the editors that receive hundreds of press releases on a daily basis?

I compiled a list of questions and asked several editors of major news websites and traditional media. The goal being to learn more about this subject from ‘the other party’: those who get it in bulk. How do they handle it?

So here is the second response by Rutger Betlem of Sprout.nl. Enjoy, learn, and tell me what you think!

General

1. Introduction: who are you and what is your business with Press Releases (=PR)?

Rutger Betlem, chief editor online at Sprout – a small business magazine (publisher: VNUmedia). I receive several dozen press releases a day – I filter and distribute among colleagues and freelancers

2. Please describe your organization

Sprout focuses solely on innovative small business entrepreneurs with less than 50 people employed – about 90 percent of our target group is higher educated

3. please give me your definition of ‘press release’

See 4

4. What is a good press release?

A proper press release informs a magazine or website with usable information. E.G. no attachments in a blank page, a distinct subject line, the news on top, the total press release in the body of the text (email), adjust/target the news to the medium (news can never be copied to all media), no officialese and other mumbo jumbo, make sure that contact persons can be reached at all times, make sure the press releases contains news (companies that send out press releases every week will be ignored), make sure older press releases can be found on the company website, always use the bcc-field in email, preferably there’s a story to be told, other than just ‘we have a new product’, it helps when a press release is sent out to specific editors rather than a general e-mailadress

5. Please provide me with some recent examples of good PR and tell me why you like them. This helps me to better understand your opinions

Those made by pr-professionals with knowledge of the magazine, the target group and the journalist they want to reach

6. Do you use a distinction between different kinds/categories of PR? If so, which ones? If not, why not?

nope

Statistics

7. How many PR does your newspaper/news website/blog receive on a daily basis?

Hard to tell – between 50 and 200

8. How much % of it actually gets published?

Between 1 en 4 percent

9. How do you think these numbers relate to newspapers/news websites/large group weblogs in general (worldwide, Europe, Netherlands)? What data or opinions is this answer based upon?

I think all media get badly written and dumb press releases. I have been an editor for 10 years now and the figure mentioned above was never higher than 4 percent at any of the magazines/websites I worked for.

Organization

10. How many people in your organization are occupied with PR? In what ways?

We all read and distribute the incoming press releases. Some are personal,
others go directly to our combined emailbox.

11. How do you receive PR? (specific channel, emails, technical format, etc.)

Mostly email

12. In what way(s) (channels and technical format) would like to receive them?

email

13. Do you only receive PR or do you (also) set out to find them? If so, where?

A little of both. News sites are important too – Interesting news makes me search for the source

14. please describe the process of PR publishing: from the moment you receive it to publication, to evaluation

1. reading the header
2. reading the news
3. looking at the attachments
4. contemplate
5. call the sender or discuss the release with colleagues (and delegate)
6. call other parties involved
7. write!

15. Do you alter the title of a PR? If so: how many % of PR are altered, how is this organized and why?

The pr-title is seldom used

16. Do you alter the text of a PR? If so: how many % of PR are altered, how is this organized and why?

100% – it is not always necessary – editorial objectivity forces me :-)

17. Do you alter links within a PR? If so: how many % of PR are altered, how is this organized and why?

Depends on the info the link refers to

18. Do you think there is a difference between different media types (newspapers, news websites, other) in the way they handle PR? If so, what is it?

Online media make more mistakes – they publish more (quicker) and are not as thorough as newspapers

19. Do you think your organization handles PR in a normal way or is it different? Why?

We are pretty average

20. Are PR evaluated in your organization? How?

We do try to educate professional pr-agencies in what info we would like to receive from them

SEO: Search Engine Optimization

21. Do you know what SEO is?

yes

22. Do you recognize the work of an SEO in a PR? How?

SEO in the press release isn’t that important, since most pr’s are sent by email

23. Do you regard PR that is optimized for search engines as an ‘issue’ or is it no issue at all? Why?

I think contacting the right media with fitting news is more important than being found in search engines

24. How much is a link (or reference to website if print newspaper) from a page on your website/newspaper worth? What data or opinions is this answer based upon?

No idea

25. Let’s assume you receive a PR you like and want to publish. You also see the text is optimized for Search Engines: it contains keywords and links. How do you respond?

I still rewrite – our SEO criteria might differ from those of the sender

26. Regarding the previous question: is publishing a link with a keyword rich link text an explicit choice? (in other words: do you explicitly think about the link and its link text and decide to copy it or not?)

yes

27. Do you ‘nofollow’ links in PR? (if you don’t know what ‘nofollow’ is, skip this question)

No

Tips

28. In general: which kinds of PR shall always be published and which never? Why?

Press releases that are well written and well targeted might be published. Others never

29. Regarding the previous question: what are the three most important tips you can give to those who write PR?

See 4

30. Do you have some specific tips for SEO consultants like me?

Since most journalist are fast readers and well acquainted with the web, you might consider writing more web based press releases, followed by the full article. A saw a great example a few days back on Slate.com: “how we read online“

Rutger, thanks very much for this interview! Your answers are published completely, but in the end, when I received all interviews, it will be integrated into a post that summarizes it all.