A little tidbit I thought I’d share with you – unverified. If you have or haven’t found this to be the case let me know…
Google has adopted a new algorithm that doesn’t allow releases with headlines and subheads that include a combined word count of 30, to be posted on its site (You’d have to be nuts to write a press release headline with more than 30 words!).
And, apparently there is only a 50% success rate in a press release posting on Google if the headline is longer than 182 characters. Andy, there’s more… there are other things that will cause GoogleNews to have problems picking up a press release, including the use characters in headline (including “&” or “-“).
So there you go. I’ve been hunting for someone to help us – at LogLogic – with SEO PR. If you are able to demonstrate expertise in this area and want to help us (we’re paying) – drop me a paragraph or two and lets chat.
Andy
The news algorithms differ from web search. And you’re right – 30 words is way too long. More like 65 characters for a good headline.
Writing a good online news release and getting the traffic back to your site requires all the elements to be in place.
And it takes more than just putting keywords in the headlines or the length of the headline.
We have been doing SEO PR for a couple of years now and I speak on the subject at major conferences like Search Engine Strategies and the PR Society of America. I was just at Media Relations 2006 in New York to speak on online news and news search.
We’d love to chat with you about your needs for SEO PR.
Sally