Chad's Scratchpad.

The Internet has revolutionized the way companies market themselves to the business world. Traditional PR efforts are still important, but when press releases posted on a company's Web site, they are able to reach a much larger audience, thanks to the advent of sophisticated search engines like Google.

But getting those search engines to pick up and distribute your message requires strategy. The reality is that writing for search engines is slightly different than writing for human editors. That's because search engines use algorithms to determine press-release relevance and ranking. Knowing some of the capabilities and limitations of Google will give you a leg up in getting your press elease indexed by Google and read by your audience.

Below are some standard best practices for how to optimize press release for Google

1. Google displays only the first 65 characters (including spaces) of the headline. Anything after that, Google puts an ellipsis. Get the point across up front. Don't bury it at the end of the headline, because Google won't show it.
2. Google refreshes its PR database every 30 days. Therefore, to stay top-of-mind, you should do a release every month.
3. It's important to pepper the release with the search phrase or phrases under which you want to indexed. This will increase the relevance of your release to the search query. Make sure to include the search phrase in both the headline (first 65 characters) and also in the first sentence of the body. Google displays up to 160 characters (including spaces) of the first sentence, so make sure to put it there.
4. Adding the keywords in the headline and in first sentence has the added benefit of bolding the keywords in the release, which subsequently will elicit a higher click-through rate, or CTR. This best practice is similar to Google's AdWords advertising program, in which ad copy that includes the keyword will drive more click-throughs than those without the keyword.
5. Add links that point back to your Web site. This not only drives traffic, but has the added benefit of helping increase your site's organic ranking. In ranking sites, Google takes into account how many inbound links there are pointing to a site-the more the better.

And while I'm at it, let me take a moment to discuss Google's ranking method. Google's ranking algorithm is complex, and only Google knows the recipe of its closely guarded secret sauce. However, inbound links (what Google calls Page Rank) is a large measure that determines the ranking in organic results.

Are you running a B2B paid search campaign? If so, make sure you're not making these four common mistakes.

MISTAKE ONE: Not Differentiating Consumer Search versus B2B Search
The general search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) get the most searches, but are they the right type of searchers? Stretch your B2B budget further by advertising on B2B specific search engines. Here are a few key players (if you have more you'd like to add, feel free to let me know!): 

• Business.com – a horizontal business search engine and directory
• GlobalSpec.com – a leading engineering search engine 
• ThomasNet.com – a leading manufacturing search engine

MISTAKE TWO: Not Writing Compelling B2B Copy For Search Engines
First, the way you use copy in your B2B listings is critical. If you’re trying to attract searches in a particular phase of the buying cycle, tune your copy appropriately. Second, be aware that for your industry, consumer marketers may share some keywords. For example, “lumber” is both B2B & B2C whereas a search for “hardwood lumber molding” is more likely to be B2B. Same with “java” – are we talking coffee or a computer language? Third, make sure you follow each search engines editorial and creative guidelines. This is challenging because you need to compel the prospect to clickthrough, yet your ad must comply with editorial standards controlling what you can say and even the punctuation you can use.

MISTAKE THREE: Not Balancing Organic and Paid Listings
If you get plenty of free listings, there’s no need to go the paid route, correct? Wrong – what happens if a change in how search engines rank pages leaves you out of the top results? Well, if you buy your way in, there’s no need to worry about the free results? Wrong again! Why not gain free traffic if you’re relevant?

MISTAKE FOUR: Not Measuring Success
You can't manage what you don't measure, right? At the very least, you can check your rank at search engines for particular keywords. Remember, analyze your Web site's log files to see the actual terms people use to reach your Web site and then buy those terms. The holy grail in measurement is to make the ultimate jump and close the loop by measuring sales conversions and ROI. What statistics should you really care about? In B2B, a conversion may not necessarily be a sale – it may a lead in the form of a newsletter signup, whitepaper download, webinar registration, etc...

Make sure you download Slack Barshinger's free whitepaper on business search engines. Slack Barshinger is a leading B2B marketing communications agency. Their paper identifies a number of business search engines (both vertical and horizontal) and reviews the pricing models of each.

Google and Yahoo’s trademark policy differ slightly.

Google allows companies to buy competitor’s trademark terms but does not allow them to use the trademark in their ad copy. Yahoo takes a stricter approach and disapproves of both.

Google was first to prevent competitors from using trademarks in ad copy. You may recall a high profile case in 2003 where American Blinds and Wallpaper sued Google for selling trademark keywords. After I believe four years of litigation, the suit was dropped. Google has been sued in Europe and lost.

Seeing the heat that Google was taking, Yahoo modified their policy in 2006. Previously Yahoo allowed competitors to buy trademarked keywords if there was sufficient content on the landing page comparing the products/services. Yahoo now prevents competitors from buying trademark terms and using the trademark in the copy.

I’ve had a competitor buy my client’s company name, and I subsequently filed a trademark complaint with Yahoo. Yahoo was responsive in disabling the ad. At the end of the day, buying competitor’s trademark terms is unethical. It misleads searchers who expect to land on the page they searched for. And it undermines the search engines because their search results become less relevant.

The conspiracy theorist in me questions why it took Google and Yahoo so long to change their policy. Perhaps they saw advertising dollars left on the table from brand advertisers not buying search because they’re concerned about trademark infringement.