Garnering attention from media sources for your latest project is one of the most desired and most effective ways to increase your SEO ranking on major search engines. Depending on the source that covers your project, you can instantly notice a boost in traffic from all across the web as the backlinks from notable institutions have a profoundly positive impact on your own rankings. Learning how to target specific journalists and publications in order to achieve this result takes some time and effort but pays dividends in the end. The following advice and information will help you further understand how SEO and journalism go hand in hand, and can hopefully assist you in broadening your marketing efforts.

Understanding the Dynamics

Journalism and media can best be understood by thinking of it like a pyramid: at the bottom are the majority of publications such as local newspapers and blogs, which generally pick up on leads from other like-minded sources and locally-based occurrences. In some cases, newsworthy events that are deemed popular enough will scale up to regional newspapers and local TV stations, then to nationally-published magazines and online publications, while finally arriving at national newspapers and major news sources such as Reuters and the Associated Press.

In other cases, the opposite effect occurs: a large entity covers a relatively obscure occurrence and it filters down from there to the bottom. While pinging websites with your latest press releases and events, you should consider which direction the flow is most likely to go. In the vast majority of cases involving the budding SEO enthusiast and marketer, the flow goes from bottom to top.

Forming A Contact List

If you are seeking publicity, the best way to do so is to research journalists and reporters from all forms of media: local newspapers, magazines and top-tier publications. Once you have obtained the contact information for various authorities, you can then proceed to disseminate the press release or white paper to each respective party. Prior to doing this, however, you may want to do a little bit of background research on each reporter’s history: what do they cover, how often and when do they publish, and is their writing style amenable to your story?

Build Hype

If you are debuting a new feature, website or service, then it is best if you can limit the accessibility and functionality of the platform until you have garnered additional media exposure. To some, this may seem counter-intuitive, but many businesses have used it as an opportunity to tease the media with a brand new idea or service, and allow said hype to generate more and more interested parties. As more and more publications begin pinging websites with information on your project, you will notice an uptick of interest and traffic. Many entities schedule a release date, but push the notion to the media days or weeks in advance in order to build hype.

Conclusion

Utilizing traditional and modern media to build hype for your project can be very valuable and lead to ample returns on any SEO investment. By targeting publications and writers that will be interested in your niche, you can augment the chances of having success in these types of endeavours.