In this article, I’ll explain why optimizing your cybersecurity press releases for SEO is a super easy technique you could use to gain immediate social proof on search engine pages.
If you ever looked at your competitors’ search results and got a little jealous, you’re in the right place.
This SEO methodology you’re going to learn requires no link-building, acquiring DoFollow backlinks, or outreach to bloggers or journalists.
We’re going to show you how to easily create search results that look like this, and rank high:
We’re going to do this by using a dedicated cybersecurity PR distribution platform while fusing knowledge in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
This will make your cybersecurity press releases get attention from leading tech journalists, investors, prospects, and basically anyone that researched your brand online.
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Why Optimize Cybersecurity Press Releases For SEO & Organic Search?
What we’re going to show you is a hack that will easily help you establish search authority in the cybersecurity industry.
If you’re Palo Alto Networks or McAfee, you don’t really have to worry whether googling your company is going to bring back some reputable search results.
You know you’re going to find some big news in big news outlets like Yahoo.
But what if you’re an up and coming startup in the cybersecurity sector, and you’ve yet to make headlines for yourself or your company?
Ask yourself this: what will your potential prospects and/or investors feel if they Google you, and find zero mentions of you in the news section?
I can tell you a few things they’ll feel (even subconsciously): Mistrust. Suspicion. Apprehension.
Put yourself in their shoes. Would you take out your wallet and pay an organization that has no online credibility? Or would you feel doubt, skepticism and wariness?
Now ask yourself what will they feel if they find a search result like this:
That is the result of an SEO-optimized, well-written cybersecurity press release, neatly placed in a reputable cybersecurity media outlet: CSO Online.
CSO Online is a DA 85, 466K monthly traffic website. It’s well-known in the cybersecurity industry.
SEO-optimized press releases strengthen your site’s overall search authority in the cybersecurity niche by increasing your brand’s digital footprint, which is a critical component of effective cybersecurity marketing.
You see, Google uses the EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) framework to determine a site’s search authority on a topic.
Frequent brand mentions on news outlets and high-ranking press releases are strong authority signals that help Google determine your site’s quality.
How to Create Cybersecurity SEO-Optimized Press Releases
So, how do you optimize your cyber security press releases for search engines? Here are seven proven cybersecurity SEO techniques you can apply right now.
1. Find Relevant Keywords For Your Cybersecurity Press Release
To rank higher in Google Search, the content of your press release must include the keywords your target audience is searching for.
How do you find relevant keywords?
Let me quickly share a couple of methods.
Use Your Brand Name
Before getting lost in keyword research, let’s not forget the most important KPI here:
Creating social proof on the SERPs for prospects who research your brand.
Therefore, one of the main keyword you’d like your press releases to rank for, is your brand.
Think about it like this:
- Top-of-the-funnel prospects are finding your brand when searching for a solution (i.e. “
iso compliance” or “endpoint security“). - Then, they research
your brand - Then, they struggle to find you mentioned in any top tier media (if any).
- Then, they feel doubt and mistrust towards your brand, and are less likely to go down the funnel.
What good is it if you manage to attract top-of-the-funnel prospects who found your brand when searching for a solution, if they never convert because they don’t trust you?
So before we dive into tricks on how to rank content for long-tails, let’s give room to the no. 1 KPI:
Creating social proof on the SERPs, by optimizing your press releases for the keyword that is your brand.
Use Google Search Suggestions
But now let’s get to the nitty-gritty.
Type the main topic keyword of your press release in Google Search to get instant suggestions. For example, if your PR is about a malware checker, here’s what the search suggestions will show.
Notice how I only write “malware c” to get more suggestions from Google.
If I add space in the middle of my keyword, I’ll get more long-tail suggestions.
If you’re wondering how my search results are showing keyword volumes, it’s a Chrome extension called Keywords Everywhere that I use for research.
Add different letters before and after your main keyword to get more suggestions and choose the most relevant ones with the highest search volumes.
Now let me give you an example of how one of our clients got ranked for their keyword: CMMC 2.0 Compliance.
The title of the press release here is “INE Security Alert: Expediting CMMC 2.0 Compliance“.
I googled “cmmc 2.0 compliance” and went to the news section. Low and behold, look who’s at #2 on DevOps.com (DA 66, 127K SW traffic).
Use A Keyword Research Tool
Ahrefs and SEMrush are two of the best keyword research tools you can use to find relevant keywords.
They’re both paid tools but help you uncover keywords you can’t find with Google autocomplete. We use both of them every single day.
For example, Ahrefs not only shows you a keyword’s search volume but also gives you a score indicating how difficult it would be to rank in the top ten for your keyword.
Additionally, it gives you less competitive variations of your keyword that you can target in your content.
Simply enter your top competitor’s URL in these tools to uncover the keywords they’re ranking for. Alternatively, enter your main topic to get a list of keyword suggestions.
2. Optimize Your Press Release Title, Description And Content
Once you’ve found your target keywords, it’s time to write your cybersecurity press release and optimize it for maximum search coverage.
Press Release Title and H1
The SEO title and main headline [H1 tag] of your press release should ideally begin with your main keyword, or at least show up as the 2nd or 3rd keyword.
It can also include your brand name, depending on the nature of your press release.
Let’s take a different example now of a different CyberNewswire client, SquareX, who coinded the term “browser syncjacking”.
This is a smart move by the way. When you coin a term and it gains traction, people google it, find your brand, and attribute authority to your brand as the one who coined the term.
So, the term we’d like to rank for is browser syncjacking.
Now I should say – an SEO-optimized title should be less than 60 characters.
But I should also say…
This article got ranked anyway on the 1st SERP of “browser syncjacking” when it got syndicated through CyberNewswire to CIO.com (DA 87, SW traffic 946K):
Meta Description
Your press release description should give readers a summary of your content and its main offer, using your target keyword.
When dealing with press releases, most media outlets just take the first sentence and use that as the description.
So your goal is to simply make sure your keyword is in the first sentence.
In this example we have Doppler with their press release they distributed through CyberNewswire:
Doppler announces integration with Datadog to streamline security and monitoring.
Datadog is a well-known cloud monitoring service. Their brand name has 86K monthly search volume from the US alone, and a keyword difficulty of 64.
Still, when I google “datadog” and went to the news section, look who I found at #3. Doppler’s press releases syndicated through CyberNewswire to Hackread.com (DA 77, SW traffic 237K).
Look at the meta-description, and of course the title (H1) – both of which include the keyword “datadog“.
URL
Though you can’t officially control the URL of your press release on a third-party media outlet, you kind of can…
In most cases, the URL publications use for syndicated press releases is simply the title, with hyphens replacing the spaces between the words.
Therefore, if you keep your title SEO-optimized, your press release URL will be optimized as well.
Press Release Content
A commonly recommended keyword density is between 1% and 2%, meaning your primary keyword should appear approximately 7 to 20 times in a 700-1,000-word article which is the typical length of a press release.
However, when optimizing the content of your press release, avoid stuffing keywords unnecessarily.
Instead, try writing a persuasive press release that creates interest in your offer and makes it newsworthy for journalists, potential investors and of course top-of-the-funnel prospects.
If you’ve chosen your keywords correctly, they’ll naturally feature in your content.
Generally, you should use your exact keyword and its variations:
- Within the first couple of sentences
- In the middle of the content
- Toward the end of your press release
Search engines are smart. Especially now. Don’t stuff your keywords and overdo it because we want to keep your press release engaging, interesting, with a natural flow.
Sub-Headings
Make your press releases easier to read by using at least a couple of sub-headings. Subheadings not only make your content more digestible but also allow you to optimize them more effectively.
Use your main keyword and its variations when writing H2 and H3 subheadings for maximum search impact.
Here’s an example from a CyberNewswire client, CyTwist. The title is CyTwist Launches Advanced Security Solution to identify AI-Driven Cyber Threats in minutes.
The keyword we’d like to rank for here is ai driven cyber threats, or similar variations of it.
Inside the press release, CyTwist used the following H2s:
So, I googled “AI-Driven Cyber Threats” and easily found a syndication of this press release on DevOps.com (DA 66, 127K SW traffic).
Image Alt-Tags
Google encourages using images in content because they make it more engaging and easier for search algorithms to interpret. They also increase your chance of ranking for Google’s image-related searches.
For press releases, it’s ideal to include 1-2 images that journalists can use when covering your story.
The title image of this press release on CyberNewswire, is a great example.
To ensure these images are searchable, add optimized alt-tags with your target keywords to accurately describe each image.
3. Use The Inverted Pyramid Approach To Write Your Content
If you’ve ever read the New York Times, Washington Post, or any major newspaper, you’ll notice that their stories lead with the most important information, followed by the details.
This is called the inverted pyramid style in journalism.
Not only does this method keep readers engaged, but it also improves your chances of ranking higher in search results.
Here’s why.
Starting your press release with the key information saves readers time and builds trust, showing you’re a credible source.
Criminal IP’s press release is a great example of this approach.
But won’t they immediately leave your site when they get their desired information? Isn’t it better to keep them scrolling till the end and boost time on site?
In theory, yes. But research shows the opposite happens. If users don’t find what they need right away, they’re likely to leave and search elsewhere.
So, it’s better to give them what they want upfront and hope they stick around for the details.
This idea is also behind Google’s featured snippets and AI overviews that offer direct answers on search pages.
In short, to boost your press release’s search rankings and hold readers’ attention, structure it using the inverted pyramid style.
4. Add Relevant Internal And External Links
To boost the SEO value of your cyber press releases, gain high-quality backlinks, and provide journalists with more useful content, make sure to add relevant internal links.
Here’s how it works:
By optimizing your cyber press releases for SEO and distributing them through PR distribution platforms, you increase your chances of getting featured in top media outlets.
Every time your press release is picked up, the internal links you’ve added can generate valuable backlinks to your site, enhancing its authority and cybersecurity SEO performance.
Take this press release as an example.
It includes multiple internal links to different pages on the brand’s site.
Using CyberNewswire, this press release got featured in HackRead, NextBigFuture, and dozens of other high-authority sites, gaining valuable backlinks in the process.
But that’s not all.
Internal links also help journalists learn more about your brand and gather useful information they can use in developing a newsworthy story.
They provide news publications with the necessary details to understand your press release and determine if your story is worth covering.
5. Syndicate Your Press Releases With A Cybersecurity PR Newswire
Ready for our shameless plug? Well, here it is.
But to tell you the truth, we’re proud to say that going about the methodology layed out in this article was only made possible because of CyberNewswire.
You see, we started this article by stressing how crucial earned media is for your credibility, social proof and reputation.
So for this principle to work, your prospects need to find your press releases on many authoritative, cybersecurity-relevant media outlets, such as:
- CIO.com
- CSOonline.com
- DevOps.com
- SecurityBoulevard.com
- CyberNews.com
And the only way to do that at scale, is by using a cybersecurity-focused press release distribution platform. And I’ll tell you a secret – there’s only one, and it’s called CyberNewswire.
With CyberNewswire, you can submit a press release that gets syndicated (published) on many top-tier cybersecurity and mainstream news outlets.
So if you optimize your PRs for SEO as instructed in this guide, we’ll publish your SEO-optimzed press releases on these top-tier cyber news outlets.
Then, you’ll see similar results as our clients, displayed in this article. Simple, right?
If you’d like to see a case study just click the link below, where you can check out our full media list.
To see our case study and media distribution list click here.
Ready To Create SEO Optimized Cybersecurity Press Releases?
Optimizing your cybersecurity press releases for SEO is one of the easiest ways to gain social proof on the SERPs.
It also increases your probability of reaching relevant journalists and media publications, along with making sure that your prospects find you, no matter where they are in the funnel.
By combining cybersecurity SEO with targeted press release distribution, you’ll get high-quality backlinks for your site, improve its overall search authority, and get media coverage faster than your competitors.
If you need help developing a press release distribution strategy, get in touch with one of our experts today.