Anyone putting out a press release knows that picking a good title is critical. Whether you're trying to reach journalists with your news or go straight to consumers, you have to create a title that's worth clicking on. Without that, your story will go unread.

So, should you go with something catchy? Something that piques reader's interests in order to get them to click? Kind of.

Search engine press release expert Greg Jarboe argues that the most important thing you need in your release title and content is keywords. What type of keywords? Terms your target audience would use to describe your news.

Why is this so important? Because press releases will show up in search results. This could be a Google search by someone interested in your news. But more importantly, journalists (including bloggers) set up persistent searches using RSS readers so they'll receive an alert every time new news that interests them hits the wire. They search for obvious keywords rather than quirky pun-laden titles.

But can't you have both? Not really. However, as Jarboe explains below, some marketers still believe you can:

Using Top Search Keywords In Online Public Relations

Many people mistakenly believe that search engine optimization and online public relations firms can magically optimize a press release - without modifying any release content - by adding invisible Meta keywords tags. So, they are shocked, shocked to find that their top search keywords actually need to appear high up in very visible locations.
Key points

Invariably, new clients ask me for proof. I point them to an article entitled “Death of a Meta Tag” written by Danny Sullivan in Search Engine Watch on October 1, 2002. Sullivan, the recognized authority on search and search engine marketing, declared, “In my opinion, the meta keywords tag is dead, dead, dead.”

If you want to get the word out today, just give it to people straight. They're interested in hearing from you, but simply won't catch your story unless you spoon feed it to them.