by Phil Dennison, Senior Marketing Specialist
Yesterday, I saw a lot of people sharing this article from Inc. magazine’s “Kickass Social Media Strategy” blog: The Perfectly Optimized Press Release. It offers a lot of useful tips — some of them of the same type we’ve been offering on our blog and our website for a while — but there was one in particular I wanted to bring attention to.
3. Take advantage of multimedia attachments.
Press releases with multimedia typically have higher click-through rates. So, if your wire service allows multimedia attachments such as videos or pdf files then be sure to take advantage of this extended functionality. Here’s a little known trick: don’t forget to optimize the filenames and titles of your multimedia attachments to your press release. This will boost the press release’s SEO power. Again, use keywords and phrases that are relevant to the press release only.
This is a tip that can’t be stressed enough, and it doesn’t just refer to photo captions (which should definitely also include your keywords for optimum SEO).
The file names for your online photos, videos and PDFs are indexed by search engines just as the text of your press release is. By naming those files appropriately, using keywords and coordinating with your overall strategy, you increase your opportunity for being found by web users. And having an appropriate photo or video come up in search results, especially since high-ranking multimedia results appear on the first page, carries a great deal of power – it’s content that can be viewed and consumed nearly instantly, attached to your brand and your marketing strategy.
Although most PR and marketing people are pretty savvy about this strategy now, we still occasionally see multimedia files that have descriptive names but not any of the releases keywords; or worse, generic file names like “DSC_200.jpg.” Make sure that every element of your release – text, logos, photos, videos, etc. — is helping to achieve your SEO and marketing strategies.
If you have questions about naming your multimedia files, or how best to distribute your multimedia press release, contact your local Business Wire account executive, or call our Photo Desk at 800.221.2462.
Is there a limit or general rule-of-thumb re: the length of the file name?
As a practical matter, I’d recommend keeping them under 100 characters – enough to accurately describe the content and/or include keywords, but not overly lengthy or confusing.