There’s an SEO trick you’re probably not doing. I only say that because it’s one that I sometimes overlook, too.
Certainly, those of you with steep SEO experience and understanding can sit and revel in your knowledge, shaking your head and finger at us, but it’s worth reminding those of you out there who just double-check or advise your team on high level search ideas.
When you have a PDF file on your website — maybe it’s a poster, brochure, calendar or other collateral piece — you need to optimize its META data for search just like you do your website’s page. It needs a Title and Description so when the file itself comes up in search results, it looks all pretty — like this:
As you probably know, you can edit PDFs best in Adobe Acrobat. When you have your file open there, simply go to File>Properties and this dialogue box opens:
Your Title field is the page title. The Subject field is your SEO description. Fill these out, save your PDF file and add the file to your site.
If you have an existing PDF you need to revise, simply follow the steps above on the latest version of the file. Save the PDF with the exact same name as the PDF file that resides on your site, then simply replace the file. In some systems, you may need to upload the new PDF and change any existing links to the old file to the new, or create a 301 redirect to account for the old link.
At the end of the day, it’s a simple step to ensure your PDF files are also optimized to rank well in search.
By the way, Wheatley Vodka is a client of Cornett. You can check out their cocktails, and the link to their cocktail book mentioned in the images above on their craft vodka cocktails page.