Search Engine Optimization Tips For PDF’s

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Saturday, 26 of July , 2008 at 8:05 am

Many website owners release PDF versions of their content or ebooks in PDF format. For many commercial and professional websites, articles such as operating instructions are also written in PDF format. Your website may benefit if your PDF files are indexed and returned in search results for certain queries. However, search engine optimization for PDF format files can be slightly different to that of a normal web page.

I say slightly different because the general optimization concepts are still the same, it’s how you achieve those concepts that can make a big difference. The following tips may help to get your PDF indexed by the search engines.

Format: PDF’s can be produced in either a text or graphic format. Search engines cannot read the content of a graphic file so for SEO benefits; publish your PDF in text format.

META Tags: PDF’s don’t come with meta tag information. PDF’s do have a specific section where you can include a title, author, subject and keyword. Ensure this is filled in with relevant data. As with all web content, the title should be keyword optimized. This information is accessed through the document properties section.

Description: There is nowhere within a PDF to place a description. The description is the text that is returned in the search results. Left alone, the search engines will find the first paragraph of text and use that. This may not be a great ’selling’ point to attract the searchers click. When you have completed your PDF you can specify the ‘reading order’. Place suitable text close to the front of the document and specify this to be read first.

Tags: If you use Acrobat to create your PDF then you can also specify tags including alt tags for images. This can be accessed in Acrobat through the TouchUp Reader Order panel.

Links: PDF files can and should have links. Links should use standard good white hat techniques such as anchor text. Since PDF’s can change hands several times, links within a PDF back to your own pages can help bring extra traffic.

Version Control: By version control I am not referring to the PDF’s version, rather PDF reader versions. Don’t be too hasty to jump onto the latest version of Acrobat. Using an older version will ensure that search engines can ‘read’ your PDF. Search engines can be slow on the uptake when it comes to new versions.

Fast View: Fast View is an Acrobat option that allows the PDF to be loaded page by page rather than waiting for the entire file to be downloaded before opening. Fast View delivers the document to you reader quickly. Whilst not a true search engine optimization technique, if it loads to slowly and the reader hits the back button too soon, if may harm your search rankings.

Size: Along with Fast View, size does matter. Keep your PDF file to a reasonable size. For search engines, if the file is too large and takes to long to load, they will abandon it and not index it all.

Content: Finally we come to content. Treat your content like you would any other page. It should be keyword optimized without being keyword spammed.

PDF’s were once very popular however there seems to be an increase in the use of PDF’s again, particularly through ebooks. Your on page processes should treat the PDF like any other link. Link to it using relevant anchor text. Keep the PDF stored close to the root directory and available for indexing.

Creating a PDF file takes a lot of work. If you want to be able to have it indexed by the search engines then you should take that extra five minutes to ensure the effective search engine optimization strategies should be applied to it.

Category: SEO

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