Getting the word out; SEO for PDF Files
A great way to add value to your customer’s visits to your website is to offer content in the form of .PDF files. The acronym stands for “Portable Document Format” and represents an Adobe PostScript file.
The greatest advantage of a PDF is that it has “content fidelity”; this means it can’t be easily edited or altered, a feature that makes a .PDF a great solution for offering information like guides, how-to’s, white papers, and especially marketing tools like coupons, calendars and brochures.
The good news is that the major search engines (Google, Yahoo) as well as most others can “see” .PDF files to at least some extent. This means that the files will add data to help more people find your site.
However, .PDF files do not crawl and index like HTML. A little added work behind the scenes is necessary to help boost the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your .PDF offerings.
- The most critical tip is this: make your .PDF file in word processing software. Using an image-based package, like Photoshop, means the .PDF generates the file like a camera takes a picture. The result can be read, but as an image it can not be crawled by search engines. If you mill your .PDF from MS Word, on the other hand, the document’s contents are still indexable.
- Where reasonable, also publish an HTML version of the information on your site. This boosts not only SEO but also compatibility – there are always some folk who haven’t downloaded the plug-ins to see a .PDF.
- Apply SEO tactics IN the .PDF document just as you would for the rest of your site. This means including strong keywords, using descriptive filenames, and captioning pictures.
- Try to keep the .PDF as close to the home page and root directory as possible so Search Engines can easily “find” it.
- Optimize the file before uploading it. Generally speaking, a .PDF must be completely downloaded before it can be seen. Using settings like “linearize” or “fast web view” will make it easier to see, search, and use.
