Friday 17 October 2008

How to optimise your PDFs for SEO

Optimise PDFs for search engines, much as you would any other page on your site. PDFs are returned in Google search listings just like HTML pages.

Optimise PDFs for search engine results pagesHere is a simple guide to optimising PDFs, to summarise:
  • Keyword optimise, keep relevant, as you should any page on your site
  • Text can be indexed, images can't, keep it texty
  • Ensure PDF is not duplicate content
  • Set a reading order
  • Hyperlink to the PDF on your site with the PDF title
  • Hyperlink within the PDF with relevant anchor text
  • Include a company footer
  • Input meta data - a step by step guide to inputting PDF meta data
  • Ensure the file size is not to big
  • Relevant file name - although not mentioned in this guide, choosing a relevant, clear file name is also important. This will become the URL (i.e. www.site.com/my_guide_to_scratching.pdf) so if it is obvious this may encourage clickthrough from search engines. It will also help you find the file in your back office and analytics!
Related posts
Tips to optimise videos - SEO
Growing strange cacti - a keyword optimisation test

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