There are instances where a PDF file is the kind of content that provides the most outstanding value to your viewers. Similar to conventional HTML pages, SEO for PDFs could assist them in earning keywords so that your intended viewers can locate them through natural search.
While not always the best to use for SEO, Google does index PDFs and may rank these documents, which means the organizational records, white paper results from surveys, or any other PDF documents should be made using SEO guidelines and optimized to be search-friendly.
How does Google see PDF Files? PDF files are treated the same way as regular pages by crawlers for search engines. Google converts PDFs to HTML, after which it indexes an HTML version of the page.
In the SERPs, The PDF tag will show alongside the headline tag. This informs the user that they are taken to an indexed version of a PDF webpage instead of a conventional web page.
How to Optimize PDFs for SEO?
Because Google treats PDF files as standard web pages, all of the SEO best practices on the page are in place.
Include a file name that is SEO-friendly.
Similar to how Google examines the file names of your images to determine the significance of their names to the content on your website, the name of your PDF file must tell Google what your page’s content is about.
The best practices for optimizing the name of files include
- Sweet and short
- Included is a target keyword
- A precise Description of the PDF contents
Optimize the PDF’s Title and Meta Description to meet your Target Keywords.
SEO Meta Tags, such as the meta description and title you have included in your document, will be displayed to searchers in the SERPs. Google utilizes them to determine the main subject that your paper contains.
Incorporating your desired keywords into the PDF’s elements, as well as those with keywords with a Difficulty score that is feasible for your site, can help increase your chances of ranking.
If you’re making use of Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can alter the name of the PDF using the following:
- Properties > File
- Make changes to Your Title Field in Title Field
Similarly to that, you can change the meta description of your website by clicking:
- File > Properties
- Click on Additional Metadata
Make changes to your Meta description in the Description field.
Use headings to identify your PDF Documents.
Similar to how you use heading tags to assist visitors in navigating your websites (and search engines can understand the depth that your pages contain), PDFs must also make use of headings.
Most likely, your white paper report or PDF document has a natural structure that is with headings. Be sure to take the time to add the h1-h6 tags within Adobe Acrobat.
- Go to the Tags icon located on the left sidebar.
- Click on the phrase that you want to define as an H1-H6
- Right-click on the tag and select Properties
- Select the heading you want to use from the dropdown menu of Type
Include internal links to your website
Internal links can help direct users to other helpful web pages on your site.
They also indicate to Google the variety of content your site provides and the other subject areas you cover.
Google will scan the hyperlinks in your PDFs, which means they can be used for spreading link equity to other websites.
Don’t save PDFs as images.
Google will have difficulty crawling and rendering the contents of your PDF file if it’s stored as an image. This makes it harder for users to highlight texts.
PDF Issues are flagged within the SearchAtlas Site Auditor
SearchAtlas site auditor SearchAtlas site auditor will alert you to an issue if a website page links to the .doc file instead of .pdf.
.doc and .docx aren’t considered SEO best practices as they are not listed in the Google index. That means missed opportunities to put your website’s content in front of many more people.
Furthermore, because .doc isn’t compatible with everyone, as are .pdf Docs, which include PDFs. Instead, they provide more convenience for website users.
Should I Use PDFs?
The general rule is that a website page will be more likely to attract more viewers’ attention because of the ease at which it is indexed and understood by search engines.
PDFs are usually viewed as unsuitable for SEO. However, if you own PDF content, you need to take advantage of this!
