What do keyword-rich title tags and descriptive URLs have in common, besides being PDF SEO best practices? They also follow standard SEO best practices. Follow your other usual basic SEO best practices to optimize your PDFs as well. This includes:
internal linking to the PDF page to give it some link juice and authority (I see high-potential PDFs unnecessarily buried too deep in many websites). Speaking of internal linking and common pitfalls, please link from your PDF page to your other pages when relevant. It helps your SEO efforts and the user experience, and it isn’t done enough (seriously, I cringe when I have to copy and paste a URL from a PDF into the browser).
good keyword selection
keywords in body copy
image optimization (note: you can set alt text in many PDF tools)
human optimizing (Good content is good SEO, friend)
Keep the file size light
Huge sized files will load slower, affecting user experience and the search engines’ crawl. Adobe has the “PDF Optimizer” function which will allow you to reduce file size, and you’ll want to use it for heavy PDFs. Learn the nitty-gritty on reducing PDF file size here.
Avoid duplicate content
Having both HTML and PDF versions of the same content can sometimes be a wise choice, but only if you take measures to prevent the duplicate content issue. Also, if you tweak a PDF and re-upload it, don’t create a duplicate by accidentally changing the filename and change the URL.
Set the other document properties too
Hey, while you’re in there(setting the title)… you might as well complete the other properties such as Author, Subject, and Keywords. I couldn’t honestly tell you I know how much impact this will have, but I keep reading on the Internets that it’s worth it. So fill out all the properties you can — I just wouldn’t spend all day on it. Some sources say the Subject will become the Meta Description (but I have yet to verify this with much validity.)
Touchup the Reading Order
“Touchup” the Reading Order and set alternate text as well as headings. The headings are said to be handled by the search engines similarly to how header tags are handling in plain HTML.
Don’t save as the latest Acrobat version
Many readers might not have the latest Reader version (and no one wants to upload it just for your stupid page). Search engines sometimes fall behind the times too, so save your PDF in an older version.
internal linking to the PDF page to give it some link juice and authority (I see high-potential PDFs unnecessarily buried too deep in many websites). Speaking of internal linking and common pitfalls, please link from your PDF page to your other pages when relevant. It helps your SEO efforts and the user experience, and it isn’t done enough (seriously, I cringe when I have to copy and paste a URL from a PDF into the browser).
good keyword selection
keywords in body copy
image optimization (note: you can set alt text in many PDF tools)
human optimizing (Good content is good SEO, friend)
Keep the file size light
Huge sized files will load slower, affecting user experience and the search engines’ crawl. Adobe has the “PDF Optimizer” function which will allow you to reduce file size, and you’ll want to use it for heavy PDFs. Learn the nitty-gritty on reducing PDF file size here.
Avoid duplicate content
Having both HTML and PDF versions of the same content can sometimes be a wise choice, but only if you take measures to prevent the duplicate content issue. Also, if you tweak a PDF and re-upload it, don’t create a duplicate by accidentally changing the filename and change the URL.
Set the other document properties too
Hey, while you’re in there(setting the title)… you might as well complete the other properties such as Author, Subject, and Keywords. I couldn’t honestly tell you I know how much impact this will have, but I keep reading on the Internets that it’s worth it. So fill out all the properties you can — I just wouldn’t spend all day on it. Some sources say the Subject will become the Meta Description (but I have yet to verify this with much validity.)
Touchup the Reading Order
“Touchup” the Reading Order and set alternate text as well as headings. The headings are said to be handled by the search engines similarly to how header tags are handling in plain HTML.
Don’t save as the latest Acrobat version
Many readers might not have the latest Reader version (and no one wants to upload it just for your stupid page). Search engines sometimes fall behind the times too, so save your PDF in an older version.
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