How Can You Optimize PDF Downloads For SEO?

PDF downloads are a great source for users to browse and learn about a business' products and services. So, optimizing them for SEO is a necessity.

Adding PDF downloads to websites, like the guides, e-Books, whitepapers and manuals further adds to another task – these too should be optimized for SEO. Similar to regular website pages, PDFs are equally potential of generating huge traffic volumes. PDFs contain higher CTR from Google. By using Google Webmaster Tools, it becomes clear, that a PDF on average is likely to have twice the CTR of a link to an HTML page on a corporate website.

How does Google Treat PDFs?

Since 2001, Google has started to index PDF files. PDF files are even tagged on the search engine results pages and are even included as featured snippets. Optimizing both the new as well as existing PDF content assists in increasing traffic.

Herein, we shall learn about optimizing the PDF files for SEO for enhancing their search ability. Although PDF download optimization is somewhat different from web page optimization yet the operating general principles remain the same.

1.Viewers and Search Engines Should Be Able To Read The File Name – SEO Friendly Files Names Matter!

PDF filenames appear in the search results – the visitors see what should they download. So, including keywords in the page file name makes the contents user–friendly and search–friendly. Primary keywords should be used within the PDF's contents. As a part of the search results, search engines display the page URL. URLs help in increasing the click-through from a search page. Words in the file name should be separated by dashes.??

2.Write Good Meta Title and Description

Search engines use Meta tags, like meta titles and meta descriptions for understanding the contents better. The first clickable element of the search result is the meta title tag, so the users know about the page and better decide about the necessity of the page's information. What the content is about is shared by the meta description tag. Properly constructed descriptions earn good click-through rates – the users get better information from the descriptions.

Unique meta titles and descriptions for the page covering the same subject compulsory.

3.PDF Downloads Should be Reader–Friendly

To structure the PDF files, add headings so the contents can be read easily by search engines and readers. One H1 heading containing a primary keyword should be used per file, but these should be unique and not copied. Further, the primary keywords should be used for H2, H3, and H4 as well as for subheadings. Neither is there any scope for overdoing nor for over-optimizing.

4.Links Are to be Included in PDFs

PDF files hold a lot of page authority since Search Engines consider PDF files similar to web pages. Page Authority is the indicator of page ranking ability. It is based on trust, age, the recent last update and the value earned from links. A good practice is to link to the relevant pages of a website, similar to including the links to useful and relevant external links.

5.Linking Back to PDFs

Share links to PDFs from other web pages and blogs, as well as from social media. Including a link means the PDF gains the link authority, and then it ranks for the relevant and targeted keywords.

6.Stay Away From Duplicate Contents

Google is forever against any kind of duplicate content. So, PDFs containing contents of your own thoughts, ideas and creativity related to your business are what Google needs. Not a single PDF page should be an exact web page copy so that your page and PDF do not compete against each other to get the rank.

7.Keep the PDF File Size in Mind

Visitors have limited time for the files to download, so Google is even against large-sized PDF files. Page loading speed should never be slowed down. That is why PDF files must be 5MB. Compress images are the solutions to the overly large ones that add to the file size.

8.PDF Files Are Not To be Saved As Images

PDFs saved as image files might be readable by visitors, but the texts the PDF files contain cannot be selected. As a result, search engines have a tough time figuring out what the PDF should be implying. So, the solution is saving the PDF file in text format.

9.PDF File Optimization for Mobile

PDF files are to be formatted to a fixed layout document so that mobile users can easily read them. In order to make the PDF document contents responsive, all the data should be pulled out and rewritten to the responsive layout supporting the format. For the PDF document to be reader-friendly, these should be applied –

? Using bold?texts and bullet points for the document to be read through

? Left aligning the text

? Using images for breaking up the text, being careful of the size

? Using subheadings so the contents are easy–to–read

? Maintaining short paragraphs

60% of Google searches are the results of mobile device usage. Google follows mobile-first indexing, so PDF should be clear on mobile as well as desktop.

10. Track Downloads

The total count of PDF downloads must be tracked for optimizing digital marketing collateral for SEO value to know how prospects are finding your document. Tracking downloads open a gateway for #digitalmarketingstrategy analysis for learning about the target audience and finding out how the users are interacting with marketing collateral.

PDF guides are just outstanding to keep the readers engaged and develop marketing lists. Optimizing PDFs for SEO as has been discussed, helps in boosting search rankings. Eventually, PDFs become a good asset for sales and marketing strategy.