How to optimize PDF for SEO

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How to optimize PDF for SEO

A website is mostly HTML pages linked together. But many sites also host PDF files that are also crawled and indexed by search engine robots like Google (whether “unwittingly” or not). If PDF files are less easily optimized for SEO than an HTML page, they are still “potential entry points”. Google also indexes and suggests them on certain queries. Here are some pointers on how to optimize PDF for SEO.

Remain simple

Optimize the title of the file. Google robots read it and it appears in the URL bar, so use a simple and explicit title such as “name-of-product.pdf”. In the file properties, fill in the metadata fields that are taken into account by search engines, like TITLE, AUTHOR and SUBJECT.

How to optimize PDF for SEO: Metadata

PDFs contain metadata such as meta keywords and meta descriptions. You can edit them as you wish in the “properties” menu. Metadata describes and summarizes necessary information about other data in your content. Google does not “read” your content, it looks for information from defined metadata fields.

Mind your linking

Plan a linking strategy including your PDF. Since a PDF file is always more effective when accompanied by a link, think about planning a link strategy that includes your PDF. You can plan links on your site, which will bring the user directly to your PDF file. But you can also anticipate external links, starting from your PDF file and leading to other articles on the Internet.

Don’t forget the images

Optimize the images in your PDF. Use vector images because they are smaller and of better quality than bitmap images. If you must use bitmap images, use monochrome and not color to ensure they are as small as possible. To help search engines understand the content of your images, you can add alt text to the images in your PDF.

Keep it light

Weight and slowness are among the worst enemies of SEO. A page that takes too long to load, for example, can have very negative consequences: visitors who immediately leave the site and a degraded ranking in Google SERPs. Compress the file, for example with a tool like SmallPDF. Note that SmallPDF can also be used to merge several PDFs.

Remember: instead of considering PDF files a source of problem for your SEO, you can take them as an opportunity to seize.