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How to Make a PDF File More Friendly for the Web?

The myth that search engines do not like and do not see PDF-files was debunked. Google openly stated that such spreadsheets and presentations are indexed by a search engine. Many content creators in this format (presentations, e-books, documents and spreadsheets) do not use SEO capabilities or even do not know about them. But it is in this format that tons of useful information are stored on the web! And they can and should be made more visible to search engines, and therefore accessible to users. Of course, one can convert pdf to doc easily using online programs. Learn more about a PDF format and how to make it effective for the search engine.

By following these tips for optimizing PDF files, you can get additional traffic and promote your website:

  • Think of the name carefully. Most people save a TXT doc in a new format under the automatic name. The name of the document will be part of the URL page. Spend an analysis of the issue's competitors and select keywords correspond to user requests. And only then create the title of the PDF file. A good and well-written title will help search engines to better rank the file.
  • Place outbound links in a PDF document. The content in the file should contain links to your website, as well as link to external authoritative resources (if they are useful to the user in the context of the content information). Increase the likelihood that search engines will see that and the content in this document or presentation is an important part of your site. Increase the credibility of your web resource in the "eyes" of the search engine.
  • Add a unique optimized Title. This is one of the basic commandments of SEO. Write the file title (File → Document Properties). It is an additional factor affecting the ranking. Think carefully about what words you need to rank in the issue before formulating a title. Typically, there is highly specialized content and it is better to promote it on queries with “long tails” (long-tail queries). Title and description should correspond to the subject of the file and reflect the contents.
  • Adapt PDF content for mobile devices. This tip is relevant to any content on the Internet today, and therefore applies to this kind of files. It is usually inconvenient to read or even simply scroll an un-optimized PDF on a smartphone or tablet — small print, heavy photos and “floating” wide pages. To avoid exorcising users and not increasing the percentage of failures on the site, optimize documents before downloading them. First, align all content to the left. So it will be more convenient for users to flip through pages without having to scroll horizontally (across the width of the document).

Follow the tips and optimize PDF files to make them accessible.