11 Best Practices to Optimize PDF Files for SEO

11 Best Practices to Optimize PDF Files for SEO PDF content can drive traffic to your site if it’s aptly optimized. A digital marketing firm in Long Island could provide the right optimization strategy.

Having a great piece of content is important for digital marketing. Many websites use the PDF format for their content as it is easily shareable, downloadable, and readable for a wider audience. PDFs allow your content to be opened easily online and on mobile devices, and viewed on a separate screen to help retain your readers’ attention. Creating content and saving it in PDF format is valuable and it can drive a lot of traffic to your website if it’s properly optimized. A digital marketing firm in Long Island could provide the right optimization strategy for your PDF files.

PDF or Portable Document Format is software developed by Adobe System with the most advanced features. Document conversion of files into PDF helps to store, save and transmit the content in a noneditable format. With PDF, files can be easily transferred from one system to another. This file format is known for its security and a user can protect the document from unauthorized printing, editing, viewing, and even copying.

Businesses can convert the good content they develop into PDF format and post it on online avenues for better reach. However, it is important to optimize PDF files to rank better. Search engines like Google can easily locate and read PDF files on your website. But these documents often lack basic information that help search engines know what the content is about, and this issue ultimately affects your position in search results. Optimizing PDF files is slightly different from optimizing pages, but the same principles apply. So, here are some tips to optimize PDF for better ranking.

Pick an SEO friendly name: Before saving and uploading your PDF file on your website, make sure to use a file name with relevant keyword that sums up the content of the PDF. This is because the file name will likely be shown in the search results pages, so the filename should be relevant and meaningful for potential visitors.

Use an engaging title and description: Google often uses the title and description tags of a web page in the search results and this is applicable for PDF files also. These fields can be accessed through the document properties in your PDF reader. Optimized title tag will have one or two relevant keywords no longer than 60 characters, and optimized meta description will have between 150 to 160 characters and have engaging copy for more clicks through the content.

Structure the page with good headings: Both PDFs and HTML web pages can use headings to structure the content. Headings and subheadings help users as well as search engines to understand the content very well and it is useful if you are targeting mobile users. You can follow these tips: •

Use one H1 heading per PDF

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Multiple H2-H6s are fine, but try to keep a consistent hierarchy

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Use headings to concisely describe the upcoming section

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Optimize headings by using a target keyword (if relevant)

Include useful links in the PDF content: Link your web properties from PDF content. This helps Google to follow on your PDF and also transfer page authority to relevant content across your site. Link out to external websites also as it will help Google give context to your brand.

Link to the PDF internally with good anchor text: It is important to have a good internal linking structure and it helps Google and users to interact with your site. Ignore orphaned PDF files by creating contextual internal links with descriptive anchor texts. Google considers contextual internal links as a signal that your PDF file is important and it should be indexed and ranked.

Eliminate duplication errors by canonicalizing PDF document: Two or more pages competing for the same keywords is very common and PDFs can also compete with your web pages. Therefore, it is important to avoid duplication of content. A canonical link is a special tag that tells Google to view the linked canonical page as the authority. Google then treats any links pointing to the PDF as pointing to the canonical page. This may become an issue if you create a PDF file to be easily downloaded.

Optimize the images in PDF files: Remember to optimize the images in your PDF files if the images aren’t too large. Since loading speed is a ranking factor, it is important to compress the images in a PDF file.

Save PDF files with plain text and not images: Save your PDF file name as plain text and not as image text because it helps Google understand your content better. Plain text means Google bots can read your content quickly and without difficulty.

Mobile optimization of PDF files is important: With every year, mobile traffic is increasing and it is 55 percent more than organic search traffic. Mobile optimization of your PDF files helps readers to consume your content easily.

Compress the size of the file to improve loading speed: Compressing files to a smaller size enables quicker download speed. Reduce the file size if your PDF file is larger than 5 MB and for better ranking.

Optimize PDF loading with Fast Web view: Enable “Fast web view” to optimize the load order of PDF files. This allows the first page to load quickly instead of waiting for the whole document to download before displaying.

PDF is widely used for effective co-ordination between people who are in different locations. It also prevents the need for handling bulky documents, and loss of critical data. PDFs are a great way to distribute your content online, but you need to make sure both your target audience and search engines can see and understand them. You can always consider the assistance of a digital marketing firm in Long Island and follow the above tips to optimize your PDF files.

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