Most people are pretty good about getting their webpages
optimized, however most people are missing an opportunity
with other content. Keep reading to find out if you are
too.
Most people don't realize this, but you can actually
optimize a PDF document.
A lot of my content is in PDF format. All my white papers
are PDF, as well as my newsletters.
Why?
- PDF content will look good on everyone's screen, unlike
web pages where you have to consider various different
settings and resolutions.
- PDFs are often downloaded to people's desktop and
therefore have a longer "shelf life" ' they may come across
the PDF in the future, but with a web page (even a
bookmarked one) they are not likely to accidentally come
across it again. They would have to actively go to your
site to see the page again.
There are many other "pluses" for PDFs.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all content should
be in PDF. It definitely should not be. But there is
value to a PDF and it has its place within your content and
your marketing plans.
There are ways you can make your PDF more search engine
friendly to get maximum benefit out of it. Here are some
of the steps:
1. Make sure your PDFs are text based. Using images is
just fine, but don't make the actual content within your
PDF an image. Use images to enhance your content and
illustrate your points.
2. Complete the document properties. Most people are
unaware that this is an important step.
The most important property is the Title.
The Title property, if present, typically represents the
words that will be displayed as the heading of the search
result. It's the equivalent to the html title tag.
If you don't complete the Title property, the search engine
is going to generate a title from the PDF's content, and it
may not be what you would choose ' it may not be compelling
or use your keywords well.
3. Use keywords within your content. It's just like a web
page, you want good keyword usage. You should never spam
or stuff your keywords in any of your content, but you do
want to make sure you use them well.
4. Build links into PDFs. Make sure you include links in
your PDFs, and pay attention to the anchor text used.
Search engines do recognize these links.
5. Don't get caught up in "versionitis" ' which means don't
get too hung up on making sure you have the very latest
version as soon as it comes out. Search engines do "read"
and index PDFs, their capabilities tend to lag behind with
the new versions of Acrobat. Although Acrobat 8 is out, for
now you should save your PDFs as version 1.6 (Acrobat 7) or
lower to ensure search engines can index the content.
6. It's true boys and girls - size does matter. You can
"optimize" the size of your file, so it isn't too big and
annoying for the engines and users to download. If you
have the full version of Acrobat you simply Select
Advanced>PDF Optimizer. You may also want to enable the
"Optimize for Fast Web View" option in the
Preferences>General Settings panel. This allows the PDF to
be "loaded" a page at a time, rather than waiting for the
whole PDF to download.
7. Don't forget to tag your PDFs You can add tags to your
PDFs, similar to html tags. With your PDF open (while using
the full version of Acrobat) select
Advanced>Accessibility>Add Tags to Document.
Consider how PDFs may help your marketing and search
efforts and start implementing them following the above
guidelines.
----------------------------------------------------
Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner
of http://www.EcomBuffet.com
Since 1998, her expertise in
online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has
helped clients increase revenue and achieve their business
goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on Search
Engine Optimization and has been published in many SEO and
marketing publications. Jennifer can be reached at
Jennifer@ecombuffet.com
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