Can PDF Links Improve SEO?

[Ross McElroy-Gray]

I am wondering whether PDF's can be read / crawled (or whatever the term is!) by search engines? If so would this be advantageous for SEO?

 

[antp__]

I'd say they can be solely because certain search terms show pdf's in the results. You could give this a read: http://searchengineland.com/are-pdfs-optimal-for-seo-182076.

Whether they will help, it depends how you're going to be using them to be honest. If I had two options: 1) to create nice looking content pages using a bit of styling or 2) upload a pdf in the body, I know which one i'd prefer to go with.

You could have a landing page on how ladies can lose their baby weight with a downloadable diet plan and exercise guide for example. Both of which could in theory be indexed in Google search results.

So as I say, it depends how you wish to use PDFs really.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

Yes. PDF links improve SEO, no less or more than html <a href>

 

[StevePoster]

PDF can be use as an interesting information to the target audience and as a web based file the links will guide the visitors to understand the content in its origin or related sources.

 

[justinaldridge]

Yes, PDFs are crawled and often offer a wealth of information and are returned in search results. Links in PDFs are also followed.

However, it is generally better from a conversion perspective to create the PDF as pages on the website as these are easier to optimise and to set up to convert visitors to sales/leads.

 

[Jose Barreiro]

Hi,
Yes, PDFs are advantageous in SEO becasue whenver you add the link of related PDF to your blog post or vice-versa it help in garbing traffic.

For Example: Suppose if you have published an article in high domain authority website and added the link of your pdf in the article and you have added the link of you website or blog post in that pdf you can actually get the some of link juice of the high domain authority.

So try to use the pdf as it can help in increase in traffic, improve ranking and provide you new set of readers too.

 

[CarlReed]

Yep, but most of the PDF submission services you'll find on Fiverr, etc are garbage as most PDF directories rip the links out of the files or no-follow them because they've all been spammed to death

 

[bobuk1982]

Yeah.

I did a lot of .pdf pushing last year trough docstoc etc. and indeed the juice is parsed trough the file.

Got me also a couple of sites indexed within a couple of hours last year this way so.

 

[gau061]

Yes, PDFs are indexable by search engines. PDFs can also appear with rich snippend in SERPs.

Advantages are:
-Easy to create
-Contains meta Data
-Authorship

 

[mindhunter]

I am wondering whether PDF's can be read / crawled (or whatever the term is!) by search engines? If so would this be advantageous for SEO?

Hey !!!!!!!! PDF submission is one of the most focus and result oriented part of SEO, and it is very much true that like any other content based format it is also crawled by the Search Engines and delivers great and immediate results. They are just like word file with proper keyword positioning, density, H1, H2 Tags, and give information about the related services/product of your website and is optimised as HTML pages also.
So yeah, PDF submission is an essential part of SEO and offers great traffic and backlinks, while sharing and posting it on different Social Networking sites and PDF submission sites respectively. And about the results statics, they are crawled and show in SERPs like other word submissions/HTML pages and it worth more than its name. Go try them it will give better results and also increases the traffic volume. But while submitting keep the content more relevantand original.

 

[techpro]

Yes, it does help, but make sure that your content should be engaging enough to convince users to download and share that PDF. As PDF files are text files, search engine bots can read it and index it, so I think it will be a good bet to improve SEO.

 

[WikiWill]

PDFs hosted on a website also offer a great tool for outreach and link building apparently.

 

[veronika smith]

I am wondering whether PDF's can be read / crawled (or whatever the term is!) by search engines? If so would this be advantageous for SEO?

yeah it is crawled by search engines and also shows in the webmaster tools that you got the backlink from that pdf submission sites. It has advantage as your pdf contents are relative and have good information so that reader download it and helps to drive traffic as user visit your site.

 

[Bart Simpson]

Yes, PDFs help in SEO.
Some advantages of using PDF's
1. PDFs can be easily created. For those who don't know HTML programming, PDFs can be a substitute to rapidly publish web based content.
2. PDFs contain meta keywords and meta description.
3. PDFs contain links which is crawled by search engine bots
4. The content in the PDFs are readable and indexable by search engines.

However, it does have some disadvantages as well
1. For website content, PDFs lack content navigation
2. PDFs are lengthy and usually we do not break it into smaller documents. As longer documents contain more text it is not suitable for SEO.
3. PDFs lack page organisation and control which is not ideal for SEO as content management systems offer page organisation and control.
4. PDFs lack code editing capabilities. Compared to HTML pages, with PDFs you cannot insert an “alt” tag to images within the PDF.

 

[Mike Cowell]

Sure! Crawler can read the PDF's and if you use keywords and links in content of PDFs then it will be beneficial for your SEO.

 

[Digital Resellers]

Yes, PDFs are crawled and often offer a wealth of information and are returned in search results. Links in PDFs are also followed.

However, it is generally better from a conversion perspective to create the PDF as pages on the website as these are easier to optimise and to set up to convert visitors to sales/leads.

100% agree

 

[Shonda Myers]

PDFs are clearly not the best option for SEO. This doesn’t mean they are bad for SEO, but they simply don’t put the control for SEO in the hands of the webmaster per se.

 

[Tom_Dwan]

PDFs are clearly not the best option for SEO. This doesn’t mean they are bad for SEO, but they simply don’t put the control for SEO in the hands of the webmaster per se.

I agree with you Shonda, in my 4+ year experience in SEO for my niche (home improvement) I didn't get any serious results with PDFs. Of course, they are a good way to vary your link profile, but I don't expect great results from them in terms of rankings.

 

[Career Guidance Charts]

Yes,Search engine crawl PDF submission backlinks. But make sure always submit with high pr PDF submission sites.

 

[Tom_Dwan]

high pr PDF submission sites.

It was years ago when PR was actually important and recently they removed it officially- extensions simply show "?" if you try to check for a PR of a given website.

 

[rf-harris]

I believe every link in any shape does offer some value to your SEO so for PDF links it is the same, not sure they will add huge value but they will certainly make some difference.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

I believe every link in any shape does offer some value to your SEO so for PDF links it is the same, not sure they will add huge value but they will certainly make some difference.

Don't forget links can also entail negative impact - especially those from C class SEO hosting if outcome from non-masked DNS.

 

[Hireday.com]

I would apply the same rules to PDF's as you do to any other content.

1. Make it really useful for the audience - engaging, well thought out content will get shared more and PDF's are really easy to share.
2. Make sure the document structure is correct - this can be tricky if using Word or Docs instead of a dedicated PDF generator - the structure of the document (in the background) may not match what is view.
3. Logically place image captions and titles so that crawlers know what they are - close to the image is better.
4. Populate the meta data - fill in the properties of the PDF. Again, you have more flexibility with a dedicated PDF generator but can still complete some of them by ensuring they are filled in Word or Docs.
5. Don't duplicate content - a PDF of webpage can devalue both of them. Curate the content for your PDF to be unique.

 

[InFrontDigital]

As Google can crawl PDF's, yes there can be some benefit for SEO however the true value of these links are unclear so I would not focus all your SEO efforts on this.

 

[techbat]

Just couple of platforms are there that can be used for PDF sharing but not good enough to bring noteworthy traffic but you can use other platform you promote PDF download from your own website...... You will have to work on "call to actions" that can really persuade visitors to click on download button.

 

[Shonda Myers]

Yes, I think so! It could also improve in some ways. I have read some pros that it is easy to create and internal links to PDF pages gives credibility. But the cons is it often lacks navigation and less codes editing capabilities.

 

[SEO Service Bangalore]

Yes, PDFs are slithered and frequently offer an abundance of data and are returned in indexed lists. In any case, it is the most important part of your page ranking

 

[saveondesign]

Yes,PDF link helps

 

[Monquiel]

If it is indexed and Follow yes.. why not?

 

[DhruvSoft]

Google has already announced that now PDF files are crawled, indexed and read by crawler. Even the links within PDF files passes PageRank in the same way as other content marketing options do. So PDF promotion is now an important activity for SEO. Therefore if anyone is ranking for their PDF in Search Result Page, definitely their SEO will be get benefited by these PDF Documents. But to take maximum advantage of PDF doc in accordance to boost SEO, one must need to optimize their PDF doc. Here is some of the trick which you must adopt while optimizing your PDF files:

1. Optimize Tile of PDF

2. Make URL’s of PDF file user friendly, separate words in title with hyphen

3. Add alt tag to images used in PDF doc.

4. Optimize metadata of PDF doc.

5. Add an intro page to your PDF.

6. Try reducing load time of your PDF by compressing them.

 

[Marek Skoczylas]

7. Don't forget to upload.

 

[DhruvSoft]

 

[connectedstars]

yes, PDF submissions can improve seo rankings but uou may share your PDF to various websites but remember the duplicate content issue is applicable here. Therefore go for diversified content and let others to share your link.

 

[Hsteele]

If you link will be within quality pdf article, targeted on a source audience, it could bring you much more effect than simple SEO-effect - it could bring to you new visitors who could be potential customers.

 

[The Wholesale Forums]

PDFs are yes crawled, offer a lot of knowledge and experience, however we would never recommend using PDFs to get backlinks, or use them solely for SEO. This is because PDFs don't always offer the best user experience. This is something Google takes into account in rankings; userbility is important.

 

[cheta]

it can surely help improve your website SEO by getting a back-link authority for you more esp if the submission is done in a high domain authority site.

 

[Steve Alphabet]

Are the documents for actual living breathing humans to use, or just for bots and link juice? I'm struggling to see why in 2016 people would choose pdf over html for anything digital marketing-related...