We are always talking about the importance of optimizing our web or blog content. But what about PDF files? They also contain important information that is very useful for the users.
However, we often don’t talk about the optimization of PDF files. Here you will know some tips to optimize your PDF files.
Choose file name with the keyword
The file name you choose for your PDF file is important as it ultimately becomes part of the URL when you publish the PDF document online.
So, it’s wise to choose a filename containing the appropriate keyword. This will help the audience to know what the PDF file is about.
Also Read: SEO Trends to Strengthen Your Digital Marketing Strategies
Customize the metadata
The main elements of metadata are titles containing a keyword, well-written short descriptions of what the webpage is about, and title tags for PDFs and images. You can easily customize your metadata using Acrobat Reader.
Just use the ‘property’ option of the ‘File’ menu bar and edit the title, subject, author, and keywords. The readers will view the title in the search results so you should make the title keyword-rich.
Choose text-based PDFs over image-based ones
Google and other search engines understand texts more, so you should select text-based PDFs over image-based PDFs.
So, instead of taking screenshots from scanned documents or PowerPoint slides you should copy and paste the text. That way search engines will be able to find your documents.
Write unique content
Just like the general contents, you should have unique content in the PDF files. However, you can include a PDF version of the content that is on your website. In such a case you should indicate which version of your content you want the users to read.
For this you should add the URL you prefer to the XML sitemap of your website and include the rel = ‘canonical’ tag to inform the search engine which page to find.
The content you create must be of high quality. It should be useful to the readers. The search engines value good content.
Just like you optimize the content in your site using keywords, links, title tags, and images, you should do the same in the case of PDF files.
Also Read: 5 SEO Content Writing Tips for Your SEO Campaign
Make the file size small
Users will abandon your file if they have to wait too long for the file to open. The search engines also don’t like files that take too much time to load.
So, you can reduce the download time by making the file size small. There is a ‘Reduce File Size’ option in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader to reduce the file size when saving your file.
If you use these techniques to optimize your PDF files, your file will be easily found by the search engines and more readers will read your content. You can use online services like 2pdf.com to help you optimize your PDF files.
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