Comments on: PDFs and Search Engines

By: Target Info Labs - digital marketing for high-techs » Blog Archive » A primer on PDF Search Engine Optimization

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:42:34 +0000

[...] A little monkey wrench of an article by Tim Nash on PDFs and Search Engines. [...]

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:13:32 +0000

Hi Tim

Great article, and thought provoking comments

We run a directory style site, where we have the company info, image, copy etc. We also have some of the company pdf’s that usually cover product range, technical specification.

For search of xyz lighting company for example

Will having those pdf’s for the company do anything for the overall search results for that company, considering that we have have 5+ pages covering company info, product articles, press releases etc and the pdf’s will appear lower down in the search results.

Any thoughts on the overall effect greatly appreciated
Thanks
Craig

By: blog index

blog index — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:23:21 +0000

Scanned PDFs Are Now Made Searchable On Google…

For some time now, you could search for PDF files with Boolean terms or by using PDF specific search engines like, Data-Sheet, Pdf geni.com and pdf Search Engine. Sites like Scribd and the defunct DocuFarm, have also taken steps along with PDFoo.com,…

By: I am a numptie

I am a numptie — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:14:40 +0000

So it seems like you could strategically place a PDF on a high PR site and link it to a site you want to get indexed yes?

By: Goran

Goran — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:32:10 +0000

Thank you for answering the questions about PDF’s in SERPs as this always confused me. PDF’s still have there purpose for visitors but I would rather have content in an HTML page. First time here, enjoyed the read

By: Adrian Kelly

Adrian Kelly — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:40:20 +0000

Where I think PDF’s can be useful is on sites like Scribd that have an ‘authority’ associated with them. I have had good results both in terms of traffic and SE backlinks in many different niche directly down to PDF articles.

A really useful study that highlights the time/reward scenario associated with website promotion and SEO.

By: Howard White

Howard White — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:13:04 +0000

Being a SEO professional this article has really clarified to me the importance of pdf’s, however what i would want to know is that in comparison to direct links is it worth spending time on pdf’s especially keeping in view the limitations imposed by web bots as pointed out by Charles

thanks in advance for replies

By: Tim Nash

Tim Nash — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:22:28 +0000

It would be neat but not very practical, even Adobe Acrobat has problems pulling images from PDFs at times so Google has even less chance, but the biggest problem is no real way to classify them with no alt tags, no file names they could only go on the content around the image which just would not be accurate.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:17:53 +0000

Would the search engines be able to index the images found in the PDF’s. That would be pretty neat. But would it be possible. ?

By: Ilia B

Ilia B — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:24:52 +0000

Yep, a friend of mine is works for Symantec and one of his workmates was asked to help out with the startup. Not sure how reliable this information is though.