Unfortunately, many people ignore PDF files in their on-site strategies. This is one of the worst mistakes they make.
This is because there is a lot of potential in optimizing PDF documents. Well, PDF files often contain valuable and unique content.
Remember that search engines crawl and index PDFs effectively. Therefore, optimizing PDFs for higher search engine results pages (SERP) rankings is crucial.
You need to optimize PDFs for two audiences.
So you’ll want to consider these two search parameters.
How to optimize your PDF documents for humans?
Reduce file size by combining them
First of all, you need to keep in mind that you are making a huge effort to attract visitors to your site. Therefore, you need to reduce the size of the PDF to maximize its download speed.
Larger files take longer to download. How to reduce the size of your PDF files?
The best way to do this is to combine them at the same time. This is where a PDF Compiler (such as mergepdf dot io) comes into play to help you reduce the size of your PDFs. It helps you keep all your scattered documents in one place.
You don’t need any plugins or software for this. Instead, it only requires a stable internet connection. Plus, it’s free to use.
To reduce the size of PDF files, follow these simple steps:
Visit the SEO tool site, press the “Choose a file” button and upload all the files.
After that, click the “Merge Files” icon.
Wait for a few seconds and finally click the “Download” button.
This way, all your PDF files will be merged and their sizes will be reduced.
Fonts supported by readers are Times New Roman, Zapf Dingbats, and Courier. If you don’t use any of these fonts, the font size of your PDF will automatically increase.
To control the visual design, you must rely on any of these fonts.
All fonts add KB (kilobytes) to the PDF size. So you need to use fewer fonts in your PDFs.
Along with fonts, you must also use a limited number of font styles in your PDF document.
It would be best to use vector-based images in your PDFs. This is because they are smaller in size.
How to optimize your PDF documents for search engines?
If you want the search engines to do it index your PDF, you need to take a few more steps.
Name of the file focused on the search
The PDF file name should be easy to search and contain relevant keywords. Most often, the document name is automatically converted to the URL name.
Like website content, the PDF should contain textual content rather than image-based content. To explain a situation or reinforce your position, you can include images in your PDF.
But not all parts of a PDF file contain images. Instead, add images to the best match section.
Optimize your PDF content
People use search engines to find content relevant to their search queries. So if your content isn’t optimized properly, they won’t find it.
Most importantly, search engines keep changing their algorithms. So, if you don’t optimize your content and analyze the algorithms, you won’t stay ahead of the competition.
don’t worry
With a few top tips and tricks, you can improve your chances of ranking. Your PDF content should be unique and fresh. So avoid duplication.
Before publishing your content, you should take advantage of a reliable plagiarism checking tool. Publish content only if it is 100% original.
Search engines do not tolerate duplicate content. Therefore, your PDF content should be original.
Just like web pages, your PDF pages should also be enriched with SEO parameters. You must include relevant keywords in your PDF to rank well.
Track all SEO factors such as:
Meta titles and description
These two things are important in casting a magical spell on the reader. Both can make or break your strategy.
Therefore, they must be short and well-crafted.
You must type within this character restriction. So, make them attractive and accessible.
Now, you need to optimize your PDF headings. It will let Google crawlers know what your content is about.
Plus, it will also keep your readers interested.
What if you’ve written top-notch content and no one notices your PDF file?
How bad it would be!
To deal with this situation, you need to add relevant keywords to your PDF file for Google to consider.
Avoid including tons of long paragraphs in your content. Readers will not pass them.
Instead, make your content easy for readers to scan and digest. Write 2- or 3-line paragraphs and include bullet points in your PDFs.
People will appreciate your content creation efforts.
Use alt text on your images
This is another important thing that you should not ignore. You should add alt text to all images in your PDF.
In digital content, it is vital to add alt text to the images in the document. It will also maximize search engine optimization (SEO) with your content.
Check if your links are working
You should also make sure that your PDF download links work accurately and are easily accessible.
On the contrary, it will negatively affect crawlers and readers if some of your links don’t work. Therefore, you need to make your links easy to find and work efficiently.
wrapping
There you have it: a guide to optimizing your PDFs and improving their search engine rankings. We have tried to cover all aspects of this topic.
If you have any doubts, just leave a message in the comment section. Our team will get in touch with you instantly to hear your query.
So what are you waiting for?
Practice these tips and tricks and optimize your PDFs like a pro!
Featured Image Credit: Provided by author; Thanks!
Shaheer Khan
As a web developer, writer and blogger for three years, Shaheer has a keen interest in writing about programming, coding and web development.
