PDFs and webpages
-
If a website provides PDF versions of the page as a download option, should the PDF be no-indexed in your opinion?
We have to offer PDF versions of the webpage as our customers want them, they are a group who will download/print the pdfs. I thought of leaving the pdfs alone as they site in a subdomain but the more I think about it, I should probably noindex them. My reasons
- They site in a subdomain, if users have linked to them, my main domain isn't getting the rank juice
- Duplication issues, they might be affecting the rank of the existing webpages
- I can't track the PDF as they are in a subdomain, I can see event clicks to them from the main site though
On the flipside
- I could lose out on the traffic the pdfs bring when a user loads it from an organic search and any link existing on the pdf
What are your experiences?
-
Cool. It's advisable to add canonical HTTP headers to the PDFs too, if you can.
-
Thanks Alex,
I do have canonical tags on the webpages to ensure they are seen as the main one. I'll look into tracking subdomains.
-
Google now class subdomains pretty much as part of your main domain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk - so you will be getting some of that rank juice.
I'd think that the major search engines wouldn't have a problem knowing that an HTML version of a page is preferred over a PDF. However, you can use canonical HTTP headers to make sure there are no problems with duplicate content: http://moz.com/blog/how-to-advanced-relcanonical-http-headers
If you use Google Analytics you will be able to track the subdomain. You can do it as part of your existing profile or by setting up a separate one: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/gaTrackingSite (ensure this is the version of Analytics you have installed).
There's a short guide here on getting more data about PDFs through Google Analytics: http://moz.com/ugc/how-to-track-pdf-traffic-links-in-google-analytics-open-site-explorer
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Removed everything from my webpage still not de-ranked
Hi, How long is the delay to de-rank once you remove everything from a page ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Creating Redirect Maps -To include PDFs or Not to include PDFs?
When creating a redirect map for a site re-build or domain change, it is necessary to include .PDFs or any other non-HTML URLs? Do PDFs even carry "seo juice" over? When switching CMS, does it even matter to include them? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | emilydavidson0 -
What can we do to optimize / be mobile-friendly for PDFs?
I'm getting a "Your page is not mobile-friendly." notice in the SERPs for all of our PDFs. I check the pdf on the phone and it appears just fine. rFtLq
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | johnnybgunn0 -
Should I change my product infomation (PDF attatchments) into additional webpages with links ?
Hello All, On our eCommerce site some products have additional information which we currently show via a PDF link next to the product. I am thinking, is it more beneficial from an SEO point of view , If I was to put this additional pdf information to a webpage and have a link going from the product to this . From what I read, google cannot read contents of pdfs so if I was to have this as webpage via a link , then the product page would get more keywords and strength around it which would help improve it's seo etc. Just wondered if this is the best way forward or not ? thanks Peter
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeteC120 -
Cross Domain Rel Canonical tags vs. Rel Canonical Tags for internal webpages
Today I noticed that one of my colleagues was pointing rel canonical tags to a third party domain on a few specific pages on a client's website. This was a standard rel canonical tag that was written Up to this point I haven't seen too many webmasters point a rel canonical to a third party domain. However after doing some reading in the Google Webmaster Tools blog I realized that cross domain rel canonicals are indeed a viable strategy to avoid duplicate content. My question is this; should rel canonical tags be written the same way when dealing with internal duplicate content vs. external duplicate content? Would a rel=author tag be more appropriate when addressing 3rd party website duplicate content issues? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VanguardCommunications0 -
Thinking about not indexing PDFs on a product page
Our product pages generate a PDF version of the page in a different layout. This is done for 2 reasons, it's been the standard across similar industries and to help customers print them when working with the product. So there is a use when it comes to the customer but search? I've thought about this a lot and my thinking is why index the PDF at all? Only allow the HTML page to be indexed. The PDF files are in a subdomain, so I can easily no index them. The way I see it, I'm reducing duplicate content On the flip side, it is hosted in a subdomain, so the PDF appearing when a HTML page doesn't, is another way of gaining real estate. If it appears with the HTML page, more estate coverage. Anyone else done this? My knowledge tells me this could be a good thing, might even iron out any backlinks from being generated to the PDF and lead to more HTML backlinks Can PDFs solely exist as a form of data accessible once on the page and not relevant to search engines. I find them a bane when they are on a subdomain.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bio-RadAbs0 -
What to do with bad webpage
Hello everyone, I have a page in my website that has a terrible link profile (95% exact match keyword links.) What is the best thing to do with this page? It provides no value, and if anything it is hurting me. Should I just delete the page, 301 it to an obscure page or something else? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mjstout0 -
PDFs and images in Sub folder or subdomain?
What would you recommend as best practice? Our ecommerce site has a lot of PDFs supporting the product page. Currently they are kept in a sub domain and so are all images. Would it be better to keep them all in a subfolder? I've read about blogs being hosted on a subfolder to be better than subdomain but what about pdfs and images? thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Bio-RadAbs0