GWT shows 38 external links from 8 domains to this PDF - But it shows no links and no authority in OSE
-
Hi All,
I found one other discussion about the subject of PDFs and passing of PageRank here: http://moz.com/community/q/will-a-pdf-pass-pagerank But this thread didn't answer my question so am posting it here.
This PDF: http://www.ccisolutions.com/jsp/pdf/YAM-EMX_SERIES.PDF is reported by GWT to have 38 links coming from 8 unique domains. I checked the domains and some of them are high-quality relevant sites. Here's the list:
Domains and Number of Links
prodiscjockeyequipment.com 9
decaturilmetalbuildings.com 9
timberlinesteelbuildings.com 6
jaymixer.com 4
panelsteelbuilding.com 4
steelbuildingsguide.net 3
freedocumentsearch.com 2
freedocument.net 1However, when I plug the URL for this PDF into OSE, it reports no links and a Page Authority if only "1". This is not a new page. This is a really old page.
In addition to that, when I check the PageRank of this URL, the PageRank is "nil" - not even "0" - I'm currently working on adding links back to our main site from within our PDFs, but I'm not sure how worthwhile this is if the PDFs aren't being allocated any authority from the pages already linking to them. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Thanks all!
-
Hi Dana,
I'm inclined to think that this is a problem with how the tools process links to and from PDFs rather than the passing of PageRank through PDFs itself as well, although I am not sure. I would certainly not say no to a link to or from a great PDF if that was the only option, although I have also actively encouraged clients to re-publish their quality content housed in PDF format as HTML and redirect the PDF file to the new source. We're just a lot more sure about how authority passes through HTML files.
-
Very interesting Travis. I hadn't even thought to take a look at some competitor's pdfs to see what they are looking like in some of the same tools. Yes, this is something we need to keep testing to see if we can figure out if going through the trouble of inserting links back to our domain is a worthwhile project.
-
That's interesting, but how are the buildings sites relevant? None of them seem to get much traffic over the last couple of years either. The free docs sites appear to have an appreciable amount of estimated traffic, but what of the next Panda update?
Now, for the thought. I checked Sony.com for PDF files via operator. The tenth result was this. It had a Moz PA of 35. The rest were 1s. I couldn't get any backlink information from Majestic or Ahrefs. So, it appears all of our tools are dreadfully broken in this scenario. The best thing to do is more testing.
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
-
Is repurposing an old sub domain better than creating a new sub domain?
We have a good sub domain like** art.ourwebsite.com** which currently sells custom canvas art. We have owned the domain since 2013 but it has only been live for the past few weeks. We want to redesign & repurpose the page to continue to sell custom canvas art but will eventually include other merchandise like mugs, tshirts, etc which wouldn't be custom. Would it be best to keep art.ourwebsite.com since is a shorter/more memorible & older sub domain or would it be best to update the name to something that encompasses our new products? Our marketing team has suggested yourart.ourwebsite.com
Technical SEO | | sb10301 -
Why would my domain and page authority drop from 11 and 21, respectively, to 1 overnight?
Overnight the domain authority dropped from 11 to 1 and the page authority dropped from 21 to 1 with out any changes being made to the website.
Technical SEO | | dkyle0 -
Too Many Links?
Search Term is Indianapolis Wedding Photographers. Site is http://www.tallandsmallphotography.com/ Their metrics are through the roof compared to everyone else's. They've dropped from 27 in May to 40 Now. 'A' Grade on-site optimization. Either there's too many links, or there's some bad links involved... I don't know which it is...
Technical SEO | | WilliamBay0 -
Does authority via traffic get passed on to a forwarded domain?
We have purchased a keyword rich domain name as well as a short domain name(the acronym of the company). I would like to only advertise the short version and have a 301 redirect to the longer version. If we get a lot of traffic to the short version is that credit/authority passed on to the domain we are forwarding to?
Technical SEO | | laserclinics0 -
Internal Links
In OSE, it is reporting that i don't have any internal links to my homepage. In the header on every page is my logo in the top left hand corner which links back to my homepage. Shouldn't this mean then that every page should link to the home page? Similarly, internal pages which link from my main nav aren't showing up as having any internal links in OSE. Any ideas?
Technical SEO | | Santaur0 -
Why am I seeing %%name%% showing in the duplicate titles report when it shows the name correctly in the source code?
Crawl diagnostics is picking up all the Wordpress variable tags including and not limited to %%name%% instead of what is actually showing in the source code. Shouldn't it show what is rendered in the browser? I don't think these need to be fixed because they show in Google ok. Search Google for: site:blog.sandiego.org "About Aki"
Technical SEO | | SDConvis0 -
Best strategy for redirecting domain authority from an acquired site...?
Hi all, I'm an in-house for a company that made several acquisitions last year prior to my starting. I'm just now hearing about several loose-ends websites that belong to companies that have been absorbed by us. The question is how to best approach the task of utilizing that site's domain authority to our site's benefit. There is already a link to the homepage in the header of the site in question (our logo's right under theirs) so we're already getting some linkjuice. Looks like the whois information never changed. Here are the options I'm considering: 1. Blanket redirect (all of their pages there into our home page) - not ideal. 2. Targeted redirect (try to "connect the dots" between content pages with similar subjects/keyword relevance - better than #1, but is it worth the extra effort? 3. More linking (add more strategically placed and keyword optimized links back to our site) - also more work, but certainly do-able if the consensus is to leave the site up. 4. Any other suggestions? Thanks for your help everyone!
Technical SEO | | TGViaWest0 -
Parking Domains
I currently have a website domain.com.au, an American branch of the company who own domain.com are currently having their site built and want to forward there domain.com to domain.com.au while construction is taking place. Are there any negative effects to parking the domain.com on my domain.com.au? What is the best method to do this without causing any problems for my domain.com.au?
Technical SEO | | Pork0