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.
-
Thanks EGOL, I didn't think about using rel=canonical on htaccess. Great idea
-
If you link to a pdf, some of your power flows into it. If someone else links to a pdf, some of his power flows into it.
PDFs accumulate backlinks, accumulate pagerank. You should assign these valuable assets to real pages.
So, if you have pdfs that are duplicates of webpages then you should use rel=canonical using htaccess to attribute them to their matched webpage. If you don't do that then you assets are being squandered.
-
I don't think see my PDFs show up for a search term when my HTML pages are being displayed.
However, there was a situation when a PDF was displayed and I created a HTML page of it and set up redirects from the PDF to the HTML page. I followed that up by reuploading the PDF as a new URL and offering to download. That way I transfered the rank juice to the HTML page.
In a nutshell, no I don't see my PDFs outranking my HTML pages, but I do know my PDFs are indexed and I don't know if they show up for a different search term.
I guess my main question is, would not indexing them open up the chance for more backlinks to your HTML page and not the PDF? And in Google's eyes, it won't debate over which to display, the HTML page or PDF as both have the same content.
Maybe I'm over thinking and the straight answer is, if a HTML page exists, Google won't give preference to the PDF but in the event there is no HTML, the PDF is shown
-
Yeah, we offer the same. The user is able to download the PDF or have it open in a new window. I haven't seen Google automatically present my PDF and so far my searches have shown my HTML page, but my question to Cole remains, could Google be comparing the PDF and HTML page with each other? What if in a search situation it would prefer showing the PDF higher than the HTML page?
On your next question, I don't get duplicate warning for PDF. I believe the PDFs are indeed being indexed as the text is readable. How well are they being indexed? I've got close to 22,000 search results for my subdomain so yeah, they are indexed.
I do have rel-canonical tags on the HTML page, but can't appear it on the PDF as it's a file and not a page.
-
Thanks for the replies
Cole - Google indexed our PDFs though. I tested this by doing a site:domain.com search term, and then a site:static.domain.com search term search.
Result:
site:static.domain.com search term
Google showed me the PDF document that is available for download from the HTML page that ranks high for that search term search.
So Google is indexing both the PDF and HTML. To answer your question as to why I don't want them indexed.. Well, my thinking was. If the PDF appears and if someone backlinks to it, I rather get that backlink to the HTML page. PDFs are hosted on my subdomain and I don't want the subdomain to get the rank. Back of my head, I'm also debating, whether my PDF and HTML are competing with each other?
-
The way I see it, I'm reducing duplicate content.
Anything you can do that helps with this, is a good move - nothing wrong with a little tidying up.
the PDF appearing when a HTML page doesn't, is another way of gaining real estate
Do you currently have this happen? PDF's can actually out-rank HTM pages on occasion - they aren't the preferred media type of Google, but like any page, it's all about the content.
-Andy
-
Morning,
To my knowledge Google isn't able to open a PDF. You could always present the users with the option of downloading a PDF. Any tech website I have been to generally offers it in a download, or opens it in another window.
I don't know why it would automatically present a PDF, although, I probably don't work in the same industry! Ha!
The other question I have is, are you getting Duplicate content warnings? Are the PDF's currently being indexed? If so, how well are they being Indexed? Google can read an open PDF, or a PDF that automatically displays, but some are easier to read that others depending on the settings of the PDF.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/8-tips-to-make-your-pdf-page-seo-friendly-by/59975/
Another option is the rel canonical tags?
Hope this helps!
-
"I'm reducing duplicate content " - Google cannot crawl PDFs, but they do index them and show them in search results.
So let me ask you - why do you not want them indexed?
I say let them be indexed.
Cole
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
-
Pillar pages and blog pages
Hello, I was watching this video about pillar pages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db3TpDZf_to and tried to apply it to my self but find it impossible to do (but maybe I am looking at it the wrong way). Let's say I want to rank on "Normandy bike tou"r. I created a pillar page about "Normandy bike tour" what would be the topics of the subpages boosting that pillar page. I know that it should be questions people have but in the tourism industry they don't have any, they just want us to make them dream !! I though about doing more general blog pages about things such as : Places to rent a bike in Normandy or in XYZ city ? ( related to biking) Or the landing sites in Normandy ? (not related to biking) Is it the way to do it, what do you recommend ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
SEO implication of adding large number of new product pages
If I have an eCommerce website containing 10,000 product pages and then I add 10,000 new product pages using a bulk upload (with limited/basic but unique content), does this pose any SEO risk? I am obviously aware of the risks of adding a large number of low quality content to the website, which is not the case here, however what I am trying to ascertain is whether simply doubling the number of pages in itself causes any risk to our SEO efforts? Does it flag to the Search Engines that something "spammy" is happening (even if its not)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DHS_SH0 -
Ecommerce Site - Duplicate product descriptions & SKU pages
Hi I have a couple of questions regarding the best way to optimise SKU pages on a large ecommerce site. At the moment we have 2 landing pages per product - one is the primary landing page with no SKU, the other includes the SKU in the URL so our sales people & customers can find it when using the search facility on the site. The SKU landing page has a canonical pointing to the primary page as they're duplicates. Is this the best way? Or is it better to have the one page with the SKU in the URL? Also, we have loads of products with the very similar product descriptions, I am working on trying to include a unique paragraph or few sentences on these to improve the content - how dangerous is the duplicate content within your own site? I know its best to have totally unique content, but it won't be possible on a site with thousands of products and a small team. At the moment I am trying to prioritise the products to update. Thank you 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Ecommerce: remove duplicate product pages or use rel=canonical
Say we have a white-widget that is in our white widget collection and also in our wedding widget collection. Currently, we have 3 different URLs for that product (white-widgets/white-widget and wedding-widgets/white-widget and all-widgets/white-widget).We are automatically generating a rel=canonical tag for those individual collection product pages that canonical the original product page (/all-widgets/white-widget). This guide says that is the structure Zappos uses and says "There is an elegance to this approach. However, I would re-visit it today in light of changes in the SEO world."
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | birchlore
I noticed that Zappos, and many other shops now actually just link back to the parent product page (e.g. If I am in wedding widget section and click on the widget, I go to all-products/white-widget instead of wedding-widgets/white-widget).So my question is:Should we even have these individual product URLs or just get rid of them altogether? My original thought was that it would help SEO for search term "white wedding widget" to have a product URL wedding-widget/white-widget but we won't even be taking advantage of that by using rel=canonical anyway.0 -
Webmaster Index Page significant drop
Has anyone noticed a significant drop in indexed pages within their Google Webmaster Tools sitemap area? We went from 1300 to 83 from Friday June 23 to today June 25, 2012 and no errors are showing or warnings. Please let me know if anyone else is experiencing this and suggestions to fix this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | datadirect0 -
Is there a way to stop my product pages with the "show all" catagory/attribute from duplicating content?
If there were less pages with the "show all" attribute it would be a simple fix by adding the canonical URL tag. But seeing that there are about 1,000 of them I was wondering if their was a broader fix that I could apply.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cscoville0 -
Should "View All Products" be the canonical page?
We currently have "view 12" as the default setting when someone arrives to www.mysite.com/subcategory-page.aspx. We have been advised to change the default to "view all products" and make that the canonical page to ensure all of our products get indexed. My concern is that doing this will increase the page load time and possibly hurt rankings. Does it make sense to change all our our subcategory pages to show all the products when someone visits the page? Most sites seem to have a smaller number of products as the default.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | pbhatt0 -
Odd duplicate page notification (I think)...
Hi! In looking at my site's crawl diagnostics, I came across 2 pages that were flagged as duplicate content. I can't quite figure out why. The only difference in the URLS is an uppercase '"B" vs a lowercase "b" following the "~". Here are the URLS: lowercase b example:
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | peterdbaron
http://www.admissionsquest.com/~boardingSchoolNotes/ShowArticle.cfm/ArticleID/142/ArticleTypeID/12/Topic/What-Makes-a-Progressive-Boarding-School uppercase B example:
http://www.admissionsquest.com/~BoardingSchoolNotes/ShowArticle.cfm/ArticleID/142/ArticleTypeID/12/Topic/What-Makes-a-Progressive-Boarding-School Is that the problem? Any advice is very much appreciated. Thanks! Peter0