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
-
Product pages and rank brain
Hello, On product pages does the content matter or does the presentation and answering the user intent matter more ? I know for informational query content definitely matters but with rank brain, I am thinking that for pages where your present product content doesn't matter as much ? Am I right ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics1 -
Why extreme drop in number of pages indexed via GWMT sitemaps?
Any tips on why our GWMT Sitemaps indexed pages dropped to 27% of total submitted entries (2290 pages submitted, 622 indexed)? Already checked the obvious Test Sitemap, valid URLs etc. We had typically been at 95% of submitted getting indexed.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jkinnisch0 -
Keywords under product listing pages
Hi guys, One of my main concerns when we start redesigning the site Trespass.co.uk, is the current pages like this one http://www.trespass.co.uk/snow-sports/clothing/ski-jackets/womens-ski-jackets are bordering over optimisation. Is this the case as each product listed in the url above has "womens ski jacket" under each product. If we have 50 products on each product listing page with the product name + type of product, ie. flora womens ski jacket, xyz mens waterproof jacket. Are we over optimising the page for the main keywords by having them under each product? Would that page be over optimised for womens ski jackets? Thanks guys
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Trespass0 -
How to find all indexed pages in Google?
Hi, We have an ecommerce site with around 4000 real pages. But our index count is at 47,000 pages in Google Webmaster Tools. How can I get a list of all pages indexed of our domain? trying to locate the duplicate content. Doing a "site:www.mydomain.com" only returns up to 676 results... Any ideas? Thanks, Ben
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs20100 -
Home Page Got Indexed as httpS and Rankings Went Down.
Hello fellow SEO's About 3 weeks ago all of a sudden the home page on our Magento based website went down in rankings (from top 10 to page 3-4 Google) and was showing as httpS - instead of usual http. It first happened with just a few keywords and a week later any search phrase was returning the httpS result for the home page. When I view cache for the home page now it (both http and httpS versions) it gives me this http://clip2net.com/s/2OtPS We are not blocking anything in robots.txt Robots tags are set to index,follow There are hardly any external links pointing at the home pages as httpS This only affected the home page - all other pages rank where they used to and appear as http Has anybody ever had a similar problem? Thanks in advance for your thoughts and help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ddseo0 -
How Long Does it Take for Rel Canonical to De-Index / Re-Index a Page?
Hi Mozzers, We have 2 e-commerce websites, Website A and Website B, sharing thousands of pages with duplicate product descriptions. Currently only the product pages on Website B are indexing, and we want Website A indexed instead. We added the rel canonical tag on each of Website B's product pages with a link towards the matching product on Page A. How long until Website B gets de-indexed and Website A gets indexed instead? Did we add the rel canonical tag correctly? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W0 -
Traffic drop off and page isn't indexed
In the last couple weeks my impressiona and clicks have dropped off to about half what it used to be. I am wondering if Google is punishing me for something... I also added two new pages to my site in the first week of June and they still aren't indexed. In the past it seemed like new pages would be indexed in a couple days. Is there any way to tell if Google is unhappy with my site? WMT shows 3 server errors, 3 Access denied, and 122 not found errors. Could those not found pages be killing me? Thanks for any advise, Greg www.AntiqueBanknotes.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Banknotes0 -
Should I prevent Google from indexing blog tag and category pages?
I am working on a website that has a regularly updated Wordpress blog and am unsure whether or not the category and tag pages should be indexable. The blog posts are often outranked by the tag and category pages and they are ultimately leaving me with a duplicate content issue. With this in mind, I assumed that the best thing to do would be to remove the tag and category pages from the index, but after speaking to someone else about the issue, I am no longer sure. I have tried researching online, but there isn't anything that provided any further information. Please can anyone with any experience of dealing with issues like this or with any knowledge of the topic help me to resolve this annoying issue. Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Paul
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PaulRogers0