How to Optimize a PDF for SEO Purposes

Posted on April 21st, 2009 by Justin Seibert in Google - SEO, SEO
TAGS: Adobe Flash and search engines, Google Adwords, optimizing pdf, spontaneous combustion, Susan Boyle, Taco Bell

It used to be that search engine optimization types viewed Adobe products the same way a vampire regarded sunlight.  Thanks to some well-publicized lawsuits resulting from public displays of spontaneous combustion*, Adobe eventually changed its tune, much like Taco Bell with self-locking bathroom doors.  Now the two groups are peanut butter and jelly.

The big news a few months back was that Adobe had made several changes to its Flash product and was working with the search engines to make it easier for developers to not absolutely tank a site’s search results by using it on the site.  It was kind of funny watching the dueling pr statements from Adobe and Google about who bowed to whom in this new “partnership.”  While it’s very much a work in progress – like video SEO – it’s getting better.

Optimizing PDF Documents for the Search Engines

One Adobe product that doesn’t get nearly as much attention in the SEO world is the PDF even though it has been as ubiquitous for 15 years as Susan Boyle is at the moment.  Generally we’d prefer to work with standard html (or php or asp or even that bane of our existence cfm) than pdf documents.

But there are ways to optimize pdf’s for the search engines and we’ve put together a starter list for you in – what else? – a pdf document:

How to Optimize a PDF for SEO Purposes

Happy optimizing!

* While I don’t know that any SEO’s actually burst into flames after working with flash-heavy sites or that there were any lawsuits from such accidents brought against Adobe, I don’t know that they didn’t happen either.