Should I convert PDFs for SEO improvements?

[tomhumf]

Hi,

I'm just starting on some SEO work for a new client. I have found a large number of PDFs they have written which aren't currently being used on their site. It is all relevant to the market.

I have two options I think:
1. Save PDFs as text, and code into pages for their site.
2. Just link to PDFs from site.

Any thoughts?

[lavazza]

Option #2 will work from an SEO perspective as Google does index every word in PDFs

However, from a 'user-friendliness' perspective, PDFs are - I think - less than sexy

[tomhumf]

ok thanks. My main reason for converting to HTML is that the titles on PFFs aren't written well Eg. "Company report #12" appears in SERPs.

Do you think if I made a HTML page and also linked to the PDF it would cause duplicate content issues?

I'm also tring to find a way to track visitors to PDFs, could I use a gateway page or something with tracking code on it then redirect to PDF?

Thanks

[lavazza]

If, for you, the main benefit of PDFs is achieving cross-platform printing consistency, then I suggest - as you're happy to convert to HTML - that you implement a media = "print" stylesheet [w3.org]

Kill two birds with one stone :)

I'm also tring to find a way to track visitors to PDFs

Check with the site hosting company as there may well be some 'site statistics' software running already :)

See: [en.wikipedia.org...]

[tomhumf]

The only reason I would keep the PDFs on there is because the client wants them. Still a bit worried about dup content though so not sure what to do about that.

They already have a stats program running but it isnt very comprehensive. I've installed GA on all the HTML pages, sure there must be a way of tracking the PDFs too..hmm

[BradleyT]

Make sure there are clickable links in the PDF that let users go to the website.

[willybfriendly]

The only reason I would keep the PDFs on there is because the client wants them.

Client needs to be educated.

Unless it is destined for print, and then only if the formatting is critical, PDF's have no place on the web.

I, and many others, abhor waiting for a file to download and an application to open. In fact, I will avoid PDF's as much as I possibly can, even using "view as HTML" if I come across them on a search.

[tomhumf]

Thanks,

I plan to make the changes in a couple of weeks. Someone in the company obviously spends a while doing these things, and they look pretty nice so I don't want to loose them altogether.

I think I will put all the PDFs on a seperate (view PDFs) page with <meta name="robots" content="nofollow"> and redirect the indexed PDFs to new HTML pages. Hopefully this will mean no probs with dup content, and should do better in SERPs.

Let me know any other thoughts