{"id":37546,"date":"2020-07-16T11:00:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T16:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=37546"},"modified":"2023-08-23T00:12:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-23T05:12:55","slug":"seo-for-pdfs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-for-pdfs\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Optimize PDFs For SEO, But You Should Make Pages Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\">Google&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/webmasters.googleblog.com\/2011\/09\/pdfs-in-google-search-results.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">first started indexing PDFs in 2001<\/a>. The format is commonly used in government, academia, and business environments.<\/div>\n<p>PDFs are great for compatibility and consistency. They work on nearly any device and always maintain the same visual look. However, if you\u2019re creating new content for the web, you should consider using web pages over&nbsp;PDFs.<\/p>\n<p>If you still want to optimize your PDFs, I\u2019ll show you how, but I don\u2019t recommend it. Let\u2019s explore:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#how-google-treats-pdfs\">How Google treats PDFs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#disadvantages-of-pdfs\">Why PDFs aren\u2019t great for&nbsp;SEO<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-optimize-pdfs\">How to optimize PDFs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#how-to-track-pdf-views\">How to track PDF&nbsp;views<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How Google treats PDFs\" data-section=\"how-google-treats-pdfs\">\n<h2>How Google treats PDFs<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>PDFs show in Google search results with a PDF&nbsp;tag.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1402\" height=\"268\" class=\"wp-image-37629\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/1-google-search-pdf.png\" alt=\"1 google search pdf\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/1-google-search-pdf.png 1402w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/1-google-search-pdf-680x130.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/1-google-search-pdf-768x147.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1402px) 100vw, 1402px\"><\/p>\n<p>PDFs are converted to and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnMu\/status\/1035077656625250304\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">indexed as HTML<\/a>. For PDFs where there are images of text, Google uses <a href=\"https:\/\/googleblog.blogspot.com\/2008\/10\/picture-of-thousand-words.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Optical Character Recognition (OCR)<\/a>&nbsp;technology to convert the image of text into text. Images in PDFs are also indexed in image search results.<\/p>\n<p>Google chooses pages over PDFs if they\u2019re duplicate. If you have pages and PDFs with the same content, Google tends to prefer the page version of the content as the lead version of the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/duplicate-content\/\">duplicate cluster<\/a>.&nbsp;This means that signals will be consolidated to the page version and that will be the version that shows in search results.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure if Google will index PDFs when embedded in another page. Many people want to do this in order to track clicks on the PDFs. There are better ways I will discuss later in the article.<\/p>\n<p>I ran a couple tests using an \u2018object\u2019 tag and an &lt;iframe&gt; to embed a PDF into a webpage. At least with URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console, I didn\u2019t see the content in the screenshot or the rendered HTML. However, this may just be a quirk with the URL Inspection tool. It typically won\u2019t work for other types of content besides HTML. It\u2019s possible that the part of the renderer that processes PDFs doesn\u2019t run for the inspection test and that Google would actually index the embedded PDF, but I\u2019d want to test that further before I would rely on&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-165324\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/pdf-embed-test-655x425.png\" alt=\"pdf embed test where the PDF doesn't show\" width=\"655\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/pdf-embed-test-655x425.png 655w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/pdf-embed-test-768x498.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/pdf-embed-test.png 831w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 655px) 100vw, 655px\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Why PDFs aren't great for SEO\" data-section=\"disadvantages-of-pdfs\">\n<h2>Why PDFs aren\u2019t great for&nbsp;SEO<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Even though Google indexes and occasionally ranks PDFs, the format has a few disadvantages over web&nbsp;pages:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Not mobile-friendly<\/strong>. PDFs are made to have a consistent appearance across devices. That means there is no such thing as a mobile-friendly PDF.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lack of navigation<\/strong>. Most PDFs do not include navigational elements, making it more difficult for people to explore other content.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lack of some SEO attributes<\/strong>. PDF files have equivalent versions of many SEO elements, but there are also many elements missing like individual link attributes like <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/nofollow-links\/\">nofollow<\/a>, UGC, and sponsored.<\/li>\n<li><strong>May not be crawled often<\/strong>. Because PDFs rarely change, they tend to be crawled less often than pages that are updated more frequently.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tracking is more difficult<\/strong>. Most common trackers run JavaScript on a web page and don\u2019t work in PDF&nbsp;files.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>That said, I\u2019m well aware that there are some situations where there\u2019s no way around using a PDF for your content. If that\u2019s the case for you, keep reading to learn how to optimize your PDFs for search.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to optimize a PDF\" data-section=\"how-to-optimize-pdfs\">\n<h2>How to optimize a&nbsp;PDF<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Most <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/seo\/on-page-seo\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/on-page-seo\/\">on-page SEO<\/a>&nbsp;elements that you\u2019re used to seeing in HTML have an equivalent version in PDFs and are used in the same way you\u2019re used to. Many are also there for accessibility reasons. So let\u2019s discuss a few ways to optimize PDFs for&nbsp;SEO:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#write-good-content\">Write good content<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#add-optimized-title\">Add an optimized title<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#add-optimized-description\">Add an optimized description<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#use-relevant-filename\">Use a relevant filename<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#include-image-alt-text\">Include image alt attributes<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#use-headings\">Use headings<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#include-links\">Include links<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3 id=\"write-good-content\">1. Write good content<\/h3>\n<p>Google\u2019s company mission is to organize the world\u2019s information. Even if it\u2019s not a web page, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-to-write-great-content\/\">good content<\/a>&nbsp;is good content. I\u2019ve seen lots of great content in PDFs like technical documentation, whitepapers, etc. Some of the best information on the web is buried in&nbsp;PDFs.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"add-optimized-title\">2. Add an optimized title<\/h3>\n<p>Just like web pages have <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/title-tag-seo\/\">title tags<\/a>, PDFs have titles. Note that many search engines use the title to describe the document in their search results. If a PDF does not have a title, the filename appears in the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/serps\/\">SERP<\/a>&nbsp;instead.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s how to edit a PDFs title in Adobe Acrobat Pro:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click <em>File &gt; Properties<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Edit the <em>Title<\/em>&nbsp;field<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"wp-image-37627\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/optimized-title-pdf.gif\" alt=\"optimized title pdf\"><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"add-optimized-description\">3. Add an optimized description<\/h3>\n<p>As with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/meta-description-study\/\">meta descriptions<\/a>&nbsp;for web pages, this isn\u2019t a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-ranking-factors\/\">ranking factor<\/a>&nbsp;but gives you a shot at controlling the text that appears in search results.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click <em>File &gt; Properties<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Click <em>Additional Metadata<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Edit Description<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"wp-image-37615\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/optimize-description-pdf.gif\" alt=\"optimize description pdf\"><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"use-relevant-filename\">4. Use a relevant file&nbsp;name<\/h3>\n<p>The filename of the PDF will be part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-friendly-urls\/\">URL<\/a>. This will impact the URL shown in the search results and is a small ranking factor.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click <em>File &gt; Save&nbsp;As<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Edit File&nbsp;Name<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"wp-image-37623\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/optimize-file-name-pdf.gif\" alt=\"optimize file name pdf\"><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"include-image-alt-text\">5. Include image alt attributes<\/h3>\n<p>To help search engines understand the content of your images, you can add <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/alt-text\/\">alt text<\/a>&nbsp;to the images in your&nbsp;PDF.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click the Tags icon in the left sidebar<\/li>\n<li>Find the image you want to add alt text for in the document hierarchy<\/li>\n<li>Right-click on the&nbsp;image<\/li>\n<li>Click <em>Properties<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Add relevant alternate text to the&nbsp;box<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"wp-image-37619\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/optimize-alt-text-pdf.gif\" alt=\"optimize alt text pdf\"><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"use-headings\">6. Use headings<\/h3>\n<p>Just like your heading tags (H1-H6) in web pages, you can specify that certain text in PDFs are headings.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click the Tags icon in the left sidebar<\/li>\n<li>Find the text you want to edit in the document hierarchy<\/li>\n<li>Right-click on the&nbsp;tag<\/li>\n<li>Click <em>Properties<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Select the relevant heading level from the dropdown<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"wp-image-37617\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/optimize-heading-level-pdf.gif\" alt=\"optimize heading level pdf\"><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"include-links\">7. Include Links<\/h3>\n<p>Just like any page, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/internal-links-for-seo\/\">internal<\/a>&nbsp;and external links also impact rankings. Links pass <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-pagerank\/\">PageRank<\/a>&nbsp;and their anchor text adds context. By including links to your PDF and links from your PDF to other pages, you are helping PageRank flow through your site rather than creating a dead end. Some PDFs get a lot of links. Larry Page <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=eIR3AgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA10&amp;lpg=PA10&amp;dq=%E2%80%9CIt+turns+out,+people+who+win+the+Nobel+Prize+have+citations+from+10,000+different+papers&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=kRcBS9yrk-&amp;sig=ACfU3U1XTYFg0W-Zr1AyCE6XsZ7PrfgY9A&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiOscuznPPpAhU5hXIEHZ-IDFsQ6AEwCnoECGYQAQ#v=onepage&amp;q=%E2%80%9CIt%20turns%20out%2C%20people%20who%20win%20the%20Nobel%20Prize%20have%20citations%20from%2010%2C000%20different%20papers&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">once said<\/a>&nbsp;\u201cIt turns out, people who win the Nobel Prize have citations from 10,000 different papers\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Check out this GDPR document. It has 77K links from 823 referring domains to it but does not link out at all. This is a missed opportunity and adding some internal links from this PDF to other pages on the site might help those pages rank better.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"322\" class=\"wp-image-37625\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/3-regulation-pdf-backlinks-rds.png\" alt=\"3 regulation pdf backlinks rds\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/3-regulation-pdf-backlinks-rds.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/3-regulation-pdf-backlinks-rds-680x137.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/3-regulation-pdf-backlinks-rds-768x155.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/3-regulation-pdf-backlinks-rds-1536x309.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p>This example from Google is better. Their SEO Starter Guide PDF has 3.37K links from 754 referring domains and they do a good job of passing that value to other pages by linking out from the&nbsp;PDF.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"335\" class=\"wp-image-37622\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2-backlinks-and-rds.png\" alt=\"2 backlinks and rds\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2-backlinks-and-rds.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2-backlinks-and-rds-680x142.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2-backlinks-and-rds-768x161.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/2-backlinks-and-rds-1536x322.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1448\" height=\"608\" class=\"wp-image-37612\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/google-seo-starter-guide.png\" alt=\"google seo starter guide\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/google-seo-starter-guide.png 1448w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/google-seo-starter-guide-680x286.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/google-seo-starter-guide-768x322.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1448px) 100vw, 1448px\"><\/p>\n<p>To add links in a&nbsp;PDF:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Click the <em>Edit PDF<\/em>&nbsp;button on the right sidebar<\/li>\n<li>Click the <em>Link<\/em>&nbsp;dropdown on the Edit&nbsp;menu<\/li>\n<li>Click <em>Add\/Edit Web or Document Link<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Draw a rectangle around the text you want to&nbsp;link<\/li>\n<li>Set the <em>Link type<\/em>&nbsp;to <em>Invisible Rectangle<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Set the <em>Link Action<\/em>&nbsp;to <em>Open a web&nbsp;page<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Add your&nbsp;URL<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" class=\"wp-image-37613\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/add-links-pdf.gif\" alt=\"add links pdf\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"sidenote\"><div class=\"sidenote-title\">Sidenote.<\/div> The screenshots and instructions above are for Acrobat Pro DC and may vary depending on the software you&nbsp;use.<\/div>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How to track PDF views\" data-section=\"how-to-track-pdf-views\">\n<h2>How to track PDF&nbsp;views<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>As we mentioned previously, PDFs are more difficult to track. Because of this, many marketing teams tend to gate PDFs or make them available only after a user fills out a form. By doing this, they shift the focus from tracking performance to lead generation.&nbsp;However, there are some&nbsp;options to track your PDFs including:<\/p>\n<h3>Event tracking<\/h3>\n<p>You can track clicks on PDF links and send them to your analytics system. This allows you to see how many times people clicked on the PDF files to download or open them. You can find out how to set these up <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/analytics\/answer\/1012044?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Embeds<\/h3>\n<p>If you embed the PDF into a page using JavaScript or an iframe, you can just use the analytics data for the page itself.<\/p>\n<h3>Intermediate tracking script<\/h3>\n<p>This is a complex solution, but it\u2019s possible to send PDF clicks through an intermediate tracking script that sends data to your analytics system before sending people to your PDF. You can find one example <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bounteous.com\/insights\/2013\/06\/04\/tracking-pdfs-and-other-downloads-inside-google-analytics-server-side\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Server logs<\/h3>\n<p>Because PDF files are stored on a server, any access requests for the files will be recorded in your <a href=\"https:\/\/httpd.apache.org\/docs\/1.3\/logs.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">log files<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>3rd-party data<\/h3>\n<p>Because PDFs are rarely tracked in analytics systems, sometimes the best data you have is from another source like Google Search Console or Ahrefs. Ahrefs can also give you data on which of your competitors\u2019 PDFs get the most organic traffic. Just paste their domain into <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/site-explorer\">Site Explorer<\/a>, then go to the <strong>Top Pages<\/strong>&nbsp;report and search for URLs containing <code>.pdf<code><\/code><\/code><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"627\" class=\"wp-image-37621\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/4-oracle-pdfs.png\" alt=\"4 oracle pdfs\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/4-oracle-pdfs.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/4-oracle-pdfs-680x266.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/4-oracle-pdfs-768x301.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/4-oracle-pdfs-1536x602.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><\/p>\n<h2>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Hopefully I\u2019ve convinced you that in most cases you should create new content in web pages and not in PDFs, but what about old PDFs, should you optimize the PDF or change them into pages? In typical SEO fashion, I\u2019m going to go with \u201cit depends\u201d. I really don\u2019t think there\u2019s a right or wrong way to do this. Do what is easier for you. Either way should show a positive impact, but depending on the effort and resources the answer could be optimize PDFs, change PDFs into pages, or do something else instead.<\/p>\n<p>Have questions? Let me know on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/patrickstox\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PDFs are great for compatibility and consistency. They work on nearly any device and always maintain the same visual look. However, if you\u2019re creating new content for the web, you should consider using web pages over&nbsp;PDFs. If you still want<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":37681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[335],"tags":[],"coauthors":[377],"class_list":["post-37546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-seo","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How To Optimize PDFs For SEO, But You Should Make Pages Instead<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how Google treats PDFs, how to optimize them for SEO, and how to track PDF views.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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