Taking into account that a high content of documentation in PDF does not provide the best web positioning, it is true that having them is not bad for the SEO of the web, as long as they make senseFor example, a product specification sheet or its user manual.
As we know, PDF files are indexable by search engines, in addition PDFs can also appear in Google SERPs (Search Engine Result Page or Search Results Page). But, just because a file format can be indexed doesn't always make it the ideal approach. We are going to see the advantages and disadvantages of these files.
Advantages
There are some advantages to using PDF files. In addition to the ease of use, which can help with indexing because these documents contain metadata, links, indexable content, and author attributes.
1. Easy to create
PDF files can be very useful for marketers, especially those with the smallest teams or limited resources. They are easy to create and thanks to their internationalization, are not exclusive to any platform and reduce the size from the original files. Press releases, case studies, product data sheets, etc. can be converted into web content in one click.
2. Contain Metadata
They can find and edit metadata information en Properties on the menu Archive from Adobe Acrobat. Although that metadata does not have a high impact on SEO, you have to think that the meta description is your opportunity to design the correct description which will force a seeker to choose your website in the SERPs, And it's always better to write your own description than a search engine assigns you.
3. Contain links
Like web pages, PDF files too may contain links, and the links can be followed by search engine robots. These links may also contain anchor text.
4. Indexable content
The PDF format is readable and indexable by search engines. However, not all PDF files have readable content. To ensure that the text is legible, must be created as text, not as an image, for which it is essential to create the PDF from a text editor.
5. Authorship
Authorship can be identified and deduced by Google for PDF files. Authorship will only show the first author, so it is important to ensure that the main author appears first. Likewise, the author must be identified as «collaboratoron Google+ for that document.
Disadvantages
The drawbacks to using PDF documents become apparent when it comes to navigation and lack of control regarding document length, page content, document organization, code editing, structured, and tracking markup.
1. Lack of navigation
This means that when a visitor arrives at the PDF within the web page, they have no easy way to get to other pages on the site.
2. Document Length
It is very easy to save a document as a PDF file, it is not common to break down a PDF into several smaller documents. For example, in the case of a whitepaper or report, the PDF could vary from a few pages to hundreds of pages. This is not ideal for SEO as longer documents contain more text and often multiple topics.
3. Lack of organization and control on the web
PDF files do not usually work within CMS organizational structures like pages but as downloads. Thus, relying on PDF documents as page content is not ideal, simply because we lose the organization of the page and its control.
4. Lack of editing capabilities
No PDF's they can be labeled «or«.
5. Does not allow structured markup
Authors cannot apply structured markup for content due to the way PDF works.
6. Lack of monitoring mechanisms
Google Analytics can track PDF downloads, but tracking within PDF is not that simple, they would depend on a marketing campaign that could be measurable.
Conclusion
PDF files They are clearly not the best option for SEO, which is not to say they are bad. They simply have to go in their proper measure and with a specific function to perform.