Search Engine Optimizing PDF Files and Documents
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Saturday, 17 May 08 - 04:57 AM (GMT) By Benjamin E Burns in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
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For some of us optimizing PDF files is old news, yet for some its news worthy and helpful to understand. Since I’ve came across many sites implementing PDF files, I thought what the heck… why not discuss some basics and useful tactics for optimizing PDF files. The basics of optimizing PDF file begins with the same rules as does most HTML text files:
1: Your company PDF file should have actual “text” and not created as simply an image. The file should also have keywords that are being targeted based on that page i.e. if your page that is holding the PDF file is about “red balls” well the keywords in the PDF should also contain “red balls” and include useful information that the reader will relate to.
2: Link to your PDF file by using intelligent cross linking both vertical and horizontal. Make sure users can clearly understand they are going to download the PDF file. Make sure you use keyword rich anchor text i.e. “download PDF about red balls”
3: When optimizing pdf files, link popularity is another basic tactic to implement. The same link building tactics you use for an HTML page, is very similar to link building for PDF documents. You can host your optimized pdf file on third party sites, blogs, how to, podcasts and so on… be creative!
4: If using Adobe Acrobat one can add Meta Data to better optimize the pdf document. Make sure you save the file i.e. name of the pdf document with the keyword that you’re targeting i.e. “red-balls.pdf” then under Document Properties you can click on the Description tab and optimize the (Title, Author Subject and Keywords). Let me state that current search engines do not use this meta data to determine relevancy alone, yet a tactic that should be standardized by the company.
5: Duplicate PDF file content. Ok, some site owners format their content as HTML and PDF… by doing so, you will be creating duplicate content. The simple way of blocking this possible duplicate content is using the robots exclusion rule. If you have specific optimized pdf files that are not HTML then you could create a separate directory and hold those specific pdf files there. So you will end up with something like,
User-agent: *
Disallow: /sitepdfs/
This will keep all search engine bots from crawling and indexing the identical HTML content and only crawl the specific pdf’s you created in a new directory folder.
If you follow these basic tactics, you will be able to better optimize your pdf files and documents.
Cheers!
CACHE DATE is the new Black for SEO's!!!
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Wednesday, 07 November 07 - 02:09 PM (GMT) By Benjamin E Burns in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
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As you all know, the page rank update by Google brought many of us to tears or leaping around like wild monkeys after having too many bananas laced with fudge. I’ve noticed a positive reaction from the update for all of our sites from PR0 to PR6-7.
I was pleased with this outcome, yet should I care? Personally kind of… the increase in PR is a rough indication that I’m in the right direction as far as link building, content optimization and the many tactics we employ.
In my case what is important, is the Cached date! If my pages are not cached at least every three days I’m worrying. The date that Google and the rest have cached my pages gives me a clear indication that the spider bots not only can index my pages, more importantly that the search engines believe I have frequently updated quality content.
Good by PR hello Cached. 
"Dave Naylor Has a New Blog"
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Monday, 09 July 07 - 08:03 PM (GMT) By Benjamin E Burns in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
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DaveN, one of the great SEO in the UK has re-designed his blog. If you live under a rock, you might not know who DaveN is.. if this is true get to know him.
You can also listen to him on Webmaster Radio the show is titled "Strike Point" or read about Dave Naylor SEO
SEO and PPC has cross the pond many years ago, yet many companies have yet to optimize for the UK market. In order to fully understand the UK searcher, you might want to call Dave N on this, your bottom line will thank you.
Benjamin Burns
How much weight you pulling Description Meta Tag?
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Friday, 15 June 07 - 02:10 PM (GMT) By Benjamin E Burns in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
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A good friend of mine, Mr. John Grayson of Pape Boston an interactive web firm based in Boston, asked me just how much does the meta description tag influence in Google ranking?
Let’s start the debate. Right off the bat, I believe the description tag plays a general ROLE in the overall relevancy of rank and not the single most standalone factor.
We are just talking about Google here and not the other many search engines that depend on the description tag also, for uniqueness.
I begin with… Google does index the description meta tag and will use the description meta tag as extra criteria to determine the uniqueness of the page. Otherwise, Google will use the top text of your page's content, and that can potentially be your top navigation or worse.
What does this mean?
If the description meta tags is not present and also not in DMOZ, Google could potentially index the first content the googlebot (index spider) locates, which in some cases could be your navigation, contact us page, or any other less brandable and targeted text that relates to that page’s uniqueness and in the end will affect your ranking.
Another issue in ranking, let’s say you copy your meta description tag across your pages, all spiders bots will see this as duplicate content… which will put a bad taste in the month of the engines and will negatively affect rankings.
I can debate all day on this topic, yet I have some work to do. The final wrap is that YES the description meta tag has an overall effect on your ranking and branding in the search results. As an on page factor in SEO I give it a 12% score and 5% brand identity in the results.
For everyone at Pape Boston the bets on!! 
Cheers!
Benjamin Burns
Google Algo Update Adding Video, News and Local in Organic Results
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Wednesday, 23 May 07 - 03:53 AM (GMT) By Benjamin E Burns in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) |
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As you all know Google revamp its organic search results to now include videos, local and news results smack in the middle of the organic listings.
I created a couple screen shots for your viewing: Search for something, in my case shoe money an (internet marketer).
The results will give you his main blog and then at the fold
of the results (mid way) you have a video of his. For other organic results you will have a local or news listing.
Video search optimizing should now, be on everyone’s mind. If you own or work for a company, now the time to shot that 5 min marketing video, dedicated to search.
If anyone needs a consult on video search optimization drop a comment with your contact information
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