If you’re starting with an (eCommerce) site you might have a lot of content that’s already available in PDF files: product brochures, datasheets, pricing information and so on. So some people might think: why not upload these PDF files and link to them? There are some disadvantages to showing PDF files on your site though. We’ll discuss some of them in this Ask Yoast, while answering a question from Stijn Vogels from Antwerp, Belgium. He asked:
“In my current mission I’m confronted with many links directing to PDF files instead of html pages. There are some clear disadvantages of PDF files, but I was also wondering if there are any risks. What risks do links to PDF files pose?”
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Risks of links to PDF files?
Read the transcript of the video here:
“There’s no real risk in terms of links to PDF files. But PDF files are generally just not as useful as web pages. They indeed have some disadvantages: you can’t have easy links on them, you can’t make them as interactive, you can’t track them and you don’t really know what the user is doing, when he is looking at a PDF file.
If you can turn that into a web page, you can see what users are doing, and you can guide them to other content on your site, or make them convert more easily (buy something, subscribe to your newsletter etc). That becomes a whole lot more useful, than just having a still bunch of PDF files on your site.
So my suggestion is, if you have the choice, to always use web pages instead of PDF files. Good luck!”
Ask Yoast
In the series Ask Yoast we’ll take your SEO question! Do you have a pressing SEO question about your site? Let us help you out! You might get a personal answer on video!
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Source:: SEO
