OK, I hate PDF’s on websites. Don’t you just say “Argh!” when you unsuspectingly click a link only to realize that you’ve started to open your Adobe Reader application and download a PDF file the size of Alaska? And you’re working at Starbucks sharing the already-modest bandwidth with 38 other hyper-caffeinated transient workers so the download puts you into a time/space continuum?
But PDF’s have an important role on the web. And many organizations have valuable content assets that reside in their PDF documents. So not only should you use PDF’s correctly, but you also want to insure their content is indexed by search engines to help drive traffic to your site.
So, in spite of my antipathy to PDF’s, I was disturbed to read this instruction issued to several thousand professional services marketers on a recent listserv post (OMG!):
“The other important thing is to include no robots TXT on PDF’s so the engine doesn’t index the PDF as a stand alone page which is a dead end.”
Huh? Sorry. Not dead end. Dead wrong. If you use PDF documents on your website:
- Complete the document’s properties (especially the title)
- Add links to PDF documents, so that readers arriving at your PDF can always be redirected back to your website (no dead ends)
- Save files at the lowest possible Acrobat version, so that readers can easily open them, and search engines can find them
- File sizes should be kept as small as possible to avoid users abandoning the download
And, please, alert website visitors the link they are about to click is a PDF. No more “Argh!”
There it was again, the 250-word-RULE. It popped up as gospel at an industry conference seminar and espoused by a professional search marketer to the trusting throngs. So let’s debunk it again and right now:
There is no magic number of words on a web page that will help spirit your web page to the top of the search engine results. It is not 250 words or 25 words or any specific or even general number in between. The length of the text on the page does not prevent or encourage the search engines from including the page in their indexes.
Where’d this 250-word-rule rumor start? Perhaps many sources. But only noted search marketer Danny Sullivan is willing to take credit for making this claim last century, about 10 billion search engine algorithmic revisions ago. And today even Danny calls this a myth.
Want further proof? My colleague, Fred, just posted on this blog a short diddy about some guy named Gordon Dioxide. His post is 43 words. He posted it 2 days ago. When I did a search on this name, Fred’s post was not only indexed but was the third result on the first page. So much for 250 words.
So what is the truth about word count on a page and SEO? The truth, of course, is much more complicated than the rumor. That’s why the rumor prevails; it’s simplistic, formulaic and easy to remember. But inaccurate. Or at least incomplete. The truth is messy and complicated. But here’s a practical tip. Write with your reader in mind. If a page of text is about a single idea, e.g. the phony 250-word-rule, and if you develop your idea with rich text that includes the key phrases for which you want to be found, perhaps you will be.
