Yes. PDF files are indexed by Google and other search engines.

Following up on a question from a reader (Optimize PDF Files For Websites and Search Engines), as I note there, one way to see if a PDF on your website has been indexed by Google is to copy a long line of text from the PDF, and then put it into the Google search box — with double quotes on either end. You can do this to find any particular document or page available on the Web — as long as it has been indexed (scanned or “spidered” and catalogued) by Google.

For example, if you Google “Enter an estimate of your 2008 nonwage income (such as dividends or interest)” with the double quotes on either end, Google offers you a link to a PDF of IRS Form W-4 for 2008. This shows that the 2008 W-4 PDF document has been indexed. (Incidentally, Google also offers you a link to the mcbuzz.com page you are reading right now since it contains the same string of text.)

Another way to see if a PDF has been indexed by Google is to use the “site:url” query modifier. This is a handy trick when you want to narrow your search to one domain. If I Google [site:mcbuzz.com] - without the brackets, Google lists every page in my site that has been indexed. If I Google [site:mcbuzz.com web] - without the brackets, Google lists every page in my site that contains the word “web”. And, as a helpful reader points out below, you can Google [site:mcbuzz.com filetype:pdf] - without the brackets, to see if there are any PDF files on the mcbuzz.com website that have been indexed by Google. (Be sure not to put a space between “filetype:” and “pdf”.)

I don’t have any PDFs on my site. Try it with another domain to see an actual positive result. To see if a particular PDF on my website has been indexed, I can Google [site:mcbuzz.com “some word or phrase in the PDF”] - without the brackets. Of course, you can also Google [site:mcbuzz.com myfilename.pdf] to do the same.

Returning to the Form W-4 example, Google [site:irs.gov “Enter an estimate of your 2008 nonwage income (such as dividends or interest)”] and Google lists one and only one result: the PDF on the IRS website.

Something fairly amazing: Google knows every phrase in that PDF and in any other document or web page it has indexed. That’s a lot of information.

The other question in the mcbuzz.com post mentioned above was whether a PDF would be indexed if it were encrypted or had other security settings applied to it. If you have Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, you can answer this question yourself.

Open a PDF and then open the Document Properties dialog box (File > Properties…). Click on the Security tab, and you see the various security options. There are different security options depending on which version of Acrobat Reader you want your PDF to be compatible with. The dialog box tells you if search engines will be able to read all or only some parts of the PDF (e.g. metatags or attachments) when you select the various options. If the PDF can’t be read by search engines, it won’t be indexed.

For those interested, here is more information about Google query modifiers like “site:url”.

Popularity: 85% [?]

Read comments (7) for this post & add your own »»

Here’s a deceptively simple search engine optimization tip: whenever possible, put the relevant keyword into the URL (web address) of the page you want to optimize.

You may have noticed that on a Google search results page, whenever keywords appear in the URL of a listed page, they are in bold. For example, in a Google search for “mark mclaren”, whenever the words “mark” or “mclaren” are in a URL, they are in bold.

Several Google results for “mark mclaren”. The keyword terms that appear in the page URLs are always shown in bold.

Google looks at a number of things to figure out what a page is about, and the URL is definitely one of them.

I did a little experiment lately to prove the point. My LinkedIn profile has a custom URL — as they all do: you can change your LinkedIn URL from a generic numerical URL to whatever you choose. Mine used to be http://www.linkedin.com/in/mcbuzz and it was nowhere near page one of Google results for “mark mclaren”.

Then I changed it to what it is now: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mcbuzzmarkmclaren and a few weeks later, there it was on page one. To the best of my knowledge, all other factors remained unchanged, so this stands as pretty good evidence of the power of putting keywords into a URL when you want to improve a page’s rank in search results.

If you try this technique with your own LinkedIn URL, be sure to put the new link somewhere where search engines will find it. One good place is in the sidebar of your blog or website using one of the “View My Profile” buttons LinkedIn provides. See an example of a LinkedIn profile button on the McBuzz About This Site page. If you already have one of these, you need to update the URL to match your newly customized one.

Popularity: 77% [?]

Add your comment to this post »»

McBuzz Communications LLC joined the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce in December 2007. We are looking forward to being a part of this very active organization and the thriving Seattle Eastside business environment it represents. Bellevue is a city of roughly 118,000 that, along with Kirkland and Redmond, belongs to the booming Eastern side of Washington State’s King County.

The Bellevue Chamber sets high standards. It responds quickly to requests from its members and prospective members. It does a great job of communicating with the business community about networking opportunities and other events and resources. And it understands the importance of growing its membership.

The majority of the Chamber’s membership is small businesses and consultancies, which is a great fit for McBuzz.

Here’s the McBuzz Communications company profile on the Chamber website.

With backing from organizations like the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, McBuzz is looking forward to a great 2008.

Just as a side note, the Bellevue Chamber also excells from a web marketing standpoint. The McBuzz Communications company profile was online the same day we joined! And it was indexed by Google in about 24 hours. That is good stuff — because an incoming link from the Chamber is good for search ranking, and it also simply means that McBuzz can be found immediately by searching the Chamber’s website, or by Googling (or Yahooing) keywords like “bellevue chamber mclaren” or “bellevue chamber mcbuzz”. This is not the case with all Chamber of Commerce websites — but it should be.

Popularity: 58% [?]

Read comments (2) for this post & add your own »»