Reply To: Does adding a downloadable PDF to an article help SEO or rankings?

[c_ostmo]

To answer the questions in your comment:

1. PDFs can get indexed and contribute to your SEO, but if that is your end goal (to get the PDFs indexed), they’d be better off as pages/posts.
2. Yes. But more importantly, we sometimes/often (at least for higher value ones) gather emails in exchange for PDFs, which keeps people coming back without search.
3. I don’t know the answer and I don’t know why those two things are mutually exclusive. I don’t embed PDFs.
4. There probably are, but we generally attribute to increased onpage time and satisfaction with the material. I don’t think we’ve ever tried to A/B test PDF optimization. They are always just as well structured as a page and the text is actual searchable text

Not one of your questions, but one thing that people are really underestimating is the power of PDFs and other more interactive content with regards to how they get used and referenced in LLMs. ChatGPT will steal your info and use it to answer simple questions–often without linking to you. But when you offer something of value that ChatGPT can’t (eg a PDF asset or activity that belongs with the article), it more readily links to you if it makes sense to do so. PDFs also generally increase perceived authority in both LLMs as well as traditional search.

This isn’t really about file format, it’s more about creating something fillable/interactive/printable. You wouldn’t put an article in a PDF and call it a day. You’d put, for example, a printable/fillable workout plan with an article about the best workouts for your biceps.