PDF for link building - avoiding duplicate content

[DoRM]

Indicate the canonical version of a URL by responding with the Link rel="canonical" HTTP header. Addingrel="canonical" to the head section of a page is useful for HTML content, but it can't be used for PDFs and other file types indexed by Google Web Search. In these cases you can indicate a canonical URL by responding with the Link rel="canonical" HTTP header, like this (note that to use this option, you'll need to be able to configure your server):

Link: <http: www.example.com="" downloads="" white-paper.pdf="">; rel="canonical"</http:> 

Google currently supports these link header elements for Web Search only.

You can read more her http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139394

[BobGW]

Thank you DoRM,

I assume that the PDF is what I want to be the main version since that is what I'll be marketing, but I could be wrong? What if I get backlinks to both pages, will both sets of backlinks count?

[DoRM]

PDF seem to not rank as well as other normal webpages.  They still rank do not get me wrong, we have over 100 pdf pages that get traffic for us. The main version is really up to you, what do you want to show in the search results.  I think it would be easier to rank for a normal webpage though.  If you are doing a rel="canonical"  it will pass most of the link juice, not all but most.

[DoRM]

PDF seem to not rank as well as other normal webpages.  They still rank do not get me wrong, we have over 100 pdf pages that get traffic for us. The main version is really up to you, what do you want to show in the search results.  I think it would be easier to rank for a normal webpage though.  If you are doing a rel="canonical"  it will pass most of the link juice, not all but most.

[BobGW]

How do I know if I can do an HTTP header request? I'm using shared hosting through hostgator.

[BobGW]

Can I just use htaccess?

See here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-advanced-relcanonical-http-headers

We only have one pdf like this right now and we plan to have no more than five.

Say the pdf is located at

domain.com/pdfs/white-papers.pdf

and the article that I want to rank is at

domain.com/articles/article.pdf

do I simply add this to my htaccess file?:

Header add Link "<http: www.domain.com="" articles="" article.pdf="">; rel="canonical""</http:>

[ThompsonPaul]

You can insert the canonical header link using your site's .htaccess file, Bob. I'm sure Hostgator provides access to the htaccess file through ftp (sometimes you have to turn on "show hidden files") or through the file manager built into your cPanel.

Check tip #2 in this recent SEOMoz blog article for specifics:
seomoz.org/blog/htaccess-file-snippets-for-seos

Just remember too - you will want to do the same kind of on-page optimization for the PDF as you do for regular pages.

• Give it a good, descriptive, keyword-appropriate, dash-separated file name. (essential for usability as well, since it will become the title of the icon when saved to someone's desktop)
• Fill out the metadata for the PDF, especially the Title and Description. In Acrobat it's under File -> Properties -> Description tab (to get the meta-description itself, you'll need to click on the Additional Metadata button)

I'd be tempted to build the links to the html page as much as possible as those will directly help ranking, unlike the PDF's inbound links which will have to pass their link juice through the canonical, assuming you're using it. Plus, the visitor will get a preview of the PDF's content and context from the rest of your site which which may increase trust and engender further engagement..

Your comment about links in the PDF got kind of muddled, but you'll definitely want to make certain there are good links and calls to action back to your website within the PDF - preferably on each page. Otherwise there's no clear "next step" for users reading the PDF back to a purchase on your site. Make sure to put Analytics tracking tags on these links so you can assess the value of traffic generated back from the PDF - otherwise the traffic will just appear as Direct in your Analytics.

Hope that all helps;

Paul

[BobGW]

Thanks ThompsonPaul,

Say the pdf is located at

domain.com/pdfs/white-papers.pdf

and the article that I want to rank is at

domain.com/articles/article.html

do I simply add this to my htaccess file?:

Header add Link "<http: www.domain.com="" articles="" article.html="">; rel="canonical""</http:>

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Bob

There is a much easier way to do this and simply have your PDFs that you don't want indexed in a folder that you block access to in robots.txt. This way you can just drop PDFs into articles and link to them knowing full well these pages will not be indexed.

Assuming you had a PDF called article.pdf in a folder called pdfs/ then the following would prevent indexation.

User-agent: * Disallow: /pdfs/

Or to just block the file itself:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /pdfs/yourfile.pdf Additionally, There is no reason not to add the canonical link as well and if you find people are linking directly to the PDF then having this would ensure that the equity associated with those links was correctly attributed to the parent page (always a good thing).

Header add Link '<http: www.url.co.uk="" pdfs="" article.html="">; </http:> rel="canonical"'

Generally, there are better ways to block indexation than with robots.txt but in the case of PDFs, we really don't want these files indexed as they make for such poor landing pages (no navigation) and we certainly want to remove any competition or duplication between the page and the PDF so in this case, it makes for a quick, painless and suitable solution.

Hope that helps!
Marcus

[BobGW]

Thanks for the code Marcus.

Actually, the pdf is what people will be linking to. It's a guide for websites. I think the PDF will be much easier to promote than the article.I assume so anyway.

Is there a way to make sure my canonical code in htaccess is working after I insert the code?

Thanks again,

Bob

[Marcus_Miller]

Yep, check the HTTP headers with webbug or there are a bunch of browser plugins that will let you see the headers for the document.

That said, I would push to drive the links to the page though rather than the document itself and just create a nice page that houses the document and make that the link target.

You could even make the PDF link only available by email once they have singed up or some such as canonical is only a directive and you would still be better getting those links flooding into a real page on the site.

You could even offer up some HTML to make this easier for folks to link to that linked to your main page. If you take a look at any savvy infographics etc folks will try to draw a link into a page rather than the image itself for the very same reasons.

If you look at something like the Noobs Guide to Online Marketing from Unbounce then you will see something like this as the suggested linking code:

[](<strong>http://unbounce.com/noob-guide-to-online-marketing-infographic/</strong>)

[](<strong>http://unbounce.com/noob-guide-to-online-marketing-infographic/</strong>)

[](<strong>http://unbounce.com/noob-guide-to-online-marketing-infographic/</strong>)

Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform

So, the image is there but the link they are pimping is a standard page:

http://unbounce.com/noob-guide-to-online-marketing-infographic/

They also cheekily add an extra homepage link in as well with some keywords and the brand so if folks don't remove that they still get that benefit.

Ultimately, it means that when links flood into the site they benefit the whole site rather than just promote one PDF.

Just my tuppence! 
Marcus

[BobGW]

I see, thanks! I think it's important not to have the ecommerce navigation on the page promoting the pdf. What would you say is ideal as far as the graphical and navigation components of the page with the PDF on it - what kind of navigation and graphical header should I have on it?

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Bob

I think you should forget about any kind of perceived conventions and have whatever you think works best for your users and goals.

Again, look at unbounce, that is a custom landing page with a homepage link (to share the love) but not the general site navigation.

They also have a footer to do a bit more link love but really, do what works for you.

Forget conventions - do what works!

Hope that helps
Marcus