Make PDFs Easy to Find

Newsletters and other online PDF documents work better with Web browsers, search engines, and slow connections if you remember a few tips.

Use real text. A scanned document turns text into a picture of text. Search engines need real text. If you're not sure whether a file has real text, try to copy-paste the PDF text into a word-processing document. If it works, you have real text.

Keep it under 1MB: Smaller is better. Try Acrobat's "Document/Reduce File Size" feature, or split the document into sections. Google will not find files greater than 10MB.

Eliminate spaces in file names. The Firefox Web browser stops reading the file name when it hits a space. If someone downloads the file with a partial name, it may be difficult for the user to recognize. Use the document's most memorable or important words: ScenicCntyNws, 4HEnrllmnt, WheatVarieties2009.

Add titles to Document Properties. Search engines display the title in results. Use Control D in the full Acrobat application to add a title to a PDF document.

--Amy Hartman ahartman@ksu.edu

Make PDFs Easy to Find