A couple of questions about pdfs on a website

dougkpga · 07-28-2010, 05:52 AM

I have a friend who has a series of pdfs on his site.

They are scans of articles he has had published in offline magazines.

They are available to download and read in a new window.

Does google credit this content?

If a .jpg of the image was ont he page would this be better?

Or is it better to type the content and use the pics with alt text?

Also does his forum help his ranking at all?

He has 2000 members and maybe 600 topics.

Thanks for any help.

Kim Davis · 07-28-2010, 05:56 AM

Google doesn't read pictures, it reads text. It would be better to type out the content and use alt text for the images.

dougkpga · 07-28-2010, 06:11 AM

Thanks a lot Kim, I thought that was the case, thanks for confirming.

Any thoughts about the forum content please?

PhilipSEO · 07-28-2010, 06:16 AM

[quote=dougkpga;2398886]I have a friend who has a series of pdfs on his site.

They are scans of articles he has had published in offline magazines.

They are available to download and read in a new window.

Does google credit this content? [quote]

What kind of scans are they? If OCR (optical character recognition) was used, then the PDFs contain text which Google can parse. But if they are simply photos of the original, then Google does not recognize them as text content.

Quote:

If a .jpg of the image was ont he page would this be better

No, that would be a waste of text content.

Quote:

Or is it better to type the content and use the pics with alt text?

Regular text content is by far the best option. While Google can parse textual PDFs, simple HTML is the best choice.

Quote:

Also does his forum help his ranking at all?

He has 2000 members and maybe 600 topics.

This cannot be answered without more information. What do you mean by "help his ranking"? Any content has some potential potential to rank for certain keywords, but any details depend on how things are set up and what the objective is.

dougkpga · 07-28-2010, 06:51 AM

Thanks for the great replies.

The guy is a golf pro trying to rank for golf school.

Even if he did have content that could be read, the site is a dog's breakfast.

(the pdfs are not OCR).

I think if I sort out his content he wont need the forum to work for him as his articles are very good (if they are seen by Google lol).

07-28-2010, 05:52 AM	#1
dougkpga Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Gold Coast,Australia , . Posts: 28 Thanks: 9 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	A couple of questions about pdfs on a website I have a friend who has a series of pdfs on his site. They are scans of articles he has had published in offline magazines. They are available to download and read in a new window. Does google credit this content? If a .jpg of the image was ont he page would this be better? Or is it better to type the content and use the pics with alt text? Also does his forum help his ranking at all? He has 2000 members and maybe 600 topics. Thanks for any help.

07-28-2010, 05:56 AM	#2
Kim Davis Ghostwriter War Room Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ontario Posts: 392 Thanks: 29 Thanked 81 Times in 69 Posts Contact Info	Re: A couple of questions about pdfs on a website Google doesn't read pictures, it reads text. It would be better to type out the content and use alt text for the images.
	Spinner-Ready Article - 100's of 95% Unique Average Articles – [Weight Loss Niche] Affiliate Marketing Jump Start Here Hire A Ghostwriter - eBooks - Rewrites - Articles

07-28-2010, 06:11 AM	#3
dougkpga Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Gold Coast,Australia , . Posts: 28 Thanks: 9 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: A couple of questions about pdfs on a website Thanks a lot Kim, I thought that was the case, thanks for confirming. Any thoughts about the forum content please?

07-28-2010, 06:51 AM	#5
dougkpga Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Gold Coast,Australia , . Posts: 28 Thanks: 9 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: A couple of questions about pdfs on a website Thanks for the great replies. The guy is a golf pro trying to rank for golf school. Even if he did have content that could be read, the site is a dog's breakfast. (the pdfs are not OCR). I think if I sort out his content he wont need the forum to work for him as his articles are very good (if they are seen by Google lol).