Embedding PDFs in WordPress, Optimizing for SEO and Enticing Email Signups

Are you tired of boring PDF links on your WordPress website? Do you want to make your PDFs look more attractive to your readers?

We know that PDFs are a popular way to elicit email signups, but it is confusing to get them to work properly in your WordPress site. Should you use a jpg? A pdf? A compressed pdf? Will it slow down your site? Is it good for SEO? 

Let’s tackle these questions and get your lovely PDF attracting all kinds of email signups.

We’ll explore the best practices for adding PDFs to WordPress, from choosing the right design elements to optimizing your PDFs for the web. Let’s explode your email list! 

JPG vs PDF: What should you use?

When it comes to choosing the best format for uploading images and documents into WordPress, the advice is as varied as bagel flavors. While images(JPG or PNG) and documents (PDF) have their advantages, understanding the differences between them can help you decide which one is best for you.

While a JPG image file is usually smaller and faster to upload, a PDF document offers more versatility in terms of its contents and formatting. It also enables you to make edits without losing quality or risking compatibility issues with different devices and browsers. So when you’re offering a freebie to entice an email signup, we recommend a beautifully designed PDF document. 

If you’re using Canva you can download the PDF Standard which is perfect. In technical terms it is 96 DPI. The print-ready PDF is 300 DPI (3x the size). For everyone downloading and reading a PDF, the Standard size in Canva, or 96 DPI in an advanced graphics program, is perfect.

Where to Save the PDF?

Best practices dictate that you use a document server for this purpose. There are websites that are specifically designed to store many files (mp3’s, pdfs, jpgs, etc) and then deliver them on demand. The file servers that we use regularly are:

• Google drive
• Dropbox
• Amazon AWS

These are freemium services at time of writing. You can get a free account for a few documents. Then it is a paid service for many GB of PDF files. These documents’ links will never break if you use a file host service that is separate from your website links.

Once you’ve chosen a file host service and uploaded your PDF document, then you need to find and copy the direct pdf link. Most of the time there are link permissions that you need to change as well. This link must be viewable / downloadable by “anyone with the link”. Sometimes the permissions needed are “public”. Regardless of the name, you get the idea. 

Recap: you have a pdf that you’ve uploaded to Google Drive / Dropbox / Amazon, etc. You have created a public link, reviewed the permissions and copied the link to your clipboard. Your direct PDF File Link is ready to go! Let’s use it!

Exchanging a PDF for an Email

Offering a pdf file as an incentive only works if the incentive is valuable enough for readers to want it. And  you must have a way to deliver the file automatically.

Most email marketing service providers provide a ‘thank you’ email after a person enters their email address. This email might be the confirmation email or the “initial automation”. You’re simply looking for the email that is sent automatically by the email marketing service provider. 

Once you find that email, all you need to do is edit it. You will add a phrase or button to the email. And then attach your public link from your file host to the phrase or button.

Recap: you have added the link to the thank you email. So whenever someone signs up, they will get the link sent to them automatically. yay! 

Now, how do you get an email signup form onto the page? And how do you get readers to signup? First we’re going to sell the amazing goodness that you’ve put into your pdf:

Adding Your PDF to WordPress

On your WordPress site, you’re going to ‘sell’ the goodies that are in the pdf. Sell the benefits to the reader, not the features that you created. See the difference? Then add a pretty preview of the pdf to your page or sidebar. WordPress makes this easy to do with a built-in PDF Embedder. Let’s do that next.

There are two ways of adding a mockup (or preview) of your PDF. The first is directly in WordPress, if you have less than 10,000 visits per month, you can use this first method.

Option 1: Using the PDF Embedder

Note: this first method makes the PDF available for download right away. The reader will have access withOUT signing up for the email.

To use the PDF Embedder, all you need to do is open your page or post. Add a ‘file’ block. Upload the PDF to the media folder. Select the file you wish to add to the post.

The PDF Viewer will appear. It will show the entire pdf in the middle of block, with the individual thumbnails of pages on the left. The bottom of the preview will have a link to the file and a download button. It looks like this:

When you add this media file to your post, page or media library, the PDF Viewer will create an inline version of the PDF. This is called a PDF Viewer. This PDF Viewer is built in to WordPress, and no plugin is necessary. 

But if this PDF is an opt-in incentive, let’s make sure the readers don’t get the pdf for free! You’ll need Option 2 for this!

Option 2: Adding an Image of the PDF

The second method of getting a preview into your page, is to create an image(jpg) from the cover of your PDF document. For this, we will only upload the images, and not the real PDF. The real pdf is safely in our file host server. Here is how to change a PDF into a bunch of images:

1. Navigate to an online PDF to JPG converter like this one.
2. Upload your PDF, and click on “convert”.
3. It will create a jpg for each page of your pdf.
4. When it is done, click the download button
5. The images are downloaded in an ‘archive’ or zipped up folder.
6. Navigate to the archive/zip folder and ‘unarchive’ or ‘unzip’ the files.
7. Select the cover jpg from the files. And upload that jpg in the Media Tab of your Dashboard. 

Then simply add the jpg to your post or page just like you would any other image. Do not link that image anywhere.

Remember that the link to the pdf – the real link – is ONLY found in the thank you email from your email marketing service provider. 

How to add an Email Signup Box to WordPress

The instructions for the signup blocks are different for each service provider. Have a look at this tutorial to see a few options and how they compare on ease of use and price.

How to Optimize a PDF for SEO

Unfortunately, PDFs don’t come with built-in SEO optimization features, which can make them difficult to find on search engine results pages. Fortunately, there are

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is essential for any website that wants to get noticed online, and PDF files are no exception. While it’s true that PDFs don’t come with built-in SEO features, there are ways to make sure your PDF content ranks high on search results pages.

The first step in optimizing a PDF for SEO is to make sure it’s accurately named. This means that you need to give the file an appropriate and descriptive name that reflects what it contains. The name of the file should be as specific as possible. 

When adding a preview or image of the file to WordPress, you’ll want to use an image for SEO purposes (method 2). Name the image appropriately, and use the alt tag for adding a description of the image. 

If you want the search engines to index all the content, you must put that content into a WordPress page or post. Then search engines (and readers) can read the content.