Google is often described as the Internet’s biggest blind user. Is this true when it comes to PDF? AccessibilitéWeb shares research results on the subject.

1. PDF: Accessibility and SEO
CSUN 2012
March 1st, 2012 – San Diego
2012. AccessibilitéWeb Toll Free: 1 (877) 315-5550 1

2. Intellectual property
These contents are completely under a Creative
Commons license.
• 2012. Some rights reserved
• Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ca/deed.en_CA
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3. Speaker
Vincent François
General manager,
Coopérative AccessibilitéWeb, Montréal, Québec
9 years experience, Web accessibility
W3C invited expert, Evaluation and methodology Task
force (2011)
E-mail: vf@csaw.ca
Twitter: @vincent45nord
2012. AccessibilitéWeb Toll Free: 1 (877) 315-5550 3

4. Overview
PDF: Accessibility and SEO
Google is often described as the Internet’s biggest
blind user.
Is this true when it comes to PDF?
AccessibilitéWeb shares research results on the
subject.
2012. AccessibilitéWeb Toll Free: 1 (877) 315-5550 4

5. Agenda
Project Questions
Testing Scenario, Tools, Categories, Data
Categories Results
Summary
Questions
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6. Project Questions
1. Do the accessibility guidelines help the PDF
files being indexed by search engines?
2. Can accessibility guidelines hurt indexing
efforts?
3. For PDF, is Google really the biggest blind
user on the Internet?
2012. AccessibilitéWeb Toll Free: 1 (877) 315-5550 6

7. Testing Scenario
First tests conducted by AcceDE in France.
Complementary testing done by AccessibilitéWeb in
Québec.
Developed specific PDF test files (tagged, partially
tagged, untagged), to measure different test
categories.
No prior determination of the accessibility level of
tested PDF files.
No specific SEO strategy or optimization changes
brought to the PDF files.
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8. Testing Tools
PDF converted from OpenOffice Writer 3.3.0 and
final tagging with Acrobat Pro X.
Indexing with Google Web Master Tools.
Search with Google on specific domain name, with
specific file extension (.pdf).
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9. Testing Categories
• Titles
• Main content language
• Replacement text
• Semantic structure tagging
• Reading content order
• Metadata
• Language changes
• Color contrast
• Complex Table
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10. Testing Data
Different files sets for each category, including:
• Basic text : litteral English background text.
• Target text: short technical English text meant to
be found by Google, without significant common
words within the basic text.
• French quote: short French paragraph of text to be
found by Google.
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11. Reporting Structure
OK : Indexed file and target text found.
NO : Indexed file and target text not found.
N/A : File not indexed.
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12. Titles
Does the metadata title impact Google?
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13. Titles
Files set
1. No tag, no title.
2. No tag, title.
3. Tagged file, no title
4. Tagged file, title
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14. Titles
Results
Title is used by Google and displayed in the results
page.
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15. Main content language
Is Google taking into consideration the specified
main content language?
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16. Main content language
Files set
1. No tag, no language specified.
2. No tag, language = “French”.
3. No tag, language = “English”.
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17. Main content language
Results
Google does not take into consideration the
specified language.
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18. Replacement text
Is Google reading the replacement text?
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19. Replacement text
Files set
1. No tag, figure without replacement text.
2. Tagged file, figure with replacement text.
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20. Replacement text
Results
Google does not read the replacement text.
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21. Semantic structure tagging
Is Google taking into consideration the semantic
structure in tags?
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22. Semantic structure tagging
Files set
1. No tags.
2. Tagged file, with some <H1> and <H2>.
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23. Semantic structure tagging
Results
Google does not take into consideration the
semantic structure in tags.
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24. Reading content order
Is Google taking into consideration the content
order reflow?
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25. Reading content order
Files set
1. Target text: “ordrematusbalatum belli”.
2. Tagged file,
reading order = “ordrematusbalatum belli”, reflow
order = “ordrematusbalatum belli”.
3. Tagged file,
reading order = “balatum belli ordrematus”,
reflow order = “ordrematusbalatum belli”.
4. Tagged file,
reading order = “ordrematusbalatum belli”, reflow
order = “balatum belli ordrematus”.
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26. Reading content order
Results
Google does take into consideration the content
order's reflow.
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27. Metadata
Are other metadata (Author, Summary, Update
date) taken into consideration by Google?
• These are mandatory metadata according to
SGQRI 008-02.
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28. Metadata
Files set
1. Basic text with correct tags,
Author metadata = “Vincent François”.
2. Basic text with correct tags,
Summary metadata = Target text.
3. Basic text with correct tags,
no Author, no Summary.
Test scenario
Searching Target text.
Searching modification date.
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29. Metadata
Results
The other metadata have no impact on the search.
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30. Language changes
Does indicating the language changes help to find
content?
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31. Language changes
Files set
1. Basic text including the French quote, no tag.
2. Basic text including the French quote,
French tagged only.
3. Basic text including the French quote,
basic and French tagged.
Test scenario
Searching French quote.
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32. Language changes
Results
In our test, indicating language change helps to
find the entire French quote.
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33. Colour contrast
Does the colour contrast have any impact on
indexing?
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34. Colour contrast
Files set
1. Target text, black on white
along with unique word = “First”
2. Target text, pale grey on light grey
(#D4D1CD/#EBEBEB, contrast = 1.3:1)
along with unique word = “Second”
3. Target text, white on white
along with unique word = “Third”
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35. Colour contrast
Test scenario
Searching Target text.
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36. Colour contrast
Results
Color contrast have to impact.
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37. Complex Table
Does a well tagged complex table help finding the
data in it?
• Target text: explanations to choose a specific form,
depending upon birthplace and age
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38. Complex Table
Files set
1. Target text in a complex table, without tag.
2. Target text in a complex table, with tag but
without explicit link between data cells and
headers.
3. Target text in plain text.
4. Target text in a complex table, with tag and
explicit link between data cells and headers.
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39. Complex Table
Test scenario
Searching Target text.
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40. Complex Table
Results
No impact at all.
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41. Summary
1. Are the accessibility guidelines helping the
PDF files being indexed by search engines?
Very little help.
Yes for titles, reading content order.
No for main content language, replacement text,
semantic structure tagging, metadata, language
changes, color contrast, complex table.
2012. AccessibilitéWeb Toll Free: 1 (877) 315-5550 41

42. Summary
2. Can accessibility guidelines hurt indexing?
No.
2012. AccessibilitéWeb Toll Free: 1 (877) 315-5550 42

43. Summary
3. For PDF, is Google really the biggest blind on
the Internet?
Not really, but in order to maintain it's title,
Google should learn to benefit from the work
coming from the accessibility field.
2012. AccessibilitéWeb Toll Free: 1 (877) 315-5550 43

44. More information
PDF accessibles et référencement (AcceDE, French)
http://www.pdf-accessible.com/fr/pdf-et-accessibilite/accessibilite-pdf-et-
seo/
Raw files
http://accessibiliteweb.com/pdf-seo/pdf-seo-test-page.html
AccessibilitéWeb (French)
http://accessibiliteweb.com
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45. Questions?
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46. Thank you
Vincent François Email: vf@csaw.ca
General Manager Web: www.accessibiliteweb.com
Blog:
Coopérative AccessibilitéWeb Twitter : @vincent45nord
1751 Richardson street, suite 6111
Montreal (Quebec), Canada H3K 1G6 Spkr8 - Comments, suggestions
Toll Free: +1 (877) 315-5550 http://spkr8.com/t/9363
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