Get your PDF found in search engines
Publications with Public page or Link only can appear in search results once their Reading Mode is ready; Secure ones never do. You can set the title and description for search results yourself.
Search engines can show your publications in their results. Viewnamic creates a text version of every PDF – the Reading Mode – and puts it on the publication’s page, where search engines can read it. Publications with Public page or Link only can be indexed; Secure publications never are.
Check the settings
- In the Workspace, open the project’s ⋯ menu and choose Accessibility information.
- In the section Reading Mode, check that the status says “Ready”.
- Under Search engines, keep Allow search engines to index this publication ticked.
- Optional: fill in Title for search results (optional) and Description for search results (optional).
- Click Save information.
The same box is in the dialog Access & secure sharing (Access modes).
Which publications can be found
| Access mode | In search results | In Viewnamic’s sitemap |
|---|---|---|
| Public page | Yes | Yes |
| Link only | Yes, where the link is published on a website | No |
| Secure | Never | No |
The sitemap is the list of pages Viewnamic hands to search engines; your public page is in it too once it shows publications. A publication can be indexed when its Reading Mode is ready and the box is ticked. If you scheduled it for your public page, search engines are only allowed to show it from the publication date.
Link only does not hide a publication from search engines. If a link-only publication must not appear in search results, untick the box. For confidential documents, use Secure.
Title and description
Without your own title, Viewnamic uses the publication’s name from the upload or a later rename. Without your own description, it uses the Document summary from the accessibility information, or else the first paragraph of the text. The title and description also appear when the link is shared in chats and on social media.
The Reading Mode is created automatically while you use the Workspace. It needs a PDF with selectable text: scanned pages without text cannot be read. More in Reading Mode.
Your page or Viewnamic’s?
Search engines index the publication’s page on viewnamic.com. If you embed the PDF on your own website and want its content to count for your page, use SEO for your website (SEO for your website).
Links in your PDF
In paid plans, links in your publications, your logo link in the viewer and your website on your public page are normal links that search engines can count for your website. During the free trial, search engines are asked not to count them.
“SEO for your document” is part of every plan, also the free trial: the Reading Mode and the publication’s own page are always included.
Questions
How long does it take until my PDF appears in Google?
Search engines decide themselves when they visit and include a page. This can take days or weeks, and Viewnamic cannot speed it up.
How do I remove a publication from search results?
Untick the indexing box and save, or switch the publication to Secure. Search engines drop the page the next time they visit it.
Are my website embeds indexed as separate pages?
No. The address of an embed is never indexed. Search engines index the publication’s page on Viewnamic or, with SEO for your website, your own page.