Will Google and other search engines index the content of PDFs embedded with PDF Embedder? In most cases, yes, search engines treat text-based PDFs much like any other web page.
This guide explains how PDF indexing works and what you can do to give your embedded PDFs strong SEO.
How Search Engines Index PDFs
Search engine bots crawl and index PDF content when the file is accessible via a URL and its content is text-based. PDFs uploaded to your WordPress Media Library remain accessible to crawlers in the same way as any other uploaded file. Embedding a PDF with PDF Embedder does not prevent it from being indexed.
You can easily verify which PDF files from your site are indexed by searching for this string:
site:example.com filetype:pdfCode language: CSS (css)Replace example.com with your domain. In search results Google or Bing will show you all indexed PDF files.
Links within a PDF are also crawled. Note that clickable links inside embedded PDFs are a Premium-only feature — the free version renders links as non-interactive.
A useful overview of how Google handles PDF content is available here: Google: We Index PDFs Just Like Any Other Web Page
Optimizing PDF Metadata for SEO
To give your PDFs strong SEO signals, set the Title, Author, and Subject fields in the document’s properties before uploading the file into your site.
In Microsoft Word: Go to File > Info and edit the document properties. When exporting, use File > Export > Create PDF/XPS rather than printing to PDF. The print method flattens content and removes hyperlinks.
If your PDF contains hyperlinks, save the source document as a Word 97-2003 document (.doc) file before exporting. The .docx format can negatively affect link behavior during PDF export.
In Adobe Acrobat: Open File > Properties and edit the Description tab to set the title, author, and subject fields.
Frequently asked questions
Below are some common questions about PDF SEO and indexing.
Do secure PDFs get indexed by search engines?
No. PDFs stored in the /securepdfs/ folder are protected from direct URL access, which also blocks search engine crawlers. If SEO indexing matters for a document, use a standard non-secure embed.
Why do I see my secure PDFs indexed in Google?
Make sure that the URL to the Secured PDF actually has the /securepdfs/ in its URL. You can see that in your Media library. If you expect them to be secured but they are indexed – that means they have been uploaded not to the /securepdfs/ folder. In this case you will need to reupload them (make sure Secure PDF option is enabled), and embed again.
If you are using Apache and Apache-compatible web servers (that support .htaccess file rules) – you should be protecting your files from being indexed within that folder automatically. But we also have some rules to show you what needs to be done if you do not use Apache on your site.
Just open the PDF Embedder Settings > Secure page in your site admin area, and if you see a notice about Nginx or Caddy, follow the link to configure your server properly.