Should I list PDFs in my sitemap file?

Question

Should I add PDFs to my XML sitemap?

I want to know if Google will crawl the PDFs.

Inclined

Answer 1

Yes, Google crawls PDFs.

See the Search Console Help article for a list of file types indexed.

Seadon

Answer 2

Absolutely! If you have "separate pages" that make up the whole of your website, you would be better off to include these pages on your XML site map. Remember that the purpose of the XML site map is to help search engines understand what content is available on your website - PDF's included!

Don't forget to optimize your PDF's for better results!

Tightfisted

What did you mean by this 'don't forget to optimize your PDF's for better results'? How to optimize PDF's? – Slag

Answer 3

The sitemaps standard specificaton does not limit the content types of items in the maps. You can find a link to the list of content types supported by Google in John Skeet's answer.

There's currently no need (and no way) to specify content type in sitemaps, so add it like any other page. If it changes, specification on sitemaps.org will probably be updated first.

Currently Google has such PDF entries in its own sitemap.xml file.

Dianoetic

I didn't find any PDF link here google.com/sitemap.xml – Emporium