head link alternate for audio, pdf etc

[Gummibeer]

Hey,

while working on my new website I've done a lot of SEO/SMO optimizations by adding some <link> tags to the head. Now I have a question.
If I generate a PDF and/or audio version of my blog article - would anyone/anything have any benefit if I add a link alternate tag to the head with it? 🤔

<link rel="alternate" type="audio/mp3" href="https://example.com/article.mp3">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/pdf" href="https://example.com/article.pdf">

Or is there no benefit in doing so?

 

[Adam]

I’ve never heard of that helping SEO. Perhaps accessibility tools would pick some up?

I’ve only ever use the alternate link in combination with hreflang to point to the same content but in a different language.

Since the contents of PDF’s are indexed and don’t AFAIK support a canonical link, having a PDF copy would probably do more harm than good by counting as duplicate content.

 

[Gummibeer]

I’ve never heard of that helping SEO. Perhaps accessibility tools would pick some up?

I’ve only ever use the alternate link in combination with hreflang to point to the same content but in a different language.

Since the contents of PDF’s are indexed and don’t AFAIK support a canonical link, having a PDF copy would probably do more harm than good by counting as duplicate content.

Thanks for the hint, yeah my idea was primary about accessibility tools.

Regarding SEO, one of leading SEO agencies in Germany has an article (German) exactly about this: https://www.sistrix.de/frag-sistrix...n-zu-einem-duplicate-content-problem-fuehren/
In short: no problem at all, Google prefers HTML over PDF if duplicated content is detected. But you can also set the canonical URL via HTTP header or exclude these HTML files via robots.txt.

 

[Adam]

Thanks for the hint, yeah my idea was primary about accessibility tools.

Regarding SEO, one of leading SEO agencies in Germany has an article (German) exactly about this: https://www.sistrix.de/frag-sistrix...n-zu-einem-duplicate-content-problem-fuehren/
In short: no problem at all, Google prefers HTML over PDF if duplicated content is detected. But you can also set the canonical URL via HTTP header or exclude these HTML files via robots.txt.

Oh that’s interesting about canonical on HTTP headers! I still think PDF is extra work for no reward. Maybe only for printing but if you had good print CSS that’s better.

MP3 could be good if it would be better quality than what a screen reader would provide (eg. Your own voice recording rather than a computer generated voice).

I’ve seen quite a few blogs now that put an audio version at the beginning of the article

 

[Gummibeer]

Oh that’s interesting about canonical on HTTP headers! I still think PDF is extra work for no reward. Maybe only for printing but if you had good print CSS that’s better.

MP3 could be good if it would be better quality than what a screen reader would provide (eg. Your own voice recording rather than a computer generated voice).

I’ve seen quite a few blogs now that put an audio version at the beginning of the article

You have to try the new Google WaveNet 🤯

Text-to-Speech: Lifelike Speech Synthesis | Google Cloud

Turn text into natural-sounding speech in 220+ voices across 40+ languages and variants with an API powered by Google’s machine learning technology.

cloud.google.com

It's definitely better pronunciation and quality than what I could ever provide. 😂
Primary the en-US-Wavenet-D is pretty awesome. And 1million characters are free per month. After this it gets pretty expensive at least for Wavenet T2S - but the quality is insanely impressive. 🤩

@m1guelpf has also a SaaS for this - not sure which stack he uses, the quality is also good.

Convert your articles to audio with Blogcast

Generate an audio version of your articles, and reach your audience even when they're busy.

blogcast.host

 

[m1guelpf]

@m1guelpf has also a SaaS for this - not sure which stack he uses, the quality is also good.

Not anymore (I sold it), but it used Google WaveNet voices :D