On April 18th 2005, Adobe announced that it was going to acquire Macromedia.
Besides delivering a critical blow to competitive balance of two highly
recognized and respected companies, it has inadvertently created a new form of
optimization.
That's right. PDF optimization.
The main technology that Adobe wanted from Macromedia was Flash. Now that they
have it, they will be able to incorporate all the power of Flash into a PDF.
With one fell swoop, they have changed the face of search engine optimization.
As a site owner, I can now potentially have my entire site reside within the
content of a PDF. Sure, it was textually available before, but now I can even
have compressed video, dynamically generated content and visually appealing
content conveniently wrapped up into the web's only cross-compatible portable
platform.
No more worries about having a Flash player installed - that will be
incorporated into the PDF reading software. No more worrying about needing
Quicktime and Media Player versions of video clips. They'll all be in Flash.
Not only is the PDF web friendly, but it is also PDA and Kiosk ready. Now
content can be delivered anywhere to any device that can read a pdf. It can also
be included on CD's, DVD's and even your cell phone.
From a user perspective, this is awesome. From a search engine perspective, it
is great to push boundaries, but we may also see the end of optimizing for
client sites, instead a client will pay a one-time fee to optimize a pdf.
Anyone who makes a living optimizing sites can see the potential loss of revenue
as companies move forward and place their marketing efforts into promoting a pdf
instead of a web site.
Why would a company not embrace this? While it's a true a site like Amazon would
not be able to take full advantage of this, they could embed pdf optimization
for dvd's and cd's sent to your cell phone, based on previous selections you've
made.
It's a marketer's dream, and it makes a buzz agent's job even easier. Word of
mouth marketing will be coupled with a portable demonstration of the product or
service being sold.
While the general public may not become aware of this technology for a few
years, those who reside on the cutting edge will find great ways to use this in
promotion.
Now instead of just watching a movie trailer, you could also have the script,
actor bios and studio contact information. Maybe even after the movie gets
released, you could get your pdf updated with box office results.
The benefits of storing information in a pdf are huge. Instead of storing all of
that information in a database, you have everything you need as a portable
document. No worries about server stability, access to the database or even an
internet connection.
By embracing this new development, it will be another service you can add to
your seo repertoire and allow for your business to adapt to this emerging
technology.