Getting Google To Index Images and PDFs

Publishing help SEO
1

I’m trying to get images, PDFs, infographics etc. from my site indexed as that is essential to my business model. Having read this article ( How to make images from webflow site appear in search engine - #5 by Bessie_Armitage ) I’ve added everything to my sitemap ( https://www.bipbapbop.com/sitemap.xml ). The code passed the audit from Validate XML Sitemap - XML Sitemaps Generator however when I submitted it to Google Search Console I got the message “Sitemap can be read, but has errors” with an error for every URL ending in .pdf, presumably as they are on a different root domain to my website.

  1. Are there any fixes for the issue with pdfs?
  2. Even though the images are recognized in the sitemap, what happens if someone links to them? I presume any juice is given to webflow and not to my website?
  3. Would these issues be fixed if external hosting providers were used?
2

You could use a subdomain and host them yourself. That would provide more control an address the GSC issue.

It’s close to impossible to control asset indexing in the the Webflow CDN asset library. No “juice” would flow to you but you can associate the images to your site by including them in a site map. Problem is anyone else could as well.

You would have more control. I prefer to use a subdomain when using a CDN. No guarantees with Google however but at least I can have branding in the URL. Better potential association. It’s what big sites like National Geographic do and for a reason.

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