As of early 2026, AI search engines like those powering Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and others are increasingly capable of ‘reading’ the text within PDFs hosted on your website, but it’s not automatic and relies on several factors. Current systems include sophisticated optical character recognition (OCR) and indexing processes to extract and understand the content.
- Text-Based PDFs are Key: AI prioritises PDFs where the text is selectable – meaning it wasn’t created as a scanned image.
- Metadata Matters: Properly labelled PDFs with descriptive file names and alt-text for any embedded images significantly improve readability.
- Sitemap Submission: Ensuring your PDF URLs are included in your XML sitemap helps search engines discover and crawl them.
- Schema Markup: Implementing schema markup specifically for documents can provide additional context to AI algorithms.
In 2026, Australian businesses need to be particularly mindful of the Australian Consumer Law and ensuring all information presented – including within PDFs – is accurate and compliant. Failing to optimise PDFs for AI can mean valuable content isn’t considered during search rankings, potentially impacting your visibility to customers actively searching for your products or services. This is especially important given the increasing reliance on AI-powered search for product research.
Instead of navigating these technical complexities yourself, let ROI.com.au handle the optimisation of your website content, including PDFs, for maximum AI visibility. We can take care of all this for you. Contact our team today to discuss a tailored strategy for your business.
