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I have approximately 5,000 PDF files in 4 different categories on our Joomla website that are currently only accessible by via a PHP/mySQL seach script. The filenames (which are numbers) and file locations are stored in a mySQL db and there is a simple PHP script that sends the query and returns a hyperlink to the correct file. The seach is based on a user typing in a number which corresponds to the filename (people using this will know what the number represents - it's a legal case number).

I'd love for the files to be accessible via a google search but I'm not clear about how to make google find them. Should I just create a text page for each of the 4 categories which contain the links to each of the files and make those easily accessible by google's search?

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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about SEO
    – John Conde
    Dec 20, 2013 at 13:45
  • There a few different ways to approach this. Yes, an XML sitemap is the goal, but how to build the sitemap? There are two basic methods I think: 1) write some php code or use a joomla plugin that will output all the db records (php file locations of the pdfs) into a sitemap and 2) all the pdfs must be in directories - put that directory in a sitemap or use an oneline sitemap tool to generate it.
    – ssaltman
    Dec 20, 2013 at 14:22
  • The file locations of the pdf's are independent of the joomla site - in their own db and unknown to the joomla db. So it appears your second solution is the best way.
    – Roberto
    Dec 20, 2013 at 14:34

1 Answer 1

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Just add them to your XML sitemap. It's more than for HTML files.

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