Do PDFs belong in your credit union’s website?
The average credit union website has a couple dozen PDFs lying around (and some far more). Sometimes, they’re necessary for things like printable forms. But much of the time, it would be better for your members to put this information into a web page.
Here’s how to decide what place PDFs have in your credit union’s website.
How do credit union websites use PDFs?
Some of the most common uses we’ve seen for PDFs on CU websites are:
- PDFs of print newsletters
- Fee schedules
- Rates
- Disclosures
- Printable forms for members and staff; Change of Address, Applications, etc.
- e-Books, white papers
- Printable coloring pages for kids
What’s so great about PDFs?
PDFs are easy. If you’re designing a print document, it’s pretty easy to choose “Print to PDF,” upload a PDF to your website and be done with it rather than pasting and formatting the information in a web page. It’s much easier to upload a PDF of your last newsletter than to re-create it as HTML or a series of blog posts.
PDFs can be printable, which is useful for things like paper forms for people to fill in by hand.
Content in PDFs stays where you put it. In building web pages, you have to account for all the different screens and devices it may be viewed on, not to mention things like screen readers. It can be a much richer, more flexible experience for users, but it can be challenging if you want to present information in a very specific way.
PDFs are hard (but not impossible) to change. If you want to make sure information stays the same and looks the same for everyone, a PDF can be a step in that direction. (However, it is possible to edit PDFs, so don’t rely on this for security.)
Regulatory reasons. Sometimes, you need to make sure something is in an exact printed format (Schumer boxes in credit card disclosures, for example) for regulatory reasons. It’s certainly possible to build a compliant Schumer box or similar on a web page, but it’s much easier to just make a print layout.
Large tables can be easier to lay out and print exactly the way you want on a PDF.
What’s so bad about PDFs?
PDFs are often unexpected. Unless you clearly mark links to PDFs, most users won’t expect them, and surprising people isn’t nice.
Inconsistent experience. You’re never quite sure what will happen when someone clicks a PDF. Will it display in their browser or download to their phone? Will they have to install software or wait for Acrobat to open? Where did my computer save it? This is all determined by the user’s device and browser settings, so it’s out of your control.
Poor mobile experience. When 50% of more of your site visitors are on mobile devices, PDFs are much harder to use, and the large files chew through data plans.
Fillable forms in PDFs only work in Adobe Acrobat. Most other readers and browsers don’t work with Adobe’s fillable forms, or are inconsistent.
File size and inefficiency. PDFs can be very large files, and mobile users in particular may not appreciate an unexpected 5MB download when they tap a link.
Accessibility. PDFs, especially complex documents, often have very poor Accessibility. They can be very confusing or impossible to navigate for people using screen readers or other assistive software.
Less search effectiveness – Google can index the content of PDFs, but website content gets priority, and Google generally crawls and picks up web page changes much quicker.
PDF cruft – it’s easy to forget old PDFs with outdated information are hanging around.
Printouts are forever. Misunderstandings can happen when PDFs are printed out and then picked up later. That rate sheet from 2022 probably isn’t valid any more…
Security worries. PDFs are sometimes used to spread malicious software, so people often don’t trust them.
Stubborn browser caching. Since they’re usually large files, browsers are pretty aggressive about caching PDFs. If you have a document that updates regularly, it can be very hard to make sure everyone is looking at the latest version.
CU Website PDF Recommendations
Only use PDFs when there’s a compelling reason, like it’s a document that must be printed. Always make your content a web page if possible.
Limit the number of old newsletter PDFs hanging around your website – a year or two is probably plenty (make sure they’re saved somewhere for historical reasons; just don’t leave them on your website.)
Likewise, review and delete the PDF cruft every so often, especially things that may be date-sensitive like rates or promotions.
Put a prominent publication or effective date on PDFs so you know right away if a printout or download is outdated.
Save a tree. If you’re still printing and mailing newsletters and posting newsletter PDFs, consider moving to an e-newsletter. Plus, an all-digital newsletter makes it much easier to re-use and re-mix your content across social media, your blog, and your website.
Clearly mark links to PDFs so people know what they’re getting. (We do this automatically on the websites we build.) If it’s a large PDF, more than about 100K, mention the file size.
As you work with your website, always test and view the site at multiple screen sizes and on multiple devices to ensure a consistent, polished experience, and do the same with PDFs.
Check with your website gurus on alternatives to PDFs for presenting information on your website. For example, the CU websites we build include a powerful table editor for things like rate sheets and fee schedules, and lots of building blocks for quickly making interesting, mobile-friendly pages.
PDFs are handy sometimes on credit union websites; just make sure you’re giving your members the best possible experience.
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