Search engine optimization for academic articles

 Getting to grips with Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it is commonly known can seem a daunting task at first. We all know it's important to make sure your research is discoverable on search engines and online journal platforms. Taylor & Francis Online has over 4 million articles available, so how do you make sure your work is easily discovered and read by interested and relevant researchers?

What is SEO?

SEO is simply the process of attempting to improve the search engine ranking of a web page. Google and other search engines prioritize content that it sees as interesting, high-quality, and relevant – displaying such content higher up on search engine result pages.

How can SEO help me as a researcher?

The higher the ranking of your article, the more you can encourage people to click, find, read and eventually cite your research. SEO helps you to be more discoverable. There is a strong correlation between online hits and subsequent citations for journal articles.

Here, we share five quick and easy steps you can follow to help improve the visibility of your online research…

1. Choose Keywords

You must include keywords when you submit your research article. These will be used to get your article indexed on search engines such as Taylor & Francis Online and Google Scholar™. These keywords will help others find your research quickly and accurately, so think of them as labels for your article.

But how do you choose your keywords? Think about how you search for articles, and what words or phrases you enter. Then consider your own article, and which keywords are most relevant to the focus of your work. Once you've created a shortlist, try to research them to make sure the results are in line with the research area of ​​your article.

Narrow down your keywords to make sure they are as accurate as possible, and then make sure you include them in your title and abstract (as some search engines only index these), while still keeping it readable. make. Don't be fooled by keyword stuffing - the practice of inputting your keywords multiple times, resulting in unreadable text.

2. Create a Search-Engine-Friendly Headline

Don't underestimate the power of a precise and concise article title. We've already learned how important keywords are, so make sure your headline includes the keywords you choose as well as other words commonly used in your research discipline.

Remember to always keep the audience of your article in mind. What research are they doing? what are they looking for? Make sure your title provides easily searchable answers to these questions.

3. Build Relationships with External Links

External links to content are widely believed to play a major role in influencing search rankings. Once it is published, linking your article to your personal webpage, blog, social networking sites, and to your departmental website will help make it more searchable on search engines. Don't forget to encourage your coworkers and peers to link to your article from your site as well. The more inbound links you have for your research from other sites, the better!

4. Involve social media.

Tweeting about your research or posting it on Facebook or LinkedIn can directly increase the number of people finding and reading your article. So, why not see who's talking about your research by following your Altmetric Attention Score and engaging in some social media conversations?

Did you know that YouTube is the second most used search engine in the world? If you or your co-authors are avid vloggers, try creating video content and promoting your research in video comments.

5. Complete Your SEO Checklist Every Time You Publish

Make sure to follow the steps to optimize your research article SEO every time you write a newspaper. Treat the above as a checklist for getting things done.