Although many potential readers start with a query in a search engine like Google/Google Scholar, authors may be unintentionally reducing the chances of their article being found online by how they construct their title and abstract. Few readers look beyond the first page of search results, yet most authors still write for a print ‘audience’. Articles with uninformative titles and abstracts lacking key phrases will lose out because of the way that search engines rank results. At Blackwell we are embarking on a program to equip authors and editors with the simple techniques which, if applied consistently, can help to improve search engine rankings. Much of this is common sense, but we see abstracts coming through production all the time which could be better optimized.
A new set of guidelines for how to better optimize articles for search engines, including examples of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ titles and abstracts, in terms of search engine optimization, are available on our website here: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/seo.asp
Here are some easy tips for better search engine optimization:
· In search engine terms, the title of your article is the most interesting element. Construct a clear and descriptive title.
· Ensure that the title contains the most important words that relate to the topic.
· The number of times that your key words and phrases appear on the page can have an important effect. You should reiterate the key words or phrases from the title within the abstract itself.
· It is best to focus on a maximum of three or four different keyword phrases in an abstract rather than try to get across too many points.
· Remember that people tend to search for specifics, not just one word e.g. women’s fiction, not fiction.
· Finally, always check that the abstract reads well. Remember the primary audience is still the researcher not a search engine, so write for readers not robots.
The editor’s role
As this is a new initiative, we are keen to understand how authors perceive this exercise and how they make use of the guidelines. Editors can help by drawing the author’s attention to them at all possible stages: if they contact you with a submission query; or if they submit a draft; and at acceptance as a final check before production. Include the link to the guidelines (http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/seo.asp) in your correspondence, and stress the importance of the exercise.
A note of realism: we are not promising that every author will get onto the first page of Google results if they follow these guidelines. Search engine optimization depends on many things. However, we can guarantee that a poorly optimized title/abstract will depress the article’s ranking.
What Blackwell is doing to help
In the coming months we are making changes to the stylesheet and background architecture of the Blackwell Synergy website to further assist search engines in ranking Blackwell articles. We have an extensive linking programme with links from many Abstracting and Indexing databases, library sites, and through participation in CrossRef Search. We know that more links to a site help its search engine ranking. We were also the first publisher to allow Google to index the full-text of our articles and Google now regularly indexes our sites as do other search engines such as Yahoo and MSN.
Please send any queries or feedback to Lorna Berrett: lorna.berrett@wiley.com
