Resource of the Week #20: Making Your Articles Findable on the Web

Hello again! This week’s resource gives advice for making journal articles easy for search engines (for example, Google) to find.

The resource, titled “Optimizing Your Article for Search Engines”, is from the publisher Wiley-Blackwell. I learned of it from a science graduate student in a course I teach. (Thank you.)

One main piece of advice from this resource: Write a title containing the terms that readers are likely to use when searching for articles on the topic.

The other main piece of advice: Repeat in the abstract the main words or main phrases from the title.

This resource includes 3 examples of titles and abstracts that are well optimized for search engines. For comparison, it includes titles and abstracts that describe the same research but are poorly suited in this regard.

The advice for optimizing a title and abstract for search engines is also good overall advice for writing a title and abstract. By writing a title and abstract well, you can both increase the likelihood that readers will find your article and help readers to understand it.

Until the next post— Barbara