Don’t let your paper get lost in the shuffle. Help it get discovered by the right people.
It’s important to do everything you can to help your paper stand a good chance of ranking well in academic search engines like Google Scholar. For people to appreciate your results and cite your article, they first have to find it. In this short guide, you’ll learn how to use keywords in the abstract to improve the search engine optimization (SEO) of your paper.
Academic search engines use multiple factors to index and rank articles such as linked citations and keywords in the title, abstract, and main text. Unfortunately, different academic search engines use different criteria to index articles, some of which are not disclosed. So, it is not possible to optimize your article for every search engine.1 However, you can and should optimize your article for Google Scholar.
Some of the factors that Google Scholar uses to index and rank articles are under your control while others, such as the citation count and portions of the metadata, are not. Two of the most important factors that you have complete control over are the title and abstract. While the title is arguably the most important of the two, optimizing your abstract is also crucial, and it all begins with keywords.
While you are writing your paper, selecting keywords probably feels relatively unimportant. Keywords don’t seem all that special when compared to the data and results. Let me stop you right there—keywords can make the difference between your article showing up on the first page of a search or being buried on the fourth page. Your keywords should include general terms that describe your research topic as well as terms that are specific to your study. In both cases, you should consider what others would likely search for if they wanted to find your paper. It is often helpful to run a few practice searches in Google Scholar to test out potential keywords.
Once you have selected the best keywords for your article, it’s time to put them to work in the abstract. The Google Scholar algorithm seems to take into account the number of times that keywords appear in the abstract, although this may not hold true for the full body text.1,3 Articles with keywords that are repeated multiple times in their abstracts seem to rank higher than articles with no or few keywords in their abstracts. This is also true for search engines that are specific to other science databases and academic journals, which heavily weigh the information in abstracts.
Before you go and insert keywords into each sentence of your abstract, let me offer a word of warning. Do not keyword spam the algorithm. Keyword stuffing is frowned upon and can make your writing sound awkward. There is a sweet spot here for keyword repetition. Your keywords should be used naturally, purposefully, and never excessively. Generally, this means somewhere between 3–6 times in an abstract.
A really great example of how to do this properly is the article “Abundance and distribution of the white shark in the Mediterranean Sea.”2 At the time of writing this post, this article ranked as the fourth result on the first page of Google Scholar when searching for the short-tailed keyword “white shark.” This keyword appears in the title along with three other important keywords: “abundance” (general), “distribution” (general), and “Mediterranean” (specific). As you will see in their abstract (below), the authors were able to use each important keyword naturally and purposefully around 2–5 times.
Abstract
Conservation of apex predators is a key challenge both in marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The white shark is a rare but persistent inhabitant of the Mediterranean Sea and it is currently assessed as “critically endangered” in the region. However, the population trends and dynamics of this species in the area are still unknown. Little is known about white shark distribution, habitat use and population abundance trends, aspects that are critical for conservation and management. In this study, we built the most comprehensive database of white shark occurrence records in the region. We collected 773 different records from different sources and used them to characterize the spatial and temporal patterns of abundance of Mediterranean white sharks between 1860 and 2016. We analysed these data by using generalized additive models and used spatially disaggregated information on human population abundance as a proxy of observation effort. Our results suggest a complex trajectory of population change characterized by a historical increase and a more recent reduction (61%, range 58%–72%) since the second half of the 20th century. In particular, analyses reveal a 52% (range 37%–88%) to 96% (range 92%–100%) overall decline in different Mediterranean sectors and a contraction in spatial distribution. Here, we provide the first reconstruction of abundance trends and offer new hypotheses regarding the drivers of change of white sharks in the Mediterranean. Our approach can be broadly applied to data-poor contexts to reconstruct change and inform the conservation of endangered top predators in the Mediterranean Sea and other intensely used marine regions.
While the use of keywords in the title and abstract is not the only factor that is considered by the Google Scholar algorithm, an abstract like this one goes a long way toward boosting the SEO ranking of an article. Now that you understand the importance of optimizing your abstract with keywords, take a moment to strategically select and use the right keywords in your next abstract.
References
1 Beel J, Gipp B, and Wilde E. (2010) “Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO): Optimizing Scholarly Literature for Google Scholar and Co.” Journal of Scholarly Publishing 41 (2): 176–190 DOI: 10.3138/jsp.41.2.176
2 Moro S, Jona-Lasinio G, and Block B et al. (2020) “Abundance and distribution of the white shark in the Mediterranean Sea.” Fish and Fisheries 21:338–349. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12432
3 Beel J and Gipp B. (2009) “Google Scholar’s Ranking Algorithm: An Introductory Overview.” In Larsen B and Leta J (Eds), Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI’09) 1:230–241,
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This is the right blog for everyone who wants to find out about this topic. You understand so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I personally would want toÖHaHa). You certainly put a new spin on a topic thats been written about for decades. Wonderful stuff, just great!
Средства для борьбы с грызунами. Какие методы борьбы существуют? На текущий момент существует огромное количество методов борьбы с грызунами. Некоторые из них пришли из древности, другие разработаны в современности. Наши прадеды располагали всего 2 инструментами, которые помогали ловить мышей и крыс – это кошки и мышеловки. Это не позволяло в полной мере избавиться от вредителей, но сократить их численность удавалось.