
SEO is sometimes a time-consuming process. A small improvement in the actual search engine ranking is a worthwhile goal that can […]
By AayushSearch Engine Optimization (SEO), or SEO for short, may seem like a daunting task to understand at first. Everyone knows it is essential to ensure your research is available on online journal platforms and search engines. So, how do you ensure that your work is easily accessible and read by the right and interested researchers?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is getting a website to rank for searches in a search engine.
Google and other search engines show content they consider relevant, high-quality, and engaging at the top of search engine results pages.
The higher your article’s ranking, the more likely people will choose, find, read, and cite your research. SEO enhances your visibility. The number of online views and subsequent citations of journal articles are highly correlated.
A technical SEO is a fundamental part that can either boost or decrease the impact factor of academic journals linked to your organization. Associations are expected to be thought leaders in their field. Still, it doesn’t mean they will be at the top of Google rankings, no matter what. Technical issues can sometimes limit organic visibility traffic and factor score (the ratio of total incoming citations to regular research articles).
Google Scholar discovery is different from Google Search discovery; Google Search is more competitive, and indexing and placement are not guaranteed.
A more significant number of members will use your website than any of your other program offerings. Members are interested in writing for journals with high impact scores, and their articles will be recognized and viewed. In 2022, it is no longer enough to publish content; Google won’t index all content.
In periods of transition, such as web migrations and new designs, academic journals need an SEO expert who is familiar with scholarly journals. Being on the Google Scholar platform is not enough; you need an SEO who understands the relationship between Google Scholar and Google Search.
If you are not SEO savvy, an SEO consultant can help you develop your organic traffic strategy, train your staff, develop implementation plans, and ensure you can manage your SEO strategy, as Google Search’s algorithm is updated nine times daily.
Since the digital world began, content producers have been publishing online versions of books, articles, and everything in between as PDFs. In the early 1990s, Adobe Systems introduced PDF, or “Portable Document Format,” so that content could be transferred in the desired format from one operating system to another or from one type of computer to another. Today, publishing content in PDFs has many advantages, such as the preservation of their graphic integrity, which is also the reason why PDFs are the best format for printing. They are also easy to compress and can be stored on e-readers as well.
However, PDFs have a significant disadvantage: They are not optimal for search engine optimization (SEO) in crawler-based search engines such as Google and Google Scholar. That is why it is good practice to publish HTML articles, in addition to PDF files, if you want to make sure that researchers can find your journal while they are surfing the web.
The first thing to dispel is a misconception. It was once widely believed that Google would not or could not index PDFs, but that is no longer true. It turns out, in fact, that in 2011, Google issued a statement confirming that it could index PDFs.
However, PDFs usually rank worse in internet search results than HTML pages. This is because most of them are not optimized for mobile devices, they are not easily navigable (i.e., it is hard to switch from a PDF to the hosting website), and they lack structured data and metadata, which are available in standard web pages and used by crawlers to organize content.
You can publish articles as PDFs only, but web crawlers can index PDFs, as mentioned above. If your PDFs are in that event, it is critical that the text of your PDFs is accessible to crawlers. Google says the general rule of thumb is that we should be able to index the text if you can copy and paste it from a PDF document into a standard text document.
In addition, you’ll need to host each of your PDF articles on its own HTML web page in order to add extensive metadata and make them mobile-friendly. In the following sections, we’ll discuss these two critical components of SEO.
Artificial intelligence is transforming SEO in 2025 by generating high-quality content, boosting website performance, and interpreting audience intent better. Using AI tools effectively enables associations to reach the right audience and get more engagement.
The following are the methods by which associations can integrate AI into their SEO strategy:
Content Creation Powered by Artificial Intelligence: By using tools like Jasper AI, ChatGPT, and Writesonic, associations can kick out content that follows SEO norms in a very short time span. AI can help not only with generating topic ideas, initial drafts, and SEO-focused revisions but also help keep you on track. However, the main thing is that the AI content must be reviewed by experts so you can get accurate content with personal insights. Imagine a health association using artificial intelligence (AI) to produce blog content, which needs to be reviewed by a qualified health professional before being published.
Predictive Search Engine Optimization for Content Topics: AI-based SEO platforms like MarketMuse and BrightEdge analyze trends and suggest high-performing topics for an association’s audience. Predictive analytics can be used by associations to predict what queries their audience may search for and develop content in line with user needs before the peak of the trend. This proactive strategy is required in order to establish authority and bring consistent traffic.
Tools that enhance the UX can be used by AI to analyze user behaviour and thus improve the user experience (UX). It allows associations to understand how visitors interact with their websites. Heatmaps, which are powered by AI, like Hotjar, show you where users are spending the most time or are leaving a page. This information helps associations optimize their content layout, call to action, and page structure to increase engagement and conversions.
AI-Driven SEO Audits: AI-driven SEO audits are conducted across platforms like SEMrush and Ahrefs. These audits make site assessments easier by identifying potential problems that may affect search rankings. They can also find broken links, duplicate content, slow-loading pages, and missed internal linking chances that may negatively impact an association’s search visibility. With the implementation of routine audits with AI, websites are guaranteed to be at optimal SEO health.
In the content of specialized disciplines like finance, health, or law, Google’s focus on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) has become more critical. Associations need to follow E-E-A-T standards in order to improve rankings and build credibility.
Demonstrating the Credentials and Expertise of the Author: Content written by acknowledged experts is highly valued by Google. If you work with associations, you should be vigilant about making sure that professionals with verifiable expertise in the subject matter write, review, or author articles, blog posts, or resources. For instance, in order to make the article look more authoritative to Google, a legal association should attribute content to licensed attorneys or legal scholars.
Content Updates and Quality Control: Thus, to meet the criteria of “Experience”, associations need to regularly complement their content, do an evaluation and change it to keep it valid and relevant. This is especially important in industries that are in constant flux — like healthcare or technology. For example, the regular updating of an article on data privacy laws helps boost the association’s credibility and authority because an article reflects changes in legislation.
Quality Sources and External References: To substantiate your content, include citations from credible sources. When Google references a government publication, research study, or established organization, it validates an association; it is convinced with legitimacy. For example, if a health association is addressing public health trends, it should cite the CDC or WHO to lend it authority.
Transparent Contact Information and Policies: The existence of clear privacy policies and easy-to-find contact information on your website increases your trustworthiness. Google likes websites that answer user questions or concerns because they make them more credible.
Today, user experience plays a significant role in SEO rankings. These metrics might lead associations to get better search rankings. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) are three critical UX metrics that Google’s Core Web Vitals measure. The following are methods by which associations can enhance Core Web Vitals:
Image and Media Optimization: Large images can cause a slowdown of display times and affect LCP. It is essential to ensure that page load quickly on mobile, so associations should compress and resize images and videos appropriately. It can also be made more efficient by using lazy loading — delaying the loading of pictures shown beneath the fold until the user zooms in.
Mobile-Friendliness: Google’s mobile-first indexing makes the point that mobile usability is essential for ranking. Associations must ensure that their websites are mobile-friendly and responsive, with minimal text that overflows and user-friendly navigation on smaller displays.
Prioritize Content Stability: Sometimes, a high CLS score is a result of users being frustrated by content that changes unexpectedly during page load. Layout changes should be corrected by associations if they could potentially cause a disruption to the user experience by ensuring that elements launch in a predictable manner.
It is essential to include the primary keywords in your article to help it stand out in the search results. The article also should communicate in a clear and compelling way its subject matter and, ideally, what it is trying to solve with the query or problem it is attempting to answer. For example, if you’re writing about how researchers are using AI in academic writing, a title like ‘A critical analysis of the use of AI in academic writing’ would probably do better than ‘Academics, chatbots, and machine learning,’ even though the latter is more compact. The title of your article is the first thing potential readers will see, so it is important to remember that. So, it should also effectively convey the value of your article and urge readers to click on it.
Another important ranking factor for crawler-based search engines such as Google and Google Scholar are backlinks, or ‘inbound links’ or ‘incoming links.’ Hyperlinks that connect a page on one website to another website are known as backlinks. Crawler-based search engines use backlinks to find out how much content is related to other web content and how good and valuable the content is. When an article gets a lot of backlinks (especially from reputable and authoritative websites), Google is told that it is beneficial. It is then likely that it will rank higher in search engine results.
This is why researchers should take advantage of the opportunity to get backlinks to their articles. One of the most efficient ways to do this is to conduct interviews with or provide supplementary content to appropriate publications in your field that cite your work.
Backlinks in academia, without a doubt, are citations. Many scholarly search engines and databases, including Web of Science and Google Scholar, include citation counts in the search results. Google Scholar also cites new content for indexing. Although there is no application process, Google Scholar still is an invitation-based search engine. Content published on websites that Google Scholar considers to be reputable academic sources or content that is cited by other reputable sources is accepted by Google Scholar alone.
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