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Research Visibility

Seo for authors: a how-to guide.

• Academic Search Engine Optimization
• How Do Search Engines Rank?

Top Tips to make Your Article Discoverable

Three ways to optimize articles after publication, promoting your article using the internet and social media.

• Peer Networks

Search Engine Optimization can help researchers who publish drive usage, readership and citations of their articles to raise the visibility of their research. Whether an article is being indexed by the academic search engines is crucial, but it is also important where an article lands in the ranked search results list as that ranking will greatly impact the visibility of an author’s research. Items high on the list are more likely to be read.

Access and Citations

Is your article being indexed by academic search engines like Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore and PubMed or is it only accessible via subscription databases the search robots can’t access to index so the contents do not show in academic search engines?

When submitting an article for publication, authors should consider how easily discoverable their research will be to their audience and enhance opportunities for citation. Open-access articles receive more citations than articles accessible only by purchase or subscription.

See University of California Open Access Policy: A How-to Guide .

Authors will benefit from selecting publishers and journals with policies that cooperate with Google Scholar (and other search academic engines) because it makes their published research articles available to more readers and facilitates more citations. Citations are a significant factor in determining rank in results pages of Google Scholar and many other academic search engines . If a journal is not online, authors should favor those who allow authors to put their articles on their or their institutions’ home pages and/ or repositories.

• Think about the most important words that are relevant to the article.
• Consider looking up specific keywords on Google Trends or the  Google Adwords Keywords tool to find out which search terms are popular.
• Try out your keywords in Google Scholar, etc. and if too many results are returned, it may be better to consider a keyword with less competition.
• The title needs to be descriptive and must contain a key phrase related to your topic.
• Put your keywords within the first 65 characters of the title.  Google Scholar considers the length of a title.  In a search for the phrase ‘SEO for Authors: A How-to Guide’ would be ranked higher than one titled ‘Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Authors: Ranking Information and Publishing Tips’.   Although in general titles should be fairly short, we suggest choosing a longer title if there are many relevant keywords.
• Include the keywords and phrases in your abstract that a researcher might search on to find your article.  Provide additional relevant keywords and synonyms for those keywords as they relate to your article keeping in mind those keywords are also used by the abstracting and indexing services as a method to tag the research content. 
• Refer to authors names and initials in a consistent manner throughout the paper and in the same way they’ve been referred to in the past online publications.  If names are used inconsistently, search engines may not be able to id articles or citations correctly; as a consequence, citations may be assigned incorrectly, and articles will not be as highly ranked as they should be.  For instance, Jöran, Joeran, and Joran are all correct spellings of the same name (given different transcription rules), but Google Scholar sees them as three different names. Obtain an ORCID and use it when submitting works to publishers to aid dissambiguation.
• Headings for the various sections of your article tip off search engines to the structure and content of your article.  Incorporate your keywords and phrases in these headings wherever it’s appropriate.
• Academic search engines, and especially Google Scholar, assign  significant  weight to citation counts.  Citations influence whether articles are indexed at all, and they also influence the ranking of articles.  When referencing your own published work, it is important to include a link where that work can be downloaded .  This helps readers to find your article and helps academic search engines to index the referenced articles’ full text. 
• Vector graphics containing font based text should be used instead of rasterized images so it can be indexed by academic search engines.  Graphics stored as JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, or PNG files are not vector graphics.
• When documents are converted to PDF, all metadata should be correct (especially author and title).  Some search engines use PDF metadata to identify the file or to display information about the article on the search engine results page.
• Publish article on the author’s home page and upload it to eScholarship (if author is a UC Faculty it will most likely be harvested via the Publication Management System and then presented to the author for inclusion in the eScholarship repository) so it can be indexed by Google Scholar and other academic search engines. However, it is important to determine that posting or uploading the article does not constitute a violation of the author’s agreement with the publisher. Remember to save your final drafts (pre-publication) so you can submit it to the repository.
• An article that includes outdated words might be replaced by either updating the existing article or publishing a new version on the author’s home page as Google Scholar considers all versions of an article available on the web. Updated articles should be clearly labeled as such so a reader is aware it is a modified version. This procedure may be a violation of an author’s publisher copyright policy so be sure to check first.
• It is important to create meaningful parent web pages for PDF files. This means that Web pages that link to the PDF files should mention the most important keywords and the PDFs metadata (title, author, and abstract).

Once your article is published, employ social media to enhance visibility of the research.  Update everyone in your academic and social networks about your published article.   The number of in-bound links is a factor in search engine ranking.   Share your article within the following social media tools (as appropriate for the research topic):

• LinkedIn  
• Your blog or websites that you contribute to
• Your institution's repository ( eScholarship University of Califormia)
• ResearchGate
• Your website
• Your academic  institution's website
• Wikipeadia (as an appropriate external link)

This guide is a compilation of three documents:

• Jöran Beel, Bela Gipp, and Eik Wilde. Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO): Optimizing Scholarly Literature for Google Scholar and Co . Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 41 (2): 176-190, January 2010. Doi 10.3138/jsp.41.2.176. University of Toronto Press. http://www.beel.org/files/papers/2010-ASEO--preprint.pdf
• Wiley Search Engine Optimization: For Authors
• University of California Open Access Policy: A How-to Guide
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• Last Updated: Feb 27, 2024 2:12 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/seo

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Academic SEO: 7 Steps to Optimize Research Articles For Search Engines

In the age of digital information overload, good SEO can help you make your research stand out.

This article was first published in 2014 on the “OpenScience” blog and has since been updated by the editors. It is part of a series, which serves to provide hands-on information and resources for authors and editors.

Needless to say, most researchers use the internet to search for literature and to communicate with peers. At the same time, the World Wide Web has gotten crowded. That is why more and more people are starting to consider new ways of making their research more visible online.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a controversial issue and might be interpreted as cheating or unfair competition by some, but in fact, good SEO practice is nothing of the kind. As you will see, academic SEO is just a set of a few tips that you should consider after finishing work on your book or paper, and which could help you to get more views, downloads and citations. However, it will only work if the publication itself is good and interesting enough. Academic SEO does not substitute but support the quality of content.

Follow these 7 steps to optimize your research articles for academic search engines:

• Pick relevant and effective keywords
• Create a short and descriptive title
• Write a clear abstract
• Review the body of your work
• Decide on a suitable journal
• Check your metadata
• Spread the word

1. Pick relevant and effective keywords

Keywords are crucial elements for both search engines and literature recommendation tools. Disregarding this fact will limit the chances of gaining an audience on the net.

After finishing work on your book or paper, you should take a moment to think about choosing keywords. Probably the best way of doing it is to simply list the words that have been used frequently in the text. You should ensure that you have not missed any of the crucial terms of your argument and then check if they are relevant to your field. If they are not, try to replace them with well-defined equivalent terms. Try to limit the number of keywords to the few most specific to your book or paper.

A good idea is to test them with your favourite academic search engine to ensure that the search returns works that are relevant to yours. After you have chosen the right keywords, add some of the most popular synonyms and abbreviations.

2. Create a short and descriptive title

Compose a short and descriptive title from your keywords. Use Einstein’s razor : it should be as simple as possible but not simpler. Remember that the title is the first thing that a potential reader will see in search results.

The title has to contain keywords, and should describe your research. It is not the best place to express your artistic soul. “Therapy X decreased mortality in Y disease in a group of forty males” is a much better title than “Victory on an invisible enemy: success in fighting disease Y with therapy X”.

3. Write a clear abstract

Write a clear abstract that contains your keywords, and if possible also some synonyms familiar to non-professionals. It should be simple. Describe your objectives, methods, results and conclusions. Placing keywords should be easy if you have chosen them correctly.

4. Review the body of your work

Ensure that the keywords are present in your article and that they occur frequently but not so frequently as to annoy the reader. Remember that you have written this article for a human, not a search engine. Create a “references” or “bibliography” section and link your references, if possible with a DOI number, although remember to follow the editorial requirements of the journal.

You should also make sure that all graphics, tables and graphs that you have used are vector as opposed to raster ones (*.bmp, *.png, *.gif, *.tif, *.jpg are examples of raster objects that are not recommended). Otherwise, search engines will not be able to read them and the text inside these graphs will not influence your position in search results.

5. Decide on a suitable journal

Consider publishing your work in an Open Access model . Nonrestrictive licensing will allow your work to be resubmitted to a larger number of places on the web.

Are you looking for the right place to publish your paper?  Find out here what we do to make your article more discoverable and bolster citations.

A wider reach can also be achieved by choosing a journal that is indexed by a big number of academic databases and search services, like CrossRef, Clarivate Analytics’ Web of Science, the Directory of Open Access Journals, etc.

If you are about to publish a paper, choose a journal with a name that is relevant to the topic of your research (yes, a journal’s name is also relevant for SEO!)

6. Check your metadata

You should double check that the pdf document of your article contains all metadata such as title, author affiliations, etc. The same metadata should also be visible on the website, which is linked to the document (for example on a publisher’s website or on your private home page).

7. Spread the Word

Inform your friends and colleagues via social media about your recent work and publish it in your Mendeley library. While this is certainly important, remember that it is much less important than doing the research itself!

[Title Image via Getty Images]

Wietold Kinc

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Search engine optimization (SEO) for digital marketers: exploring determinants of online search visibility for blood bank service

Online Information Review

ISSN : 1468-4527

Article publication date: 16 September 2022

Issue publication date: 26 July 2023

Given that online search visibility is influenced by various determinants, and that influence may vary across industries, this study aims in investigating the major predictors of online search visibility in the context of blood banks.

Design/methodology/approach

To formalize the online visibility, the authors have found theoretical foundations in activity theory, while to quantify online visiblity the authors have used the search engine optimization (SEO) Index, ranking, and a number of visitors. The examined model includes ten hypotheses and was tested on data from 57 blood banks.

Results challenge shallow domain knowledge. The major predictors of online search visibility are Alternative Text Attribute (ALT) text, backlinks, robots, domain authority (DA) and bounce rate (BR). The issues are related to the number of backlinks, social score, and DA. Polarized utilization of SEO techniques is evident.

Practical implications

The methodology can be used to analyze the online search visibility of other industries or similar not-for-profit organizations. Findings in terms of individual predictors can be useful for marketers to better manage online search visibility.

Social implications

The acute blood donation problems may be to a certain degree level as the information flow between donors and blood banks will be facilitated.

Originality/value

This is the first study to analyze the blood bank context. The results provide invaluable inputs to marketers, managers, and policymakers.

• Online search visibility
• Search engine optimization
• Blood banks
• Health care

Mladenović, D. , Rajapakse, A. , Kožuljević, N. and Shukla, Y. (2023), "Search engine optimization (SEO) for digital marketers: exploring determinants of online search visibility for blood bank service", Online Information Review , Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 661-679. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-05-2022-0276

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Dušan Mladenović, Anida Rajapakse, Nikola Kožuljević and Yupal Shukla

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

Online search technology is an essential part of one's daily life ( Zineddine, 2016 ) and has been a major disruption in the digital era. It is being utilized for answering a range of questions, i.e.  coronavirus updates, healthcare providers near me . According to Drees (2019) , daily around 1 billion questions are being asked about healthcare on Google and The Telegraph reports that healthcare-related queries account for 7% of Google's total searches ( Murphy, 2019 ). Individuals' shift to digital has forced organizations to focus more on improving their online visibility ( Neirotti and Raguseo, 2021 ) and the healthcare sector is also not an exception. Online visibility is a function of digital marketing, which refers to “the extent to which a user is likely to encounter a reference to a website in his or her online environment” ( Wang and Vaughan, 2014 , p. 292), whereby search engine optimization (SEO) may help organizations to improve online visibility. The present study focuses on understanding the factors that lead to the improvement of online visibility in healthcare specifically in the blood bank context.

The advancement of the online visibility of blood banks holds importance for healthcare practitioners. For example, World Health Organization (WHO) assesses that approximately 1% of the world population needs to donate blood to level up the demand ( World Health Organization, 2010 ). Moreover, developing countries have on average 15 times lower donation rates than developed countries ( Abbasi et al. , 2018 ). The blood bank context offers a unique perspective for understanding determinants of online visibilities for several reasons. Neither a shortage nor excess of blood is efficient. Blood shortages may increase costs whilst excess can lead to financial losses for service providers due to the costs related to blood disposal ( Aravindakshan et al. , 2015 ). The blood banks' goal is to maintain an optimal level of collected blood within a range that prevents both shortages and excess ( Aravindakshan et al. , 2015 , p. 271). Locating a blood bank would be easy for donors and seekers only if the activities related to blood collection are centralized. In the case of decentralized collection of blood, blood banks need to try actions for improving online visibility. For example, poor visibility of blood banks in online queries may cause a mismatch in the demand-supply of blood or may result in wastage of blood. Online visibility may help to bridge the gap between blood bank service providers and blood seekers.

Literature on online visibility has been vocal on its influence on enhancing economic value (i.e. firm performance) ( Wang and Vaughan, 2014 ) and has been silent on what leads to increment into online visibility. For example, Wang and Xu (2016) investigated the role of web visibility in improving firm performance in the form of improvement in asset efficiency and the form of improvement in market value. Past literature on online visibility suggests that the better the visibility greater the shareholder value ( Wang and Vaughan, 2014 ). A stream of research also links web visibility with web traffic ( Drèze and Zufryden, 2004 ). Overall, online visibility has been investigated from an outcome perspective through web trafficking ( Moreno and Martinez, 2013 ; Wang and Xu, 2016 ; Ziakis et al. , 2019 ) and has not been investigated from a determinant's perspective. To address this research gap, the present study uses measures such as SEO index, visitors, and web ranking as a proxy to online visibility and tries to explore the determinants in the healthcare service context. Accordingly, the broad research question the present study tries to answer is, how to enhance online search visibility in healthcare?

The present study tries to contribute theoretically and managerially to the online visibility literature on multiple fronts. Firstly, we use activity theory to explain how on-page, off-page, and technical determinants affect online visibility. Secondly, many industries lean on SEO methodologies to boost their online search visibility. However, there is a major gap in investigating the prosocial sphere and health sector in general. Thirdly, we use different measures of capturing online visibility: SEO index, visitors, and ranking. Those have been hardly investigated in search visibility literature. Practically, the present study provides knowledge to blood banks to improve their online search visibility and optimization. The results of our study may help blood banks to strengthen their digital communication channels and their specifics in attracting and retaining donors. Also, it can assist blood bank practitioners in optimizing blood storage and may help in avoiding wastage of blood and to timely cater information needs by improvements into online visibility.

The paper proceeds in the following way: the next section deals with tenets of activity theory and its relevance to the present study. Afterward, the literature about online search behavior and the literature on determinants of online visibility have been discussed. The subsequent section contains the methodology part, whereby the concluding part of the study contains results, discussion, and implications.

2. Related work

2.1 online information retrieval and activity theory.

The activity theory has been recognized as a framework that depicts individuals information seeking ( Xu, 2007 ; Pettersson, 2021 ). It considers individual behavior in terms of activity systems that are goal-directed ( Artemeva and Freedman, 2001 , p. 167). This theory observes the whole totality of elements involved in information-seeking, whereby it implies activities that capture individuals' cognitive state, actions, information retrieval systems (IRS), and documents ( Pettersson, 2021 ). Moreover, it depicts external elements in form of IRS and retrieved documents. Importantly, it observes IRS as a dynamic element ( Xu, 2007 ), which emphasizes its role, as all information seeking is channeled through it. Nowadays, individuals online frequently interact with IRS and present documents ( Pettersson, 2021 ). The theory is well established and has been frequently utilized in the IRS literature ( Artemeva and Freedman, 2001 ; Xu, 2007 ; Allen et al. , 2011 ), and in a similar environment ( Uden et al. , 2008 ; Spais, 2010 ). It can be major assistance when one needs to conclude terms of actions and impact on participants, goals, and other activities ( Engeström, 2000 ; Pettersson, 2021 ). To be able to manage individuals' information behavior effectively, the dominant features of the IRS, need to be understood accordingly. These can be critical tasks in sectors like health care, journalism, etc.

It is expected that as the population grows, the health information seeking behavior (HISB) will intensify ( Jacobs et al. , 2017 ) and that a crucial role in the information dissemination will be upon service providers ( Szmuda et al. , 2020 ) and websites ( Liu, 2020 ). HISB influences individuals' decisions on the selection of health care service providers ( Li et al. , 2016 ; Olagoke et al. , 2020 ). Jacobs et al. (2017) claim that health care information is one of the most searched domains online. Practically, inflating pressure on service providers to position themselves and provide comprehensive health information. Google (2020a) recently formalized this type of website as a health care information page. Rosenbaum and others (2018) contend that “digital extensions ” administer over 80% of HISB online. Given the challenges when assessing the relevancy of health information sources ( Yilma et al. , 2019 ), the timely distribution of health information is crucial ( Li et al. , 2016 ; Liu, 2020 ; Olagoke et al. , 2020 ). The credibility of health care information sources and the systematic positioning of websites for specific key terms are of utmost importance for service providers ( Madathil et al. , 2015 ). Wherein, failing to position websites for a particular search query may lead to unavailability or partial availability of information – with adverse long-term impact ( Arlitsch et al. , 2013 ; Yilma et al. , 2019 ). Essentially, it is important to reach, acquire new clients, and retain the existing ones ( Chaffey et al. , 2019 ). With the rise of the IRS, the visibility of health-related information has risen exponentially ( Olagoke et al. , 2020 ). Yaya and Ghose (2018) argue that decision-makers increasingly adopt various IRS to improve health care service delivery. Yet, a hallmark problem remains to be the findability of accurate and credible sources that will respond accordingly to HISB.

2.2 Online search behavior and SEO

The majority seek information online ( Vaughan, 2014 ; Li et al. , 2016 ; Rosenbaum et al. , 2018 ) as they search for information to make more “need-satisfying” decisions ( Leonhardt et al. , 2020 ). They connect with their networks or consult some of the many IRS available. At this stage, individuals possess low domain knowledge and proactively trigger HISB ( Mladenović et al. , 2019 ). Online, HISB is based on queries that consist of a set of keywords ( Yilma et al. , 2019 ) whereby individuals' information need has been transmitted to the IRS ( Ma, 2018 ). Due to the changing search behavior ( Mladenović et al. , 2019 ), health care service providers must ensure continuous visibility on the search engine result page (SERP) ( Kim et al. , 2019 ), and must provide relevant answers to HISB. Importantly, the proper response to HISB can improve the overall availability of health care services and influence. Therefore, SE is the primary medium for IRS as a massive portion of the information is channeled through them ( Vaughan, 2014 ; Baye et al. , 2016 ) - depicted with the activity theory and its behavioristic framework to recognize SE as an IRS ( Spais, 2010 ). According to NetMarketShare (2020) , Google positioned itself as the dominant SE for desktop and mobile devices, with a respective 69.3 and 94.8% market share. Zuze and Weideman (2013) claim that websites ranked first in SERP get 32.5%, while those ranked second get 17.6% of the total visitors. Whilst Petras et al. (2017) found that those ranked in the first five positions in SERP acquire more than 65% of visitors - confirming arguments by Yilma et al. (2019) and Broussard and Zhang (2013) . They claim that individuals are clicking on search results on top of the page believing that those are the most relevant ones. This is a great motivator for health care service providers to embrace SE and SEO as a marketing methodology.

Weideman (2009) defined SEO as a method to improve online visibility in terms of the quantity and quality of visitors that commit themselves to the desired action. According to Özkan et al. (2020) , more than two hundred fifty elements are assessed to rank a website in a particular manner. The problem is that the full list of determinants is kept in secrecy ( Bonart et al. , 2020 ; Strzelecki, 2020 ; Salvi et al. , 2021 ), which led to the scarcity of SEO investigations ( Nagpal and Petersen, 2020 ; Matošević et al. , 2021 ). As a partial remedy to the non-transparency, SEO tool providers publish studies that rely on correlation coefficients – whereby high correlation implies a strong influence on online search visibility ( Mavridis and Symeonidis, 2015 ; MOZ, 2020 ) (see Table 1 ).

One of the major indicators of online visibility and search potential is SEO Index, a computed metric developed by the WooRank. It measures how visible and accessible the website is ( Ziakis et al. , 2019 ), and formalizes its popularity. Although a wide scope of individual indicators is available ( Ali and Gul, 2016 ), only a fraction is scholarly verified ( Matošević et al. , 2021 ). Ranking on SERP is one of the crucial signals that reflect website performance ( Özkan et al. , 2020 ). The number of visitors is the cornerstone indicator that is the single most observed metric ( Salvi et al. , 2021 ). Essentially, good online search visibility implies a high ranking, SEO index, and a growing number of visitors over time.

2.3 Determinants of online visibility and hypotheses development

On-page determinants - ALT Text, URL, and Bounce Rate (BR);

Off-page determinants - backlinks, social score, and domain authority (DA) and

Technical determinants - speed score, mobile-friendliness, Sitemap and robots.

2.3.1 ALT text

The existence of ALT Text positively affects the SEO Index, ranking, and a number of visitors.

2.3.2 Uniform resource locator (URL)

The inclusion of keywords in URLs positively affects SEO Index, ranking, and the number of visitors.

2.3.3 Bounce rate (BR)

High BR is negatively related to SEO Index, ranking, and the number of visitors.

2.3.4 Backlinks

Higher number of backlinks is positively related to SEO Index, ranking, and the number of visitors.

2.3.5 Social score

Higher Social Score is positively related to SEO Index, ranking, and the number of visitors.

2.3.6 Domain authority (DA)

Higher DA is positively related to the SEO Index, ranking, and the number of visitors.

2.3.7 Speed score

The higher the speed score, the higher the SEO Index, ranking and the number of visitors is to expect.

2.3.8 Mobile-friendliness

Mobile-friendly websites, have a better SEO Index, ranking, and a higher number of visitors.

2.3.9 Sitemap

The existence of sitemaps positively affects the SEO Index, ranking, and the number of visitors.

2.3.10 Robots

The existence of robots positively affects the SEO Index, ranking, and the number of visitors.

3. Methodology

The dataset is based on real-life interactions or clickstream data ( Nguyen et al. , 2018 ) from third-party providers. Clickstream data can be defined as electronic records or logs of each online user to a web estate ( Bucklin and Sismeiro, 2003 ). Given their scope, quantity, and real-time accumulation, clickstream data are considered highly reliable sources for further analysis of online user behavior ( Kumar et al. , 2019 ). To date, clickstream data have been used in multiple studies to understand various aspects of consumer-user online behavior. For instance, purchase intention online ( Bucklin and Sismeiro, 2003 ), Internet portal selection ( Goldfarb, 2014 ), exposure to various online advertising ( Rutz et al. , 2012 ), online information retrieval and search behavior ( Johnson et al. , 2004 ), user engagement in social media communities ( Kumar et al. , 2019 ), etc. Considering that SE can obtain personalized and access data effortlessly, we have used several access locations whilst browsing. Additionally, we switched off Google Personal Results and we have continuously been deleting cookies. These approaches are suggested by Google (2020b) and literature ( Ziakis et al. , 2019 ). We have checked if blood banks have mobile applications – as those are separate acquisition channels that can affect online visibility ( Schubert, 2016 ). There are no registered applications. As sponsored visitors may influence online visibility ( Nagpal and Petersen, 2020 ), we reviewed if blood banks have had advertising campaigns before and during the observed period. There was no proof of search engine marketing at the time.

3.1 Design and procedure

To investigate the online visibility of blood banks' websites, the analysis of determinants is divided into three groups: (1) on-page, (2) off-page, and (3) technical. The first group includes variables that are related to web page management and are internally managed and controlled. Off-page determinants reflect elements that are relevant for search visibility, yet not under management's direct control. The last group implies various technical aspects of a website so that it gets a better overall position in SERP. We have primarily based our list of variables based on the Searchmetrics (2019) list of determinants of search visibility applicable to the health sector. To perform the analyses and determine the significance of the determinants, the following variables have been operationalized ( Table 2 ).

The raw data were collected during the second part of 2020 and statistical analyses were performed to verify the predictive power of independent variables. We sourced data from renowned third-party providers that are industry leaders (Google, SemRush, MOZ, Woorank, etc.). Although in diverse contexts, a similar approach to retrieving clickstream data was taken by an array of other scholars ( Zuze and Weideman, 2013 ; Giomelakis and Veglis, 2016 ; Krstić and Masliković, 2019 ; Drivas et al. , 2020 ; Aswani et al. , 2018 ; Serrano-Cinca and Muñoz-Soro, 2019 ; Kostagiolas et al. , 2020 ; etc.). In general, retrieving of clickstream data is empirically verified on a substantial number of occasions ( Li et al. , 2020 ) and the results tend to be robust and reliable ( Kumar et al. , 2019 ).

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed as it was suitable given the present research design, data set, and sample size. As per Fornell and Bookstein (1982) , SEM is a suitable statistical approach for small samples with many quantified variables and constructs. Hair et al. (2019) claim that SEM is a reliable approach that provides robust results in the case of archival data when one of the research goals is to better understand the “increasing complexity” of an observed phenomenon, and when there are distribution issues of data (e.g. lack of normality due to sample size). Moreover, SEM is already used in similar attempts to decipher the role of SEO in firms' activities (see Aryshandy et al. , 2021 ).

3.2 Sample and research context

To investigate major determinants of online search visibility, blood banks' websites have been cross-examined. Blood banks have been selected as their continuous operation implies that they must ensure (1) continuous acquisition of new donors; (2) conversion of trial donors to loyal donors and (3) high retention rates ( Newman and Pyne, 1997 ). Since websites present important acquisition and retention channels, blood banks are under pressure to ensure long-term positioning in a digital environment ( Chaffey et al., 2019 ). Websites positioned themselves as a conjunction between health care service providers and individuals eager to take on their services, or simply being involved in HISB. Fifty-seven blood banks have been identified, with their websites ( Společnost pro transfuzní lékařství ČLS JEP, 2020 ). The context of Czechia has been chosen as it experiences a permanent long-term deficit in blood supply ( Czech Red Cross, 2020 ). It is assumed that blood banks will invest resources to acquire new donors and to keep the existing ones –similarly to the commercial entities ( Sa Vinhas and Bowman, 2019 ). In terms of Internet access, around 88% of the population has access to high-speed Internet ( CZSO, 2021 ).

4. Results and data analysis

SEM indicates adequate model fit ( χ 2  = 299.22, df  = 88, χ 2 / df  = 2.103, p  < 0.001, GFI = 0.91, AGFI = 0.84, CFI = 0.89 and RMSEA = 0.051). Yet, the results are of mixed nature ( Table 3 ).

Blood banks' websites scored high in terms of mobile-friendliness, robots.txt, and BR. Websites are mostly readable, mobile-friendly, and they have defined robot files to assure proper indexing. In comparison to industry benchmarks, the observed sample indicated lower BR implying that visitors engage more with the website. However, improvements are possible when it comes to ALT Text, URL, sitemaps, and the speed score. There are major variations of these four on a national level. Blood banks in metropolitan areas perform better in comparison to smaller ones. The centralization of expertise is evident, which arises as one of the major concerns for the future. The biggest issues are reported in terms of off-site determinants (backlinks, Social Score, and DA). As most blood banks score low on these scales, it unfavorably affects the ranking, SEO Index, and several website visitors. Moreover, there is a widely spread trend not to act proactively on social media (modest Social Score). There seems to be not enough high-quality content that would enhance social media engagement and influence DA. Off-page determinants are reportedly the most crucial category that needs urgent and competent attention. Lastly, blood banks greatly fail to activate, inspire, and create a community around ideas, goals, and activities – which can be one of the ways to engage with clients.

5. Discussion

The present findings challenge fragmented knowledge on determinants of the online search visibility – whereby most of the expected theoretical directions are not supported by the model. This implies that blood banks must approach cautiously the problem of online search visibility as there are evident sectoral specifics. The potential reason for such discrepancies can lie in SE algorithms' that consider and weigh a different set of determinants for SERP ( Strzelecki, 2020 ).

In terms of on-page determinants, data about ALT Text and URL are collected for all blood banks' websites. Information on BR was available for only seventeen blood banks. The rest of the blood banks' websites are not indexed (as per SimilarWeb and WooRank). This can happen due to a lack of backlinks and original content, and low DA ( Patel, 2020 ). Therefore, visitors' engagement rate decreases with adverse effects on BR. Based on analyzed data, 65% of blood banks incorporated ALT Text, whilst approximately 60% included variations of keywords in their URL. This indicates that management is aware of the necessity to accommodate visitors' information needs in terms of keywords ( Zhang and Cabage, 2017 ). Blood banks score well in terms of BR (48%), which implies that visitors engage and consider websites informative. Indeed, the reported BR is lower than the health industry average which is 55% ( Patel, 2020 ). Results supported the predicted direction of effect of ALT and BR on SEO Index, ranking, and visitors, whereby this aligned with the previous studies ( Zhang and Cabage, 2017 ; Krstić and Masliković, 2019 ). However, URL does not have a significant impact on the observed variables. The cause can lay in the altering nature of algorithms – which is impossible to fully decipher ( Matošević et al. , 2021 ). Another issue may be the “stuffing” of keywords in URL ( Zuze and Weideman, 2013 ) and failure to set up the appropriate structure ( Krstić and Masliković, 2019 ) - which canceled the positive effect of having keywords in the URL. Webpages duplicates can be seen as an additional issue, as they adversely impact search ( Ma, 2018 ). Altogether, numerous research streams emerged anchored in the present outputs.

The findings in terms of off-page determinants are diverse, whereby variations in websites' scores are indisputable (backlinks, Social Score, and DA). The lack of strategic focus to achieve a higher number of backlinks, social score, and DA – is, evident. Accidental orientation combined with a potential lack of expertise led to an impoverished performance in terms of search visibility. More critical is the lack of awareness that off-page determinants may contribute to websites' visibility ( Mavridis and Symeonidis, 2015 ) which illustrates a need for a major shift. Besides a thorough review of their SEO methodologies, blood banks must integrate these across an organization so that involved personnel is aware of their significance in the acquisition and retention of clients/donors ( Arlitsch et al. , 2013 ). To improve performance in terms of off-page determinants, blood banks must increase the number of backlinks and aim to increase engagement with the produced content.

Although results reported that social score does not affect online visibility, the number of backlinks and DA are found to have a major role in determining the key metrics of online visibility – hereby confirming inputs from the literature ( Ziakis et al. , 2019 ). Yet, the present results collide with the findings of Korzynski and Paniagua (2016) , who contend the relation between social score and number of visits and ranking. This can be attributed to how various sectors engage with their customers on social media ( Kumar et al. , 2019 ). Secondly, the volatile nature of SE algorithms makes a solid argument in explaining this case ( Mavridis and Symeonidis, 2015 ). Lastly, the differences may be anchored in cultural contexts given its strong implication for consumer engagement and behavior on social media ( Szmuda et al. , 2020 ).

Technically, blood banks perform well in terms of speed needed for the website to load, mobile-friendliness, the existence of sitemaps, and robots. Concerns are mainly related to the loading speed, sitemaps, UX, and visitors' engagement. Websites must be properly structured and not overloaded with content ( MOZ, 2020 ). Otherwise, clients may leave without covering their information needs. A possible explanation for modest site technical performance is a non-optimized image, no-cache policy, JavaScript not properly set, website not indexed, ( Karyotakis et al. , 2019 ) etc. Moreover, failing to have sitemaps can have severe consequences on website visibility and visitors' engagement ( Zineddine, 2016 ). As the process of sitemap installation is straightforward, one may speculate that the lack of them can be the result of negligence. On a positive note, most blood banks' websites are mobile-friendly and over 80% of them have included robot files to assist crawlers and indexing. Yet, results indicate that only robots have a direct influence on visitors, ranking, and SEO Index. The rest of the observed relations are partially supported ( Table 3 ). Still, Hair et al. (2019) believe that this may be due to the sample size, where outliers in models can significantly influence the results. Tabachnick et al. (2007) believe that since only a fraction of determinants is included in the model, it may result in distorted outputs. The solution would be to include the full list of determinants - which is a challenge given the difficulties to quantify them ( Moreno and Martinez, 2013 ).

5.1 Theoretical and managerial implications

Given that the literature openly emphasizes the importance of SEO for organizations nowadays ( Salvi et al. , 2021 ), the present study is the first one to investigate SEO determinants in the context of blood banks, HISB and IRS. By providing empirical evidence, we contribute to the multiple research domains (activity theory, blood banks, HISB, and online search visibility). Results are counterintuitive – which indicates sectoral inconsistencies that must be accounted for. Online visibility determinants must not be taken uniformly. Secondly, by focusing on blood banks, we contributed to decoding the complicated methodology of SEO and its relationship with the online HISB. This can be important in responding to HISB and emergencies – by understanding the keywords one is looking for. Lastly, this study contributes to the extended understanding of activity theory in terms of major factors influencing IRS operation. Essentially, the results contribute to understanding the complex methodology behind SE by shedding light on the dominant determinants in the health care sector. This can be a major input to the literature as the overall knowledge on the topic is very shallow ( Ziakis et al. , 2019 ).

The present study has practical contributions as well, whereby the findings emphasize the need for strategic implementation of SEO and pinpoint critical areas that need urgent action (e.g. off-page determinants). For instance, blood banks must invest in the production of relevant content (advice, social testimonies, video instructions, etc.) and strive to increase the number of backlinks from relevant sources (e.g. by link exchange and blog articles) ( Serrano-Cinca and Muñoz-Soro, 2019 ). This is a demanding task, yet the keyword analyses indicated several subtopics that are continuously searched online (where to donate blood, how to donate blood, frequency of donation, risks associated with donations, benefits of donations, etc.). Each keyword/phrase is a venue marketer should attend and fill out the information gap that exists. Secondly, ultimately blood banks must decrease the BR. Given that some blood banks have BR of over 70%, it indicates acute issues with the information richness and authority of the websites ( Zhang and Cabage, 2017 ). Blood banks must implement an information architecture that is consistent with information needs and HISB – for instance by implementing detailed keyword analysis and determining what information gaps remain uncovered. Essentially, marketers should perform A/B testing or multivariate testing ( De Andrés et al. , 2010 ) to empirically verify what website design fulfills the information needs of visitors in the most effective manner. Additionally, blood banks should aim to make website design as “clean” as possible in terms that only concise information is included. This is a proven method to increase visitor engagement ( Sa Vinhas and Bowman, 2019 ) and decrease BR. Contrary to predictions ( Krstić and Masliković, 2019 ; Strzelecki, 2020 ), most technical determinants do not influence SEO index, ranking, and visitors. This is important as it indicates that although blood banks perform, this does not result in significant potential of acquiring new donors and/or help in retaining the existing ones. Therefore, blood banks should focus more on elements that are empirically verified to deliver conversions ( Figure 1 ). In general, blood banks must be aligned with a long-term objective to provide smooth service to donors and potential donors, as this directly implicates their credibility and reliability. Lastly, to efficiently manage online search visibility and SEO activities, blood banks must implement dashboards to control for critical performance indicators ( Nagpal and Petersen, 2020 ) and proactively act on reported deviations (BR, incoming traffic, the structure of the traffic, etc.). Currently, it seems that most blood banks do not have systematic measurement and evaluation systems implemented. In case the evaluation is missing, there is a low chance of long-term success in donor acquisition and retention. As a general remark, blood banks must accept a user-oriented approach in their SEO and donors' acquisition or retention activities. Marketers must decipher how donors and potential donors retrieve information online, establish patterns and create keywords databases, etc. – in short to precisely define the profile of the donor.

The present study has a major societal implication, as it uncovers a potential centralization of expertise and resources by several metropolitan blood banks. Authorities must ensure the equal flow of information and resources to all blood banks and align their resource intake for the matter. Otherwise, the long-term deficit of blood in some regions can backfire and put additional pressure on the already over-stretched blood collection system.

5.2 Limitations and research directions

One of the major study limitations is the sample size ( N  = 57) which should be addressed to increase the generalizability. SE constantly modifies algorithms to present the most relevant SERP. In the case of replication, an updated collection of SEO determinants must be considered. As the data originated from third parties, authors were facing restrictions in terms of type and quantity of available data. It is recommended to use premium platforms (SEMrush, Alexa) to retrieve data, as the reliability will be improved. Topically, future studies can address a wider spectrum of SEO determinants, replicate this design in another sector, investigate why mobile-friendliness is not a significant determinant, the relation of social media to SEO, incorporate experimental design to capture casual relationships, etc.

6. Conclusion

The present study investigates the major online visibility determinants of blood banks. It is theoretically anchored in activity theory whereby IRS is recognized as a major cross-point in the individual IR and HISB. It relies on fragmented SEO and HISB literature which lacks more empirical insights. Fifty-seven blood banks in Czechia have been analyzed using the spectrum of available tools. The scope of investigation included on-page, off-page, and technical SEO determinants. The results greatly challenge previous knowledge that mainly originated in commercial sectors. Blood banks essentially have a modest online visibility, with several exceptions that are related to those providers located in metropolitan areas. Generally, a major shift is needed to ensure that blood banks and authorities implement and maintain SEO methodologies in the long run. To harvest benefits in terms of client acquisition and retention, SEO must be a strategic marketing orientation. The major concern on a macro level is the evident centralization of SEO expertise to only a few blood banks on a national level. Dispersion of knowledge and resources related to the application of SEO methodology in the health care sector is necessary to achieve synergy, increase the number, and increase the retention rates of clients (resp. blood donors).

In terms of the critical spheres of blood banks' online search visibility, several determinants emerged. Blood banks poorly manage off-page factors (backlinks, social score, and DA) as they are on average low. There is an urgent need to accommodate this as off-page factors indeed influence online search visibility (backlinks and DA). The space for improvements exists when it comes to ALT Text, URL, sitemaps, and loading speed of websites. Lastly, Czech blood banks' websites perform well in terms of technical ranking factors. As for the predicted effect on SEO Index, ranking and number of visitors, and major determinants, mixed results are present. Hypotheses concerning ALT Text, BR, backlinks, robots, and DA are supported by the models. Mixed results are obtained in terms of URL, social score, speed score, mobile-friendliness, and sitemaps. Further studies would be needed to investigate more profoundly the nature of relations and eventual deviations from the accumulated knowledge and enhance generalization.

Model statistics and loadings

Relevant studies focusing on online search visibility

Note(s): Unstd = Unstandardized Coefficient; Std = Standardized Coefficient; a p  < 0.1; * p  < 0.05; ** p  < 0.01; all other coefficients are not significant, p  > 0.1

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How to Increase the Visibility of Your Research Paper With the Help of SEO

While there is no single, agreed-upon rubric for ranking research papers, various SEO strategies can increase visibility and improve the chances that your paper will reach its intended audience. The following tips offer some simple strategies to consider when optimizing your paper for search engines.

Table of Contents

What Is SEO?

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results. Although the basic idea of search engine optimization is simple, its application can be complex.

The previous definitions may sound a bit technical, but all you have to do is optimize your content for search engines, then make sure that it shows up in organic search results. Some definitions may also include information architecture and effective use of markup, as well as ensuring that web pages are easy to read and navigate for users.

SEO has become an essential part of digital marketing in recent years due to its proven effectiveness at driving valuable traffic to websites through organic (non-paid) means. It is considered one of the most important aspects of internet marketing because it affects a website’s ability to attract new visitors and grow its business.

What Is the Impact of SEO on the Visibility of Research Papers?

The impact of SEO on the visibility of research and academic papers is significant. Research papers are not necessarily read by a large audience, but their content can be widely shared. This sharing is often done through social media, which has a huge impact on SEO.

When people share your paper, they’re effectively linking back to it. When other people click on those links and visit your site, they’ll see your search engine results page (SERP). If you’ve optimized your site for SEO, there’s a good chance that they’ll click on one of your links and continue reading.

In addition to improving your website’s visibility in organic search results, SEO can also help improve its ranking in Google News. This is especially true when it comes to news outlets that have been around for decades (like the New York Times) or ones that cover niche topics (like The Verge).

SEO Tips to Increase Research Paper Visibility

1. use keywords to convey key concepts.

To increase the visibility of a research paper , you should use keywords to convey key concepts. You can use keywords in the title, body of text, and abstract to help readers find your work. The conclusion should also contain keywords that relate to your topic. You can also include keywords in references, acknowledgments, and bibliography pages so that people who are looking for more information about your topic will be able to find it.

2. Use Descriptive Keywords

Another tip for increasing research paper visibility is to use descriptive keywords. The best keywords are those which are relevant to the topic and specific to it. For example, if you were writing a paper on dogs, then “dog” would be too general as a keyword because it applies to all kinds of dogs.

Therefore, “puppies” or “Beagle” would be better keywords for this particular topic. You should also make sure that your chosen words are not too general as well because these can lead readers away from your website instead of towards it when they do an internet search for information about dogs!

3. Restrict Your Title to a Minimum Number of Relevant Words

You need to write a title that is relevant, preferably less than 60 characters. Use keywords that are specific to your paper and add value to the meaning of your title. Also, avoid adding words that are too general or don’t add anything to the meaning of your title.

For example, if your research paper is about “social media” then do not use titles such as “Social Media Rules” or “Social Media Success Tips” because it makes no sense for someone searching for ‘social media’ information on Google to click on a link with either one of those titles.

4. Choose Frequently Searched Keywords

These are the keywords that are searched for often by people in your niche, and they will help you get more exposure from search engines like Google. These keywords should be specific, relevant, and descriptive of your topic.

For example, if your research paper is on how to improve website security through encryption techniques, then “encryption” would be a good keyword because it’s related to the topic (security). But, it’s also general enough that people can find it when they’re looking for information on encryption techniques or even just general information about encryption.

That’s why we recommend using short phrases instead of single words as long as possible—this makes them easier for readers to find! Also, remember to not go overboard with keyword stuffing! Just use one or two per paragraph so they’re not too distracting from what matters most.

5. Create Links From Keywords to Various Websites

When creating links, try to include keywords in the anchor text. For example, if you are writing a paper about Plato’s views on the importance of education and have included a link that says “Plato’s Views on Education,” then this is a good way to help search engines understand what your content is about.

Also, make sure that all of your links are relevant to the topic of your research paper. If there is not enough relevance between the two pages or sites (i.e., they won’t be able to establish why they should be connected), it may cause harm to both web pages and result in getting penalized by Google or other search engines due to lack of authenticity and trustworthiness found between pages and sites.

At the end of the day, none of these tips will impact how your paper is received by academic peers. However, increasing the visibility of your research can have a long-lasting impact on how many people have access to it and can help spread knowledge in your field.

SEO may not be a necessity for every academic article, but it’s something to consider as you write and publish papers. With effort, you could create a new wave of knowledge that reaches far beyond what would normally be possible. So don’t overlook the importance of SEO when you publish research!

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a Company Website: A Case Study

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• Jorge Esparteiro Garcia   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5710-5557 13 , 14 ,
• Rui Lima 13 &
• Manuel José Serra da Fonseca   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3290-8449 13 , 15  

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Search Engine Optimization, or “SEO” for short, helps to improve the inbound user traffic of a website. Optimizing a website for search engines is now crucial to its success and ultimately to the company’s ability to increase the business. Many companies websites on the Internet fail to use any SEO technique or strategy to improve their positioning in search engine results. Therefore, if other digital marketing strategies are not used to promote the website, its traffic will be very restricted. In this study several different SEO techniques were used to improve a website’s overall indexing on the Google search engine. Through the implemented strategy it was possible to improve the positioning in search results of the company’s website used in the case study, allowing several searches with different keywords to show the website on the first page of results. With the results obtained, it was possible to conclude that it is very important to find the perfect balance between SEO keyword competition and monthly search volume. To help select the best keywords for this particular website, the use of SEO tools are of the utmost importance.

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Garcia, J.E., Lima, R., da Fonseca, M.J.S. (2022). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for a Company Website: A Case Study. In: Rocha, A., Adeli, H., Dzemyda, G., Moreira, F. (eds) Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 470. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04829-6_47

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Google’s AI Overviews Documentation: Key SEO Insights

Google's new AI Overviews documentation contains important information for SEOs and publishers

• If you're not already doing it, then now is time to consider adding "topic targeting" to your SEO process
• Google's ranking algorithm still appears to play a role
• Why Google's Search Essentials is highly recommended for AI Overviews success

Google published new documentation about the AI Overviews search results feature that explains what it is and how SEOs and publishers should respond. AI Overviews is a new frontier for the search marketing community which makes it essential to understand the documentation before forming an opinion of what to do next..

What Triggers AI Overviews

AI Overviews is a new Google search results feature that offers a natural language responses in the form of answers and links to webpages for users to further explore the answers. AI Overviews shows when the user intent is to quickly understand information, especially when that information need is tied to a task.

“AI Overviews appear in Google Search results when our systems determine …when you want to quickly understand information from a range of sources, including information from across the web and Google’s Knowledge Graph .”

In another part of the documentation it ties the trigger to task-based information needs:

“…and use the information they find to advance their tasks.” “

What Kinds Of Sites Does AI Overviews Link To?

An important fact to consider is that just because AI Overviews is triggered by a user’s need to quickly understand something doesn’t mean that only queries with an informational need will trigger the new search feature. Google’s documentation makes it clear that the kinds of websites that will benefit from AI Overviews links includes “creators” (which implies video creators), ecommerce stores and other businesses. This means that far more than informational websites that will benefit from AI overviews.

The new documentation lists the kinds of sites that can receive a link from the AI overviews :

“This allows people to dig deeper and discover a diverse range of content from publishers, creators, retailers, businesses, and more, and use the information they find to advance their tasks.”

Where AI Overviews Sources Information

AI Overviews shows information from the web and the knowledge graph. Large Language Models currently need to be entirely retrained from the ground up when adding significant amounts of new data. That means that the websites chosen to be displayed in Overviews feature are selected from Google’s standard search index which in turn means that Google may be using Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

RAG is a system that sits between a large language model and a database of information that’s external to the LLM. This external database can be a specific knowledge like the entire content of an organization’s HR policies to a search index. It’s a supplemental source of information that can be used to double-check the information provided by an LLM or to show where to read more about the question being answered.

The section quoted at the beginning of the article notes that AI Overviews cites sources from the web and the Knowledge Graph:

“AI Overviews appear in Google Search results when our systems determine …when you want to quickly understand information from a range of sources, including information from across the web and Google’s Knowledge Graph.”

What Automatic Inclusion Means For SEO

Inclusion in AI Overviews is automatic and there’s nothing specific to AI Overviews that publishers or SEOs need to do. Google’s documentation says that following their guidelines for ranking in the regular search is all you have to do for ranking in AI Overviews. Google’s “systems” determine what sites are picked to show up for the topics surfaced in AI Overviews.

All the statements seem to confirm that the new Overviews feature sources data from the regular Search Index. It’s possible that Google filters the search index specially for AI Overviews but offhand I can’t think of any reason Google would do that.

All the statements that indicate automatic inclusions point to the likely possibility that Google uses the regular search index:

“No action is needed for publishers to benefit from AI Overviews.” “AI Overviews show links to resources that support the information in the snapshot, and explore the topic further.” “…diverse range of content from publishers, creators, retailers, businesses, and more…” “To rank in AI Overviews, publishers only need to follow the Google Search Essentials guide. “Google’s systems automatically determine which links appear. There is nothing special for creators to do to be considered other than to follow our regular guidance for appearing in search, as covered in Google Search Essentials.”

Think In Terms Of Topics

Obviously, keywords and synonyms in queries and documents play a role. But in my opinion they play and oversized role in SEO. There are many ways that a search engine can annotate a document in order to match a webpage to a topic, like what Googler Martin Splitt referred to as a centerpiece annotation . A centerpiece annotation is used by Google to label a webpage with what that webpage is about.

Semantic Annotation

This kind of annotation links webpage content to concepts which in turn gives structure to a unstructured document. Every webpage is unstructured data so search engines have to make sense of that. Semantic Annotation is one way to do that.

Google has been matching webpages to concepts since at least 2015. A Google webpage about their cloud products talks about how they integrated neural matching into their Search Engine for the purpose of annotating webpage content with their inherent topics.

This is what Google says about how it matches webpages to concepts:

“Google Search started incorporating semantic search in 2015, with the introduction of noteworthy AI search innovations like deep learning ranking system RankBrain. This innovation was quickly followed with neural matching to improve the accuracy of document retrieval in Search. Neural matching allows a retrieval engine to learn the relationships between a query’s intentions and highly relevant documents, allowing Search to recognize the context of a query instead of the simple similarity search. Neural matching helps us understand fuzzier representations of concepts in queries and pages, and match them to one another. It looks at an entire query or page rather than just keywords, developing a better understanding of the underlying concepts represented in them.”

Google’s been doing this, matching webpages to concepts, for almost ten years. Google’s documentation about AI Overviews also mentions that showing links to webpages based on topics is a part of determining what sites are ranked in AI Overviews.

AI Overviews Shows Links To Topics

Here’s how Google explains it:

“AI Overviews show links to resources that support the information in the snapshot, and explore the topic further. …AI Overviews offer a preview of a topic or query based on a variety of sources, including web sources.”

Google’s focus on topics has been a thing for a long time and it’s well past time SEOs lessened their grip on keyword targeting and start to also give Topic Targeting a chance to enrich their ability to surface content in Google Search, including in AI Overviews.

Google says that the same optimizations described in their Search Essentials documentation for ranking in Google Search are the same optimizations to apply to rank in Google Overview.

This is exactly what the new documentation says:

“There is nothing special for creators to do to be considered other than to follow our regular guidance for appearing in search, as covered in Google Search Essentials.”

Read Google’s New SEO Related Documentation On AI Overviews

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How to Use Original Research to Boost Your International SEO Efforts

In a world of ever-changing algorithms and increasing competition, it’s not enough anymore to just create keyword-focused content. Especially when you’re trying to reach new markets.

To introduce your company to a brand-new audience and make it stand out from the competition, you need to create content that demonstrates expertise and familiarity with the new market. 

Easy to say, not so easy to accomplish, right?

Fear not. In this post, we’ll discuss how original research can ramp up an international SEO strategy, by building links and getting traffic from your target market.

What is original research?

Before we dig in, let’s set things straight: What is original research ? Simply put: It’s the process of collecting data through different methodologies and analyzing it for content purposes. In other words, it’s about using data to create captivating stories that engage your audience.

Most people think that original research comes exclusively from the results of questionnaires. And, while it is certainly one of the most common sources of data, it’s not the only one.

Let’s take a look at the different ways you can collect data:

• Survey: You can start from scratch and create your own survey. This source of data is particularly useful when you want to learn about a large number of people’s experiences and opinions about a topic. The vast array of tools (both free and paid) for running online surveys makes it the most affordable and fastest way to collect a great amount of data. 
• Interview: This type of source is more costly and time-consuming than running a survey, and it won’t give you the same wealth of raw data. However, it can give you a deeper understanding of the subject matter by delving into specifics. Since it’s a qualitative research technique, the insights you get from a series of interviews are more detailed and personal. This source of data is recommended when you want to target a small group of respondents.
• Internal data analysis: Regardless of the nature of your business, you have data you can leverage. From the most basic data (email marketing campaign CTR) to the most intricate (sales close rates based on seasonality and type of service), there’s always plenty to work with. Keep in mind that what seems obvious to you and your team might be groundbreaking for someone outside of your organization. 
• External data analysis: Finally, you can pull data that is publicly available to find new insights. As in the previous case, external data analysis might not come from brand-new data, but the outcomes of these analyses must offer the reader an original take on the topic.  

No matter what data source you choose, the most important thing is what you make out of it. If you’re asking the same questions, you’ll keep running into the same answers. And what’s the value in creating a report that’s just regurgitating what the other 25 reports already said? 

How does original research contribute to international SEO?

SEO is a multifaceted discipline. You need to make sure that the content you produce is of quality, while you build up your reputation and establish your brand as an authority in the matter. 

In the case of international SEO, you have to focus on different regions simultaneously, which can be challenging. By creating original research that resonates with international audiences you can engage them more efficiently and, ultimately increase visibility in your target markets. 

• Link building: Backlinks aren’t as important as they used to be a few years ago; that’s true. But they do still matter, and I haven’t seen any convincing evidence to the contrary. By increasing the number of referring domains from a specific region, it’ll be easier for search engines to consider your site relevant for that market, which increases your chances of appearing on the right SERPs.  
• Brand awareness and authority: Original research not only increases your brand awareness, but also contributes to building a stronger brand. The reason is very simple: When you publish a new report with relevant information for your target market, you become a reliable source of information, which ultimately leads to brand authority.
• Referral traffic: The value of a backlink is not just the so-called link juice. When you land a link on an authoritative site, you’re likely to earn some high-quality referral traffic from users who are relevant to your industry and, of course, to your market. 
• Internal links: One of the greatest benefits of original research is that you can become your own source of information. The insights you generate from your research can add value to existing and future pieces of content. This way, you can cite and link back to your report, which can help your site structure, enhance user experience and increase time on site.
• Google Helpful Content update: As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, it’s no longer enough to create content solely based on keywords that just summarizes what’s already on the web. To comply with the Google Helpful Content update focus on people-first content that provides new information and demonstrates first-hand expertise and a depth of knowledge of the subject matter. 

Original research for international SEO: 3 use cases

When it comes to original research for international SEO, there’s no one-size-fits-all. How you approach the research and how you use the results depend on several factors: regions, languages, business plans, domain strategies, etc. Let’s see some examples of how this can look based on business goals and site structure. 

Case 1: New region with multiple languages + ccTLD

You’re a SaaS company that recently started to offer your service in Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Brazil. The research you conducted includes results from these four countries. In this situation, you’d need to publish the report on each ccTLD (country code top-level domain) with versions for each language (Spanish and Portuguese). An example of a ccTLD is “.br” for Brazil or “.mx” for Mexico.

Case 2: New market with multiple languages + subdirectory

Your company now serves all of Canada (including French-speaking Quebec). Since the results of your research are relevant to all Canadians (regardless of the language they speak), it’d be best to post the report in English and share the French version on the .com/fr subdirectory.

Case 3: New region with shared language + subdomain

The company you work for now covers all Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. In this scenario, it’s not necessary to create different versions of the report, so you can publish it directly on the es. subdomain.

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How to spot research opportunities

When choosing a topic for original research we first have to ask ourselves: Who is our audience? Many people tend to focus on their buyer personas as their main target, and that’s a big mistake. Let me explain.

While we definitely want the outcomes of our research to be useful to our potential clients, they are not necessarily the ones we should think about when looking for research topics.

The most valuable audience is actually made up of journalists, editors, bloggers and other publishers. Ultimately, they’re the ones who will share the results, add links back to our sites and generate traffic from their own posts.

With that in mind, let’s move on to the six most important considerations when deciding which research opportunities are most worth pursuing:

1. Your business type.  

The way you approach original research may differ depending on the types of audiences your company targets:

• B2C: Consider anything related to consumer behaviors. Seasonal topics work very well for the B2C sector. Remember: consumer trends are super interesting to journalists (and they can be interesting to consumers, as well).
• B2B: B2B audiences crave information that will help them make decisions—for example, anything that measures the status of an industry, such as benchmark or year-end reports. Depending on the type of industry, these investigations can be conducted quarterly or annually. 
• SaaS and tech: Research that focuses on the impact and evolution of technology not only helps showcase software features but can also serve as a guide for buyers.

2. Relevance to your audience.

Before you start your research, make sure that the topic you choose is relevant to your audience, but also close enough to your business to be relevant to it, too. Choosing too broad a topic may seem like a good idea because more people would potentially be interested in it, but if it’s too distantly related to what your company does, the original research won’t help build your brand or make your company stand out as an authority on the topic.

3. Never-before-seen approach.

The point of creating original research is to bring new information to readers. That means the results of your analysis must be completely new. After all, why would anyone be interested in an investigation that repeats the same thing as other reports? If the topic you choose has already been investigated, consider adding new variables to the equation, so you can run a new analysis and get new insights.

4. Brand alignment. 

As I mentioned before, original research fulfills several goals. It can introduce more people to a brand in a new geographical market or endorse a company as an authority on the subject. Whatever the case, the research topic must be aligned with the image and values of the business. This will help build a brand consistent with the company’s objectives.

5. Cultural fit.

In some cases, the investigations can be replicated from one geographical market to another without any problem. To guarantee the success of your strategy, you must consider the cultural characteristics of each market and make adaptations if necessary. For example, your survey on hamburger consumption per capita might have been successful in the U.S., but you might reconsider the topic before analyzing the Indian market. 

6. Launch strategy.

Finally, we must take into account the issue of timing. Publishing the results of original research can help boost a business’s entry into a market or the launch of a new product. However, scheduling is a determining factor in this type of strategy; a delay in publication can severely affect the results. It’s also a good practice to consider research topics that are thematically tied to a local holiday; this way you can leverage the buzz around the topic.

How to plan and conduct original research

As in any other content project, it’s essential to understand from the beginning what you want to achieve from it. At first, a research topic might seem like a good idea, but once you dissect it you might find it’s too broad, so the impact on your brand’s reputation would be minimal. Or, the topic could be a perfect match for your marketing strategy, but the scope of the research is too ambitious, making it unattainable. 

Avoid any of these pitfalls by following these 5 steps for planning and conducting original research:

Step 1: Set goals

The first thing you should do is set clear and measurable goals. This is essential to ensure that your research efforts align with your overall content marketing strategy and provide valuable insights for your audience. The easiest way to ensure your goals are clear is to use the SMART framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.

For example, the goal we set for our latest research was to survey 100 digital marketers to understand how they manage their content marketing internally. 

The findings from this research are useful for both journalists and potential clients. The former can find value in using the statistics to back their articles, while the latter can benchmark themselves against the average content marketing team.

Step 2: Create your hypothesis

Once you have your objectives ready, you can create your hypothesis. This is a statement that seeks to predict the results. In the end, your predictions may or may not be correct, but it is of great importance to begin with a hypothesis, as it is the starting point from which we will begin to build the story.

Keep in mind that the success (or failure) of your research shouldn’t hinge upon the accuracy of your hypothesis. Your ultimate goal is to learn and find something new, not prove your hypothesis right.

Step 3: Define research methodologies

At this point you should have a good understanding of the scope of your research. With the goal in mind, it should be easy to decide what approach to follow: survey, interview, data analysis, etc. As a general rule, it’s recommendable to opt for surveys when you need to collect data from numerous respondents. If, on the contrary, you’re looking for more personal insights, running a smaller set of interviews is a good idea.

Depending on the type of research you’re going to carry out, you will have to prepare for the analysis of the results. Here are two activities we’ve found helpful when sorting through responses:

• Structure the flow of your questions: Although it may seem simple, the creation of a questionnaire is a complex task. As a first recommendation, you should always start with the simplest questions and close with the open-ended questions that require a little more depth. Try to limit open-ended questions, as too many unstructured answers can hinder your analysis.
• Think about your dream stats: Another tip that could help you draft your questionnaire is to think of the dream stats you’d like to share as a result of your research and then work backward to collect the data. For example, in this case , we wanted to know the percentage of B2B companies using TikTok as part of their marketing strategy. With this idea in mind, we were able to come up with questions that served that goal while also helping us create a story around the topic.
• Ask quote-worthy questions: Think of all the data, statistics and charts that could make a journalist’s life easier. And then write your questions based on it. By doing so, you’re making sure you’ll collect the data that are valuable for journalists and editors, who will ultimately help you spread the word about your research. 

Step 4: Collect and analyze data 

Once your survey is ready, it’s time to launch. Collect your data and spend an appropriate amount of time analyzing it. Data collection and analysis are the stages that take the longest. However, it is important that you do not take it lightly, since the correct processing of the data guarantees the quality of your research.

Step 5: Results

How you visualize your results is crucial. Some data points will work best as charts, while others may be more intuitively represented as infographics or in videos.

3 examples of brands using original research to reach their audiences

Faye is a company that offers whole-trip travel insurance. It started operations back in September 2019 and has quickly grown its presence thanks to its original research. In November of 2022, they shared their results after surveying American travelers . Since it was published, that single piece of content has received 48 backlinks. As a result, they went from ranking for 79 organic keywords in the U.S. to 336 after one month.

Taxi2Airport

This is a B2B technology company that operates a global marketplace for ground transportation, mainly to and from airports. Founded in 2020, it now operates in five countries. In October 2019, they published an analysis on the cost of parking for an hour in Europe’s busiest airports . That article received backlinks from referring domains (RDs) in five different countries. Their site’s overall number of RDs increased 14% and their overall traffic grew 5% in just one month.

Preply is a global language learning marketplace. The company now offers courses in 17 languages. In 2021, Preply researched the most translated books by country and created an infographic with the results . Since August 2021 when it was first published, the post has received more than 1,800 links in more than 10 languages. Over the course of one month, their overall organic traffic increased from 914,854 to 1,147,440. Spain, France and Mexico were some of the countries that registered a significant growth in traffic, with 88%, 83% and 57%, respectively.

A closing thought

Creating original research is a great way to not only break through a new market but also establish your brand as a reliable, thought leader. 

It is certainly more time-consuming than a regular blog post, but the overall results are worth it. Both your branding and international SEO strategies will thank you. 

Estrella Alvarado

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Estrella Alvarado works at Brafton as an SEO Specialist. She likes to write while listening to The Cinematic Orchestra. When she’s not in front of the computer, she’s daydreaming about her next trip. She loves the 3 C's: Chai, Chianti and Camembert.

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How To Write A Marketing Essay

Isabella Goode Freelance Writer

Writing a standout marketing essay requires strategic preparation and execution.

As a marketing expert, I’ll share my step-by-step approach to crafting an insightful, actionable paper that earns top marks.

7 Easy Steps To Write A Good Marketing Essay

1. deconstruct the assignment.

Before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), thoroughly analyze and understand the essay prompt and requirements. What specific question or topic are you expected to address? Is it a case study analysis, campaign proposal, theoretical evaluation, or something else entirely? Carefully read all instructions from your professor so you know exactly what the end product should look like. Clarifying the objectives early is crucial.

2. Select a focused, compelling topic

With the assignment parameters firmly in mind, choose a specific, interesting topic angle to explore in-depth. Overly broad, generic topics like “social media marketing strategies” make it extremely difficult to comprehensively research, structure, and provide unique value in the essay.

For students feeling overwhelmed or struggling to narrow down a fitting topic, services like Domypaper.com can help by saying “ Write paper for me .” Domypaper is an online essay writing service that pairs students with expert academic writers for guidance on any writing assignment, including selecting an appropriate topic that meets the requirements.

Their qualified writing staff provides coaching to develop a compelling thesis and focus that lays the groundwork for an insightful, high-quality marketing essay.

Instead, aim for a more focused perspective, such as “How Wendy’s Edgy, Humorous Voice on Twitter Resonates with Millennials.” A narrowed, compelling topic makes the entire writing process more manageable while allowing you to craft an authoritative, nuanced analysis.

3. Conduct exhaustive research

Credible, extensive research separates excellent marketing essays from mediocre ones. Simply Googling and reviewing a few articles won’t suffice. Utilize academic databases to access peer-reviewed journal articles, in-depth case studies, and other scholarly sources unavailable on the open web.

Review reports and publications from respected marketing analytics firms like Gartner, Forrester, and Nielsen. Analyze statistics, survey data, and expert insights from these industry authorities.

For essays examining specific companies, campaigns, or theories, go straight to the source material when possible. Explore case studies from the brands themselves, read executives’ interviews and presentations, and study entire marketing plans and reports. This level of comprehensive primary research will set your essay apart with an authoritative, nuanced analysis.

For students struggling with marketing essays or seeking assistance to qualify for valuable academic scholarships, consulting one of the top assignment writing services in Australia can provide expert guidance. Skilled academic writers from these services have proficiency in marketing topics and can help craft a compelling, well-researched essay that maximizes your chances of earning top marks or securing a scholarship.

Taking meticulous notes while conducting research is essential. I recommend using a free tool like ZoteroBib to correctly format citations in the required style (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.) as you go – this minor prep work saves major headaches later when building the bibliography and referring back to sources.

4. Map out a logical structure

With adequate research compiled, it’s time to organize the content into a logical, progressive structure using an outline. While every essay will vary, many effective marketing essays follow a format similar to this:

• Introduction – Capture the reader’s attention with a relevant fact, statistic, quote, or anecdote that underscores the importance of your topic. End the opening section with a clear thesis statement.
• Background/Overview – Provide foundational context on the core topic, concepts, or businesses being analyzed so readers have a baseline understanding.
• In-Depth Analysis/Evaluation – This comprises the heart of the essay. Use specific data, examples, and evidence from your research to analyze or evaluate your chosen subject from multiple angles.
• Solutions/Recommendations – For certain essays, this section offers data-driven strategies or proposals for solving stated problems or optimizing areas of opportunity.
• Conclusion – Recap the key points, findings, and takeaways in a succinct closing section. Leave readers with an insightful, thought-provoking perspective.

Use detailed section headings and transition sentences to signpost the logical flow of ideas for readers. Each component should directly build upon and support the central thesis in a progressive, cohesive manner.

5. Create the first draft

With your outline constructed, you’re ready to start actually writing the first draft. I recommend beginning with the body paragraphs (sections 2-4), as the outline acts as a comprehensive roadmap to follow.

Let the research guide the narrative – reinforce every key point and assertion with facts, statistics, relevant examples, expert quotes, and other authoritative evidence compiled from credible sources. A solid central analysis backed by quality data forms the backbone of an influential marketing essay.

To produce truly polished, professional writing: Keep paragraphs reasonably short and digestible (3-5 sentences). Utilize clear section headings as signposts. Maintain an academic yet accessible tone. Carefully edit for spelling, grammar, word choice and clarity as you progress through the draft.

6. Inject insightful perspective

Once you have a fairly complete first draft, review the content objectively with a marketer’s critical eye. Does your analysis provide unique, valuable insights that real marketing professionals would genuinely appreciate? Have you raised fascinating implications, opportunities, or questions for future consideration? Or did the essay become too surfaced-level, simply rehashing basic concepts without substantive depth?

If the draft feels lacking in some areas, conduct additional research and update the relevant sections with more nuanced perspectives, data, and key takeaways. Academic marketing essays should provide thoughtful observations that go beyond introductory concepts.

Don’t be afraid to share personal anecdotes, experiences, or viewpoints that enrich the content’s practicality – as long as claims are backed with proper evidence. An essay filled with only dry, unoriginal summaries falls flat. Aim to demonstrate an authentic passion and sophisticated understanding of the subject matter.

7. Polish and peer review

With a solid draft containing original insights and perspectives, take a step back and review the essay’s structural elements:

• Does the introduction efficiently set up the topic and grab the reader’s interest?
• Do all body sections logically flow and connect from one to the next?
• Are there any areas that require reorganizing paragraphs or transitional sentences for smoother continuity?
• Does the conclusion concisely summarize key findings and leave a lasting impression?

Finally, have an objective second set of eyes review the marketing essay from start to finish. Enlist a friend, classmate, or writing tutor to provide constructive feedback on areas requiring clarification, additional examples, or opportunities for tighter writing. Fresh eyes can identify gaps the author may have missed.

Carefully incorporating feedback and making any final revisions should yield a polished, insightful, actionable marketing essay that exceeds expectations. Follow these steps, and stellar grades are well within reach.

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