Search Engine Optimization for Librarians-Melissa-Gasparotto

8/10/2019 Search Engine Optimization for Librarians-Melissa-Gasparotto

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Search Engine Optimization for the

Research Librarian, or HowLibrarians Can Beat Spammers at

their own Game

Melissa Gasparotto

Librarian for African and Latin AmericanStudies, Rutgers University Libraries


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What is Search Engine Optimization?

A relatively old concept and set of practices that libraries and particularly

published faculty repeatedly fail to take advantage of.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of identifying factors in a

webpage which would impact search engine accessibility to it and fine-tuning

the many elements of a website so it can achieve the highest possible visibility

when a search engine responds to a relevant query. Search engine

optimization aims at achieving good search engine accessibility for webpages,

high visibility in a search engine results, and improvement of the chances the

webpages are retrieved.

Zhang and Dimitroff, p. 666.

This can apply to journal articles that are put online, as well, whether in a

database or institutional repository, or simply an open access journal.


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SEO, cont.

Has gotten a bad name because of unethical spamming practices, but when

done properly is simply a set of best practices for website metadata. As

Yahoos SEO guidesays:

Good SEO copywriting makes your page more readable for both search

engines andhumans
http://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/optimize-search-engines/seo-basicshttp://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/optimize-search-engines/seo-basicshttp://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/optimize-search-engines/seo-basicshttp://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/optimize-search-engines/seo-basicshttp://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/optimize-search-engines/seo-basicshttp://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/optimize-search-engines/seo-basics


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Is SEO appropriate for academia?

Good SEO is about the accessibility of our work and resources.A newer subfield called Academic Search Engine Optimization

helps scholars learn how search engines like Google Scholar

include and display content in ways that are different from

regular search engines. This is of particular utility to librarians.

As open access gains credibility, making articles and

bibliographies easily findable on the web is essential.

Google Scholar is very particular about how it includes

contentpreparing and displaying your documents with good

SEO in mind will help webcrawlers find your work and include

it.


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Case Study: Optimizing the Online Bibliography

of US Latina Lesbian History and Culture

Project Goals

As in the Rushton, Kelehan and Strong pilot project at SUNYBinghamton, goals for the optimization project included:

1) Increasing the page rank of the bibliography for a targetedset of keywords

2) Increasing the number of search engine referrals

3) Increasing the number of page views


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Methodology

Step 1

Put bibliography on the web and wait for it to be indexed by Googleand hover at natural site equilibrium in rankings.

Step 2

Select target keyword search strings using keyword analysis tools.

Step 3

Measure the placement of bibliography site for each of thesesearches.

Step 4

Optimize site with these target search strings in mind.

Step 5

Measure the placement of bibliography site for this series of searchstrings after a period of time.


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Step 1: Put Bibliography on the Web

Bibliography put online at free NYU alumni

webhosting space:

http://homepages.nyu.edu/~mg128/Lesbian.html

No frills, text only.

Did include machine-readable internal linking

structure for Table of Contents.
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~mg128/Lesbian.htmlhttp://homepages.nyu.edu/~mg128/Lesbian.html


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Step 2:

Selecting target keyword search strings

Knowledge of the field

Google Trends Google Insights Keyword Tool

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Topicmarks


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Google Trends


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Google Insights


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Google Insights, cont.


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Google Adwords Keyword Tool


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Topicmarks


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Step 3: Measure Search Engine Ranking of

Site for Targeted Keywords 3 measurements taken: once at beginning of project,once post-equilibrium/pre-optimization, and once

post-optimization

The sites natural ranking equilibrium happens to bevery high in the rankings (on first page of Google

results) for many of the keyword searches I had

chosen for this case study.

Therefore, no optimization was necessary for over

half of the keywords I chose!


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Initial site rankings for targeted

searches


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Step 4: Adding Metadata to Site

The following pieces of metadata were added to the sites

html section:

This section is the little blurb that displays underneath a listing in a search

engine.


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Site rankings for targeted searches

after 6 weeks


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Initial Results

Results following most basic of SEO were so

good, little else turns out to be necessary.

There are other guidelines and best practices

for different kinds of web publications that are

important for librarians and scholars to be

aware of, however, and some of these could

be incorporated in the future: include abstract

on page, attach pdf file, etc.


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Best Practices for Web Publications Include important subject keywords in your article

title, abstract, and html metadata tags.

Keep titles relatively short.

Assign good metadata to any uploaded PDF files,

especially author and paper title names.

Use machine-readable vector images.

Format article with standard terminology:

Introduction, Literature Review, Results, Bibliography,etc.

Publish in an open access journal.


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Best Practices, cont.

Upload articles to your institutions repository,

departmental webpage or personal webpage.

If putting articles on your personal website,

create a separate webpage for each article

title and abstract + PDF: Google Scholar will

index only 1 citation + abstract per page.


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Things to Avoid

Using keywords more often than necessary

you will annoy your readers and possibly be

flagged as spam

Use flat images with text that is unreadable by

machines (.bmp, .jpg, etc.)

List multiple article abstracts on the same

webpage.


23/23

Sources

Beel, Jran, Bela Gipp, and Erik Eilde. "Academic Search Engine Optimization (ASEO):

Optimizing Scholarly Literature for Google Scholar & Co."Journal of Scholarly Publishing41.2

(2010): 176-90. Print.

Google. Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.

http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/

us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

Rushton, Erin E., Martha Daisy Kelehan, and Marcy A. Strong. "Searching for a New Way to

Reach Patrons: A Search Engine Optimization Pilot Project at Binghamton University

Libraries."Journal of Web Librarianship2.4 (2008): 525-47. Print.

Zhang, Jin, and Alexandra Dimitroff. "The Impact of Metadata Implementation on Webpage

Visibility in Search Engine Results (Part II)." Information Processing & Management41.3

(2005): 697-715. Print.

Yahoo! SEO Basics. http://styleguide.yahoo.com/resources/optimize-search-engines/seo-basics
http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdfhttp://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/www.google.com/en/us/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf

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