You just wrote an awesome article for a scientific journal - congratulations! Did you consider how search engines like Google will index your article, so you can be widely read? Choosing effective keywords will help.

Discover how to choose keywords for your article with these practical tips. You can also go to Wiley Author Services for additional tips and help on how to write a journal article.

Importance of Indexing

Indexing for search engines is important for two reasons. Effective keywords for your article give an accurate representation of what you publish. This improves the relevancy to readers.

Indexing also catches the attention of search engines like Google. Best practice for SEO includes mentioning the keywords every 100 to 200 words you’re your titles, subheadings, and at the beginning, and end of your article.

Title Creation

Effective keywords for your article start with the title. A title catches the attention of readers, but it also introduces your main point. Consider the introductory paragraph of your article and create a title from there. Your title shouldn't be boring, but it can't be misleading or outrageous either.

Once you have your title, filter your keywords throughout the piece using the best practices mentioned earlier. Examine how the article looks after you’ve added more keywords and make changes for them to fit.

2. Word Clusters or Word Clouds

Several online sources create word clusters or word clouds. Word clusters count the words in your article and give you a visual snapshot of the most prominent words in the article. This can point to how you should select a keyword, even before you select a title. They all work by copy and pasting text into a text box.

Here are some word cluster tools to see which works best for you.

• Jason Davies Word Cloud Generator 
• Tag Crowd 
• Tagxedo

3. Abstract

Research articles need an abstract, which is a short summary of your work. Use keywords in your abstract as an extra boost to your SEO practices. Abstracts are usually just a few hundred words, so putting the keywords in two or three times makes sense.

4. Natural Language

Your keywords should employ natural language and blend seamlessly into your article. Search engines recognize that keywords can be a few words apart to remain relevant to a search engine's algorithm. For instance, compare how "Studies show apples prevent colon cancer," and "Patients with a predisposition for colon cancer might eat apples to prevent this disease" both use the keywords properly in terms of indexing for search engines.

5. Use Google Search Engine Result Pages

Search using a common phrase for your topic (IE: how would you Google your own work) and use the elements on the search engine result page to hone your keyword list.

• Use the “People Also Ask” and “People Also Searched” sections to see what other keywords and queries people are using to search for your topic.
• Use featured snippets to see content and themes with contextual relevance.
• Other clues on search engine result pages -like bold text – show what Google thinks of contextually relevant keywords to your search.

Using these tactics, you can create a broader list of terms to pull from to help create a more indexable article.

CTA: Here’s more help preparing your article