Academic content - a valuable resource to establish your presence on the Web

Abstract

It has been proven beyond any doubt that high rankings on search engine result pages are non-negotiable for commercial websites. These high rankings can be achieved through a variety of methods, ethical and unethical. Both are being used extensively to impress crawlers, either in-house or by external search engine optimization experts. Arguably one of the most important components needed to achieve this high visibility, is the use of textual content honeycombed with the concentrated use of relevant keywords. This type of content is time-consuming and therefore expensive to create. It is generally accepted that any active academic should publish his/her research results regularly in a variety of formats including books, book chapters, journal articles and conference papers. These publications are used to measure the value of a researcher's work, and citations of these works have been used as a measure of success. Over a period of time an active academic amasses a large volume of descriptive, keyword-rich text on one or more closely related topics. This body of text is a valuable resource which should be used as a tool to establish a strong Web presence for each active academic, adding to the traditional exposure achieved through paper and online publications. In this keynote, a critical evaluation is done of the usage of large volumes of research text coupled with website visibility principles, to establish a strong presence with search engine crawlers.