The Internet has meant that academics can now have their work published quickly and easily either on article websites or on blogs.  Which is a good thing right?  Well apparently not.  An article featured in The Guardian has reported that search engine optimisation is killing the creativity of these articles because of the need to be found in search engines like Google. 

When writing articles it makes sense to include keywords and phrases in the title and the text to help it be found by the search engines but this doesn’t mean you have to repeat the same things over and over again.  Yes, you will need keywords in there but as long as everything you write is related to the topic then you don’t need to have a boring, wordy title.  The article uses the following quote to show this point.

“SEO can, however, make articles tedious to read. A headline that once read “Of mice and men” for a study that discussed the suitability of mice when testing drugs for humans might now say “Suitability of mice for in vivo drug testing” or something even more jargon-laden.”

Well I have already come up with a title that is creative and suitable for the SEO.  Man or Mouse? Are Mice Really Suitable For In Vivo Testing?  The other complaint mentioned in the article is that social bookmarking is being used as a method for the articles to gain popularity and this has turned it into more of a popularity contest, where as it used to be about the best report.  This is just a sign of the times and I know people fear change but yes, you are going to have to market your academic reports online if you want to be found in the search engines.  This may take add a bit of time to your report and may require some prior planning but as long as you use the SEO work sensibly then it shouldn’t effect your creativity or originality.