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28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier

If you’re a researcher or scholar, you know that conducting effective online research is a critical part of your job. And if you’re like most people, you’re always on the lookout for new and better ways to do it. 

This article aims to give you an edge over researchers that rely mainly on Google for their entire research process.

Table of Contents

#1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is an academic search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.

#2. ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) 

ERIC (short for educational resources information center) is a great academic search engine that focuses on education-related literature. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and produced by the Institute of Education Sciences. 

ERIC indexes over a million articles, reports, conference papers, and other resources on all aspects of education from early childhood to higher education. So, search results are more relevant to Education on ERIC. 

ERIC is a free online database of education-related literature. 

#3. Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha can also be used to find academic articles. Just type in your keywords and Wolfram Alpha will generate a list of academic articles that match your query.

#4. iSEEK Education 

iSEEK is a search engine targeting students, teachers, administrators, and caregiver. It’s designed to be safe with editor-reviewed content.

iSEEK Education is free to use.

#5. BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine)

CORE is an academic search engine that focuses on open access research papers. A link to the full text PDF or complete text web page is supplied for each search result. It’s academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers.

You might also like:

#7. Science.gov

#8. semantic scholar, #9. refseek.

This is one of the free search engines that feels like Yahoo with a massive directory. It could be good when you are just looking for research ideas from unexpected angles. It could lead you to some other database that you might not know such as the CIA The World Factbook, which is a great reference tool.

#10. ResearchGate 

A mixture of social networking site + forum + content databases where researchers can build their profile, share research papers, and interact with one another.

#11. DataONE Search (formerly CiteULike) 

#12. dataelixir , #13. lazyscholar – browser extension, #14. citeseerx – digital library from penstate, #15. the lens – patents search , #16. fatcat – wiki for bibliographic catalog , #17. lexis web – legal database, #18. infotopia – part of the vlrc family, #19. virtual learning resources center, #21. worldwidescience.

Over 70 countries’ databases are used on the website. When a user enters a query, it contacts databases from all across the world and shows results in both English and translated journals and academic resources.

#22. Google Books

A user can browse thousands of books on Google Books, from popular titles to old titles, to find pages that include their search terms. You can look through pages, read online reviews, and find out where to buy a hard copy once you find the book you are interested in.

#23. DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals)

#24. baidu scholar, #25. pubmed central, #26. medline®.

MEDLINE® is a paid subscription database for life sciences and biomedicine that includes more than 28 million citations to journal articles. For finding reliable, carefully chosen health information, Medline Plus provides a powerful search tool and even a dictionary.

Defunct Academic Search Engines 

#27. microsoft academic  .

Microsoft Academic

#28. Scizzle

Final thoughts.

There are many academic search engines that can help researchers and scholars find the information they need. This list provides a variety of options, starting with more familiar engines and moving on to less well-known ones. 

10 thoughts on “28 Best Academic Search Engines That make your research easier”

Thank you so much Joannah..I have found this information useful to me as librarian in an academic library

You are welcome! We are happy to hear that!

Thank You Team, for providing a comprehensive list of academic search engines that can help make research easier for students and scholars. The variety of search engines included offers a range of options for finding scholarly articles, journals, and other academic resources. The article also provides a brief summary of each search engine’s features, which helps in determining which one is the best fit for a specific research topic. Overall, this article is a valuable resource for anyone looking for a quick and easy way to access a wealth of academic information.

We appreciate your support and thank you for your kind words. We will continue to provide valuable resources for students and researchers in the future. Please let us know if you have any further questions or suggestions.

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I cannot thank you enough!!! thanks alot 🙂

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Expontum – Helps researchers quickly find knowledge gaps and identify what research projects have been completed before. Expontum is free, open access, and available to all globally with no paid versions of the site. Automated processes scan research article information 24/7 so this website is constantly updating. By looking at over 35 million research publications (240 million by the end of 2023), the site has 146 million tagged research subjects and 122 million tagged research attributes. Learn more about methodology and sources on the Expontum About Page ( https://www.expontum.com/about.php )

Hey Ryan, I clicked and checked your site and thought it was very relevant to our reader. Thank you for sharing. And, we will be reviewing your site soon.

Sounds good! Thanks, Joannah!

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The top list of academic search engines

1. Google Scholar

4. science.gov, 5. semantic scholar, 6. baidu scholar, get the most out of academic search engines, frequently asked questions about academic search engines, related articles.

Academic search engines have become the number one resource to turn to in order to find research papers and other scholarly sources. While classic academic databases like Web of Science and Scopus are locked behind paywalls, Google Scholar and others can be accessed free of charge. In order to help you get your research done fast, we have compiled the top list of free academic search engines.

Google Scholar is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only lets you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free but also often provides links to full-text PDF files.

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles
• Abstracts: only a snippet of the abstract is available
• Related articles: ✔
• References: ✔
• Cited by: ✔
• Links to full text: ✔
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, RIS, BibTeX

BASE is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany. That is also where its name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles (contains duplicates)
• Abstracts: ✔
• Related articles: ✘
• References: ✘
• Cited by: ✘
• Export formats: RIS, BibTeX

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open-access research papers. For each search result, a link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is provided.

• Coverage: approx. 136 million articles
• Links to full text: ✔ (all articles in CORE are open access)
• Export formats: BibTeX

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need anymore to query all those resources separately!

• Coverage: approx. 200 million articles and reports
• Links to full text: ✔ (available for some databases)
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX (available for some databases)

Semantic Scholar is the new kid on the block. Its mission is to provide more relevant and impactful search results using AI-powered algorithms that find hidden connections and links between research topics.

• Coverage: approx. 40 million articles
• Export formats: APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX

Although Baidu Scholar's interface is in Chinese, its index contains research papers in English as well as Chinese.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 100 million articles
• Abstracts: only snippets of the abstract are available
• Export formats: APA, MLA, RIS, BibTeX

RefSeek searches more than one billion documents from academic and organizational websites. Its clean interface makes it especially easy to use for students and new researchers.

• Coverage: no detailed statistics available, approx. 1 billion documents
• Abstracts: only snippets of the article are available
• Export formats: not available

Consider using a reference manager like Paperpile to save, organize, and cite your references. Paperpile integrates with Google Scholar and many popular databases, so you can save references and PDFs directly to your library using the Paperpile buttons:

Google Scholar is an academic search engine, and it is the clear number one when it comes to academic search engines. It's the power of Google searches applied to research papers and patents. It not only let's you find research papers for all academic disciplines for free, but also often provides links to full text PDF file.

Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature developed at the Allen Institute for AI. Sematic Scholar was publicly released in 2015 and uses advances in natural language processing to provide summaries for scholarly papers.

BASE , as its name suggest is an academic search engine. It is hosted at Bielefeld University in Germany and that's where it name stems from (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine).

CORE is an academic search engine dedicated to open access research papers. For each search result a link to the full text PDF or full text web page is provided.

Science.gov is a fantastic resource as it bundles and offers free access to search results from more than 15 U.S. federal agencies. There is no need any more to query all those resources separately!

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Best Academic Search Engines [2024]

Table of Contents

Gone are the days when researchers used to spend hours in the library skimming through endless reference books and resources. Now, thanks to academic search engines — with just a few clicks, researchers can access an extensive amount of information at their fingertips.

However, not all search engines are designed to make the research discovery process easier. It varies from one search engine to another, few might not have updated their database to the latest articles, while others might still provide older articles as a result of your search keyword or topic, and so on. This way, half of the researcher’s time is consumed shortlisting the best academic search engines.

Therefore, to help you choose the best search engine for academic research, we’ve crafted this blog. In this article, we will explore the best academic search engines available and why they are essential for scholars, researchers, and students alike.

Introduction to Academic Search Engines

Academic search engines are online repositories or databases that host millions of research articles and allow users to find relevant scholarly articles, research publications, conference proceedings, and other academic resources. Unlike web search engines like Google or Bing, these platforms are specifically designed to provide accurate, reliable, and relevant academic content.

These search engines often have advanced features that help users filter their search results based on specific criteria. For example, SciSpace helps you filter the results based on author, publication date, PDF, open-access, and more. In addition, it also provides citation information, abstracts, and full-text access to research papers and other scholarly literature, making them invaluable tools for scholars and researchers.

Academic search engines play a crucial role in the research process by providing scholars with easy access to relevant and reliable information. They save researchers valuable time by eliminating the need to sift through irrelevant search results and provide them with free access to a focused pool of academic resources.

With their advanced features and comprehensive coverage, these academic databases empower researchers to stay at the forefront of their fields and contribute to the advancement of knowledge.

Benefits of using reliable academic search engines for research

When it comes to academic research, using reliable search engines is of utmost importance. The credibility and quality of the sources you rely on can significantly impact the results of your research findings and conclusions.

Here are the potential advantages of using a popular search engine!

1. Reliable scholarly source: By using an academic search engine, researchers can ensure that the information they find is from reputable sources. These academic databases typically index content from scholarly journals, universities, research institutions, and other reliable and cited sources. As a result, the risk of using incorrect or biased information, which is prevalent on the open web, is significantly reduced.

2. Increased exposure to enormous articles: With a reliable academic search engine, you can access a vast array of scholarly articles and research publications. These search engines have extensive academic databases that include articles from various disciplines, including science and social sciences, allowing researchers to explore a wide range of topics and find relevant studies to support their research.

3. Advanced search filters: Reliable academic search engines often provide advanced search features that enable researchers to refine their search queries and narrow down the results to find the most relevant and latest information. These features may include filters for publication date, author, journal, and citation count, among others. By utilizing these advanced search terms and options, researchers can save time and effort by quickly finding the most pertinent resources.

4. Access full-text journal articles: Another advantage of using search engine for academic research is the ability to access full-text scientific articles. Many academic search engines provide direct links to the full text of articles, either freely available or through institutional subscriptions. This ensures that researchers can read and analyze the complete article, rather than relying on abstracts or TL;DR summaries.

5. Additional tools support: The most reliable search engines for research like SciSpace offer additional tools and features to enhance the research workflow. These may include citation generators, reference management systems, and options to save and organize search results. These tools can greatly facilitate the organization and the citation analysis of sources, making the research process more efficient and systematic.

Best search engines for research

Now that we’ve understood the importance of using reliable search engines for academic research, let's explore some of the best academic literature search engines available:

1. SciSpace

SciSpace is considered the best academic search engine that hosts and provides free access to a comprehensive index of 300 million+ scholarly articles from various fields. It utilizes advanced algorithms to provide users with highly relevant search results. Its intuitive and user-friendly interface makes it ideal for both novice and experienced researchers to navigate millions of research papers with no mess around.

One of the standout features of SciSpace is its “ Trace feature ” which allows users to find relevant research papers based on the preferred criteria including citation counts, related publications, references, authors, and more. It helps you land on the right research paper based on your preferences or research needs.

SciSpace is the only search engine that not only helps you discover relevant scholarly scientific literature but also allows you to read a research paper using its AI research assistant, conduct a literature review, and generate accurate citations for your research publications. It is an all-in-one platform that accelerates your research workflow with its AI-powered tools. You can explore all of them here

2. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is undoubtedly one of the popular search engines. With its vast database of scholarly literature, Google Scholar allows users to search for articles, theses, books, and conference papers across multiple academic disciplines. Google Scholar helps users save their search queries and set up email alerts for new publications in their field of interest. This ensures that researchers stay up-to-date with the latest developments in their respective fields.

PubMed is a go-to academic search engine for those in the field of medicine and life sciences. Developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), PubMed provides access to a vast collection of medicine, biomedical, health sciences, or literature, including journals, clinical trials, and scientific articles. Its meticulously curated articles makes it a trusted resource for medical professionals, scientists, researchers, and students alike.

Scopus is a comprehensive database of science that covers a wide range of scholarly literature across multiple disciplines. It offers a vast collection of peer reviewed articles, including publications, conference papers, and patents. With its extensive coverage and powerful search capabilities, Scopus is a valuable tool for researchers looking to explore the latest developments in their respective fields.

JSTOR is a repository that provides access to a vast collection of academic journals, books, and primary sources. Its interdisciplinary approach makes it a valuable resource for researchers across various fields of study.

6. IEEE Xplore

IEEE Xplore is a premier academic search engine for those in the fields of engineering, computer science, and technology. It provides access to a vast collection of technical articles, conference papers, and standards published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

IEEE Xplore is a treasure trove of knowledge for researchers and engineers looking to stay at the forefront of technological advancements.

Criteria for choosing the best academic search engine

With so many free academic search engines to choose from, it can be challenging to determine which one is the best fit for your research needs. Here are some criteria to consider when selecting an academic search engine:

• Relevance: The search engine should provide highly relevant search results that are specific to your area of study.
• Database size: A larger database gives you access to a broader range of scientific literature.
• Advanced search capabilities: Look for search engines that offer advanced search filters, allowing you to refine your search based on specific criteria.
• User-friendly interface: A user-friendly interface makes it easier for researchers to navigate and retrieve the information they need efficiently.
• Accessibility: Consider the availability of full-text or PDF access to articles and the ease of obtaining the necessary permissions to cite or use the content.

In conclusion, academic search engines play a vital role in scholarly communication, facilitating efficient and reliable academic research. They provide scholars, researchers, and students with access to a vast array of scholarly articles, research papers, and other academic resources. By using the best academic search engines, researchers can ensure that their research is backed by evidence (accurate and trustworthy information).

While each search engine has its own unique features and strengths, the key is to choose the one that best aligns with your research needs and preferences. Remember to utilize advanced search filters, explore related articles and citations, and keep your research well-organized for maximum efficiency. As technology continues to advance, we can expect academic search engines to evolve and provide even more innovative solutions to the challenges faced in academic research.

So, embrace these powerful tools, explore the above-featured academic search engines, and let us know which tool you are clinging to!

Frequently Asked Questions

Google Scholar, SciSpace, PubMed, and JSTOR are widely used tools for academic research.

Academic search engineinvolves an in-depth examination of scholarly sources with a rigorous approach, while a Google search engine explores a wider range of web content, including non-academic sources, with varying levels of reliability.

They provide a comprehensive overview of existing research on diverse topics aiding researchers in conducting an efficient literature review without investing more time.

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Scopus Search

Scopus quickly delivers the information you're looking for from over 92m records. Updated daily, Scopus features state-of-the-art search tools and filters to empower research efficiency.

Increase research efficiency

Having access to comprehensive content and high-quality data is only effective if you can easily find the information you need. Uncovering trends, discovering sources and potential collaborators, and building deeper insights require effective search tools that can identify the right results.

Identify trends for key topics

Scopus’ literature search is built to distill massive amounts of information down to the most relevant documents and information in less time.

With Scopus you can search and filter results in the following ways:

Document search : Search directly from the homepage and use detailed search options to ensure you find the document(s) you want

Author search : Search for a specific author by name or by Open Research and Contributor Identifier ID (ORCID)

Affiliation search : Identify and assess an affiliation’s scholarly output, collaborating institutions and top authors

Advanced search : Narrow the scope of your search using field codes, proximity operators and/or Boolean operators

Refine results : Scopus makes it easy to refine your results list to specific categories of documents

Language interface : The Scopus interface is available in Chinese and Japanese; content is not localized, but you can switch the interface to one of these language options (and switch back to English, the default language) at the bottom of any Scopus page

Quick reference guide

Learn how to easily start your search from the homepage and use all the features in Scopus with this handy Quick Reference Guide.

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Stand on the shoulders of giants

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

How are documents ranked?

Google Scholar aims to rank documents the way researchers do, weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature.

Features of Google Scholar

• Search all scholarly literature from one convenient place
• Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
• Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
• Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
• Check who's citing your publications, create a public author profile

Disclaimer: Legal opinions in Google Scholar are provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied on as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed lawyer. Google does not warrant that the information is complete or accurate.

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Stay Connected With Semantic Scholar Sign Up What Is Semantic Scholar? Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI.

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100 Search Engines For Academic Research

Do you want to start with a broader search? These best academic search engines are excellent information sources and can be a valuable resource whether you're doing academic or scientific research.

Some academic search engines provide the most reliable resources, covering many subjects. They provide information on various topics and a one-stop-shop for all research-related requirements.

Furthermore, they provide a personalized and tailored search method for study materials.

List of Academic Research Search Engines

General search engines .

Do you want to begin with a more general search? These general academic search engines are unique.

RefSeek - Academic Search Engine : RefSeek is a free online search engine for students and scholars to find academic information. It scans over 5 billion documents per year, including IP backlinks in directories, PDF files, and presentations.

Virtual Learning Resources Center : The Virtual LRC indexes thousands of top academic information websites selected by instructors and library specialists worldwide to provide students and teachers with current, correct content for school and university educational projects! It offers information and links to websites about art, social sciences, social concerns, social problems, history, and other topics.

Digital Library of the Commons Repository : This is a portal to the international commons literature. This website contains a Working Paper Archive of author-submitted articles, a full-text Digital Library, and links to relevant reference sources on commons research.

The OAIster Database - Catalog of open access resources : OAIster is a catalog that contains millions of records representing open access educational resources. The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting collected data from open access collections worldwide to construct this catalog (OAI-PMH). OAIster now has over 50 million entries from over 2,000 authors representing digital resources.

Internet Public Library : The majority of people who work on the Internet Public Library are students. It is a non-profit website managed primarily by students. Visitors may request assistance, which will be provided by volunteer librarians and graduate students in library and information science. Writing essays, research papers, and term papers is, without a doubt, an essential aspect of academic work.

ResearchGate : It is a commercial social networking site in Europe where academics and researchers may share articles, ask and answer questions, and find peers. This is the best resource for researchers, with 135+ million publication pages, 20+ million researchers, and 1+ million inquiries.

Google Trends : Google Trends is a Google website that evaluates the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across multiple countries and languages. The website employs graphs to compare the search volume of various keywords over time.

BASE : BASE is one of the most comprehensive search engines globally, especially for academic websites. Over 240 million papers from over 8,000 content providers are stored in the BASE, with full texts available (Open Access). BASE is managed by the Bielefeld University Library.

Microsoft Academic : Microsoft Academic is the most effective search engine for academic research that geared researchers towards academics. They provide an alternative approach for constructing summary pages for each indexed document, allowing users to browse fast. It has about 47 million papers distributed by more than 20 million writers. Many publications and research papers are stored in the search engine, ranging from software engineering and design to sociology and science.

Meta Search Engines

Do you want the best of everything? Use these metasearch engines to get results from numerous sites at once.

Dogpile : Dogpile is a Popular metasearch engine that retrieves results from Google, Yahoo!, Yandex, Bing, and other famous search engines, including audio and video content providers like Yahoo!

Gigablast - An Alternative Web Search Engine : Gigablast is a free and open-source metasearch engine that is free and open source. Gigablast claimed to have ordered over 12 billion pages each month and got billions of queries. Other firms such as Ixquick, Clusty, Zuula, Snap, Blingo, and Internet Archive have used Gigablast to organize search results.

My Excite : Excite (also spelled energize) is a web-based interface that offers a variety of content, including news and weather, electronic email, texting, stock quotes, and an adjustable client landing page. IAC Applications (previously Mindspark) and Excite Networks are currently being worked on. For a long time in the United States, the primary Excite site was a single starting page called My Excite.

Sputtr - Many Search Options, One Place : Sputtr is the most well-known meta-search engine that includes an element that allows us to design our search page landing page. This meta-search engine will enable us to search faster. This returns excellent results from various search engines and websites, including Google Image Search, Google Web Search, YouTube, Dailymotion, Google News, Facebook, Twitter, IMDb, Slashdot, About.com, and the New York Times, among others.

WebCrawler Search : WebCrawler, a metasearch engine, is the most well-known and long-lasting web search tool on the market today. WebCrawler is the leading search engine that lets people search for full-text information. By applying a hunt calculation to data gathered by web crawlers, web search tools can give essential connections to people who search for things like this. This creates a set of website pages that appear when a user searches on Google or Bing, for example (or another internet searcher).

FuzzFind Web Trends : FuzzFind is a web-based metasearch engine mashup that combines user-friendly search engine results (Google, Bing, and Yahoo!) with social bookmarking sites (del.icio.us) and real-time online trends from Twitter, Google News, and Digg.

SurfWax - Practical Tools for Harnessing Today's Information : The meta-search engine provides site snaps,' which are real-time page summaries. Those who sign up for a free account can choose from a list of hundreds of search sources.

Whonu - Order delicious food from approved people nearby : Whonu is a flash-based internet search/discovery application that harnesses the power of many search engines. It creates a new marketplace where anyone can prepare healthy, delicious, environmentally friendly meals and easily find nearby customers.

MetaCrawler : It is a free search engine for finding information on the internet. This web educational resource is for Meta index searches through Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Ask, MIVA, etc. This engine can help you find data, photos, recordings, news, yellow pages listings, and white pages listings.

Databases and Archives Resources

Use these search tools to access the database and best archives resources.

Archives Hub : Search through archive collections held in the United Kingdom. These one-of-a-kind primary sources help us comprehend and interpret our history, culture, and identity.

National Archives : The National Archives houses historical U.S. government documents (federal, congressional, and presidential records) created or received by the President and his staff, Congress, employees of Federal government agencies, and the Federal courts in the course of their official duties. 

arXiv e-Print Archive : ArXiv is a public server repository that hosts electronic e-prints from physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering, systems science, and economics research.

National Agricultural Library : The National Agricultural Library contains one of the most comprehensive agricultural and related sciences collections globally. The NAL Digital Collections offers powerful search, browsing, and retrieval options for digital documents and collections, as well as reliable, long-term online access to selected publications.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System : The Smithsonian Institution is the largest museum and research complex. While the Smithsonian's museums are prominent and well-known, its many study centers devoted to art, astronomy, endangered species, environmental sciences, history, marine biology, item conservation, and tropical biology are less well-known.

The British Library Catalogues & Collections : The British Library's collection includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs, newspapers, and sound. Many of the digital collections provide material for free online.

CIA World Factbook : The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States publishes the World Factbook once a year (CIA). Profiles can be accessed by country and contain information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 global entities.

State Legislative Websites Directory : This database contains information from the home pages and websites of the 50 state legislatures, the District of Columbia, and the territories. You can choose to examine specific website content resources (such as bills, press rooms, and statutes) from one state at a time. 

Books & Journals Search Engines

Instead of going to the library and burying your face in the stacks, use these search engines to find out which libraries have the books you need and perhaps even discover them available online.

WorldCat.org - The World's Largest Library Catalog : WorldCat is a union catalog that archives the collections of 15,637 libraries in 107 countries members of the OCLC global cooperative. Subscribing members of libraries collectively maintain WorldCat's database, the world's largest bibliographic database.

Google Books : Google Books is a Google service that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database.

Elsevier : It is a global information analytics organization that works with institutions and people to promote science, advance healthcare, and improve performance.

VADLO : It is a search engine for laboratory methods, techniques, protocols, molecular databases and bioinformatic tools, commercial products, kits, and powerpoints.

Open Library : Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published." Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization.

Google Scholar : Google Scholar can be described among the best-ever specialized research search engines designed for scholarly works and academic resources. It is not just a way to access free research papers covering all subjects of academic study and disciplines but also provides full-text PDF files. Google Scholar provides an easy method to find academic archives extensively. Many teachings and other materials such as proposals, articles, books, sentiments, and other materials from the courts, professional social orders, online retailers, universities, and many other institutions you can find all in one location.

Bioline International : Bioline is one of the most trusted and authentic search engines, with peer-reviewed academic journals on public health, food and nutritional security, food and medicine, and biodiversity. It offers free access to peer-reviewed journals from third-world countries.

Directory of Open Access Journals : DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high-quality, open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

Jurn : Jurn is a free online research search engine that allows you to find and download free full-text scholarly articles. Millions of free academic articles, chapters, and theses on Arts, Humanities, Business, Law, Nature, Science, Medicine, and other areas are available.

Infotopia : Infotopia is a search engine for students, teachers, and homeschoolers who want to find information about the school. It was created by librarians and used a Google custom search to find websites that have already been checked out by librarians, teachers, and other educational professionals. 

LexisNexis : LexisNexis is a company that sells data mining platforms through web portals, computer-assisted legal research, and information about many people worldwide who buy things. LexisNexis started making legal and journalistic materials more available online so more people could read them. 

Science & Scholar Search Engines

SciSeek : SciSeek is the Internet's first and most comprehensive science search engine. SciSeek examines millions of science-related Web pages and offers only the most relevant results.

SciCentral : SciCentral editors have been aggregating breaking research news from the most reputable and reliable sources. Over 700 other websites refer to SciCentral as a reliable source of information.

Strategian : The goal of Strategian.com and the Science Primary Literature database is to assist you in becoming aware of, obtaining, and critically assessing the information that helps you understand science (the world’s physical, technological, and psychological forces) and how it impacts your life.

Science.gov : Science.gov serves as a gateway to the United States government's scientific and technical information and research using federated search technology.

CERN Document Server : CERN Document Server is a repository for CERN's scientific output (articles, preprints, reports, CERN Annual reports, Yellow Reports, CERN Bulletin, etc.). The CERN Library Catalogue contains books, proceedings, standards, and periodicals. Preprints, articles, books, journals, photographs, and much more are all included.

Analytical Sciences Digital Library : The Analytical Sciences Digital Library (ASDL) is a collection of electronic resources for teachers, students, and practitioners interested in chemical measurements and instrumentation. The NSDL is an online library for education and research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Baidu Scholar : Baidu Research is the institution's research division of Baidu. Baidu Research has offices in both Silicon Valley and Beijing, focusing on fundamental research in artificial intelligence.

Semantic Scholar : Its goal is to provide more relevant and impactful search results by utilizing AI-powered algorithms that discover hidden connections and links between research topics. Semantic scholar building for scholars to keep you up to date with scientific literature is an increasingly pressing challenge for scholars.

CORE : The CORE is an academic search engine that focuses on open access research articles. A link to the full-text PDF or full-text web page is supplied for each search result.

GetCITED : GetCITED is a website database that lists publication and citation information on academic articles that members enter. It aims to include not only journal articles but also book chapters and other peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed publications.

PLOS ONE : PLOS ONE is one of the best educational search engines for students, offering a free platform for scientific information. All publications published on PLOS ONE have gone through a strict peer-review process. This academic database has a meticulous procedure for publishing a journal. You can find plenty of articles and scholarly publications using this platform.

BioOne : BioOne is a nonprofit publisher that aims to make scientific research more accessible through a growing portfolio of products such as its full-text aggregation, BioOne Complete, and open-access journal, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene.

Science and Technology of Advanced Materials : Science and Technology of Advanced Materials is the leading open access, an international journal covering a broad spectrum of materials science research, including functional materials, synthesis, processing, theoretical analyses, characterization, and properties of materials.

New Journal of Physics : The New Journal of Physics is an online-only, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that covers research in all areas of physics and interdisciplinary topics with physics as a central theme.

Math & Technology Search Engines

MathGuide : MathGuide is an Internet-based subject gateway to scholarly relevant mathematics information located at the Lower Saxony State- and University Library in Göttingen (Germany). A set of Dublin Core metadata is used to describe and assess resources.

ZMATH Online Database : zbMATH Open (formerly known as Zentralblatt MATH) is the world's most comprehensive and longest-running abstracting and reviewing service in pure and applied mathematics. zbMATH Open provides easy access to bibliographic data, reviews, and abstracts from all areas of pure mathematics and applications, particularly natural sciences, computer science, economics, and engineering.

Inspec : Inspec is a significant indexing database of scientific and technical literature published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, formerly by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, one of the IET's forerunners. Inspec has extensive coverage in physics, computing, control, and engineering.

The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies : This is a collection of bibliographies of scientific literature in computer science from various sources, covering most aspects of computer science. The bibliographies are updated weekly.

Symbolab : Symbolab is an advanced math education tool. It enables users to learn, practice, and explore math topics by utilizing mathematical symbols, scientific notations, and text. Symbolab gives automatic step-by-step solutions to algebraic, trigonometric, and calculus courses ranging from middle school to college.

Top Marks : Topmarks saves teachers and parents time searching for the best inspirational and educational web resources. They only feature the best educational websites, saving you time searching the web and giving you and your students secure access to high-quality, free teaching and learning resources.

Safe Search Engines For Kids

Here are the most refined safe search engines for kids to use when conducting their searches.

Kidtopia : Kidtopia is a Google bespoke student-safe search engine for preschool and elementary pupils that indexes only educator-approved websites.

Famhoo : Famhoo works with families, schools, businesses, churches, cities, and other groups to make the internet a better place. If you'd like to learn more about how Famhoo can help you or your business make the site safer. 

DOGOnews : DOGO News is a website that provides articles about current events. Each item comes with quizzes and questions assigned online or printed with the Pro subscription. These aid in evaluating reading comprehension, critical thinking, vocabulary and parts of speech, and general content.

DinoSearch : DinoSearch is recommended for children at school and at home since it uses SafeSearch and keyword filtering to block adult images, webpages, and videos.

Classhook : ClassHook is a collaborative area that curates two- to six-minute video excerpts from famous television shows and movies, as well as partially constructed mini-lessons to supplement education. Many videos are tagged by topic, and many cover many themes.

Lesson Planet : Lesson Planet provides teacher-reviewed resources for teachers and parents. Its products are intended to supplement traditional and non-traditional schooling from kindergarten to the 12th grade.

Social Science Search Engines

We've compiled a list of intriguing search engines perfect for people conducting social science research. These search engines will provide excellent results for researchers studying psychology, anthropology, and related topics.

Social Science Research Network : SSRN is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of research and comprises several specialized research networks.

Behavioral Brain Science Archive : BBS is an internationally renowned journal with an innovative format known as Open Peer Commentary. Researchers in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, or cognitive science is particularly significant and controversial work.

SocioSite : SocioSite is designed to access information and resources relevant to sociologists and other social scientists. It gives access to the worldwide scene of social sciences.

The SocioWeb : The SocioWeb is an independent guide to the sociological resources available on the Internet, and it can help unite the sociological community in powerful ways.

WikiArt : Wikiart.org is the best website for finding art online. You can find paintings and photos in a searchable image database that includes artist biographies and their work. Online, WikiArt is a visual art encyclopedia that anyone can change. 

Encyclopedia of Psychology : The Encyclopedia of Psychology will be the first place to go for authoritative information on every aspect of the field — as well as answers to thousands of questions about concepts, methods, theories, findings, significant figures, schools of thought, and emerging areas of interest.

Political Information : It is an indispensable resource for journalists, political professionals, students, and political junkies worldwide. The search engine contains an index of the contents of over 5000 websites chosen for the quality of their content. The most recent re-indexing run included over 278,000 separate web documents.

History Search Engines

This fantastic assortment of academic search engines has been created exclusively for history professors. Using these search engines, you will hunt for and find resources and things to use in your classroom with your students. These resources include genuine historical documents, maps, pictures, records, memorials, primary source materials, interactive timelines, and much more.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection :  The LUNA Viewer is the primary tool for viewing the map collection. Users can browse the entire online collection of over 111,000 images or search by keyword.

Fold3 : Fold3 offers premier collections of original military records. These records contain the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served in the military. Many of the records come from the National Archives of the United States, the National Archives of the United Kingdom, and other international archives.

Internet Modern History Sourcebook : The Internet Modern History Sourcebook is one of a series of history primary source books. To present a diversity of source material in modern European, American, and Latin American history, as well as a significant amount of material pertinent to world cultures and global studies.

Library of Anglo-American Culture and History : The Library of Anglo-American Culture & History (Library AAC) not only provides literature, information, and traditional scholarly resources to scholars, but it also provides publication and self-archiving services through its repository.

Digital History : The use of digital media to further historical analysis, presentation, and research is referred to as digital history. It is a subfield of the digital humanities and an extension of quantitative history, cliometrics, and computing.

Related Engine : The History Engine is a collection of thousands of historical "episodes" that paint a broad portrait of the past and are freely available to scholars, teachers, and the general public. These episodes are written by students from a variety of colleges and universities.

NoodleTools : NoodleTools is an online research management software that encourages critical thinking and real research. Stay organized while analyzing information, creating appropriate citations, archive source material, take notes, outline ideas, and prepare to write.

Discovering American Women’s History Online : This database gives access to digitized collections of original documents (pictures, letters, diaries, artifacts, and so on) that trace the history of women in the United States. The database includes the following features: Detailed descriptions and connections to over 700 digital collections.

The Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide : This booklet provides suggestions for gathering folklore and oral history from family and community members.

Fact Monster : Fact Monster is a free reference service for kids, teachers, and parents. Get homework help and facts on thousands of topics, including sports, entertainment, geography, history, biography, education, and health.

The Research Guide : The Research Guide provides dozens of how-to and citation guidelines, thousands of sample essays, and other resources for producing a paper.

Art History Resources on the Web : AHTR is home to a constantly evolving and jointly published online archive of art history teaching content, including but not limited to lesson plans, video introductions to museums, book reviews, picture clusters, and classroom and museum activities.

Voice of the Shuttle : The Voice of the Shuttle (VoS) is an Internet subject gateway for humanities and historical and socio sites to help you become an internet researcher . The website's media studies page includes sections on media theory and history, journalism, TV, cinema and video, CD-ROMs, popular music, radio, comics, Internet broadcast media, and telecom issues. You have the option of submitting a resource.

Business and Economics Search Engines

Using these search engines, you may find business publications, journal articles, and other information.

EconLit : EconLit is an academic literature abstracting database service provided by the American Economic Association. It includes papers and other materials dating back to 1969. It uses JEL classification codes to categorize documents by subject.

Corporate Information : Corporate Information is perfect for researching companies; corporate Information offers an easy way to find corporate financial records.

Web of Science : The Web of Science provides a standard search language, navigation environment, and data structure that enables researchers to search broadly across heterogeneous resources and leverage the citation links inherent in the index to navigate to relevant research findings and quantify the effect.

EconBiz : EconBiz provides orientation and assistance in searching articles for students, researchers, and educators, working papers, e-books, and other resources. Lists of results can be sorted by relevance or date.

JournalTOCs : JournalTOCs is the largest free collection of scientific journal Tables of Contents (TOCs): 33,235 journals from 3530 publishers, including 16,547 chosen Open Access journals and 11,914 Hybrid journals. JournalTOCs is a resource for researchers, students, librarians, and anybody looking for the most recent scientific articles.

Virtual Library Labour History : The International Institute of Social History maintains the WWW Virtual Library's Labour History department, part of the WWW VL History Network. They aim to help labor historians in a broad sense. They bring together archives, libraries, document centers, museums, and research institutions specializing in heritage, history, and labor theory.

National Bureau of Economic Research : The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit research organization based in the United States "dedicated to conducting and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and academics.

Research Papers in Economics : RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in 102 countries to disseminate research in Economics and related sciences. The heart of the project is a decentralized bibliographic database of working papers, journal articles, books, book chapters, and software components, all maintained by volunteers.

Inomics : Inomics assists students and researchers in Economics, Business, and Social Sciences in locating the best Academic and Research Jobs, Scholarships, Careers, and Study Guidance to help students reach their academic and professional researcher goals.

DailyStocks : It is a website that searches the stock market. Separately, Daily Stocks Pro is a sophisticated stock analysis application that filters the whole stock market to assist consumers in capturing key market moves.

EDGAR Search : EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) is the Securities and Exchange Commission's online public database (SEC). EDGAR automates the collecting, validation, indexing, acceptance, and sending submissions by firms and individuals obliged by law to file forms with the SEC.

Science Direct : A full-text scientific database part of the science verse. This search engine is one of the best bibliographic and full-text electronic collections of science, technology, and medicine.

Other Niches Search Engines

These niche search engines might help you find even more technical information.

PubMed : PubMed is a digital archive that contains open access full-text scientific publications from biomedical and life sciences journals. It is a key research database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Lexis : Lexis Web, which populates this search engine with approved legal sites, is essential for law students and research projects that require legal citations. You can quickly narrow your search results by site type (blog, news, commercial, or government), jurisdiction, practice area, source, and file format.

Education Resources Information Center : ERIC is an online library of education research and information sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the United States Department of Education.

MedlinePlus : MedlinePlus is an online health information resource for patients, families, and friends. It is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), a division of the National Institutes of Health, and it houses the world's most extensive medical library (NIH).

Artcyclopedia : Artcyclopedia is a well-developed art search engine. Provides a directory of Internet art resources, links to art museums, and a list of the month's top 30 sites are available. Every month, a new print and book are featured.

By using these search tools, you can connect with excellent reference information.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus : They have over 275,000 synonyms, antonyms, related words, and idiomatic phrases. A thesaurus is more than just a list of synonyms; it is your road map to more accurate and effective language use.

References.net : References.net is a multidisciplinary web directory of the most relevant reference-related resources that the editors have hand-picked. Browse the references collection by alphabetical order, category, or keyword.

Quotes.net : Quotes.net provides a massive library of literary quotations and movie quotes for an infinite number of famous authors and featured films, created collaboratively by contributing editors.

Literary Encyclopedia : The Literary Encyclopedia published biographies of major and minor writers, and also scholarly descriptions of all interesting texts written by these authors, including those that are often overlooked, and a variety of descriptive and critical essays on literary, cultural, and historical topics, which provide a better understanding of the social contexts in which this writing was produced.

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7 of the Best Education Search Engines for Academic Research

If you’re performing work that requires in-depth sources, such as academic studies or a job that requires heavy research, finding quality sources with standard search engines isn’t always easy. Switch up your education search engines for academic research to find exactly what you need.

1. Best for Citations: Google Scholar

2. best for general study: refseek, 3. best search filters: virtual lrc, 4. best ai education search engine: semantic scholar, 5. best for scientific research: science.gov, 6. best for open access research papers: core, 7. best for environmental research: dataone.

Don’t be mistaken: this isn’t just regular Google! This is a branch off “regular” Google searches, called Google Scholar . Instead of a general search, use it to search books, studies, and even court cases.

On the main page, simply enter your search terms. Google Scholar searches through its database and picks out relevant examples. If your research is very time-sensitive (such as technology), use the filters on the left to change how recent you want your sources to be, up to and including the current year.

If you’re writing a piece that has a strict sourcing style, Google Scholar gives you templates (just click the cite link under the result) for its sources. Find the template that suits the style standard, then copy it directly into your citations to save time.

RefSeek is one of the best academic search engines for academic research for general studies. It takes a more website-based approach, bringing up relevant but highly dependable websites for whatever you want to research. It’s a great way to pull up multiple articles relating to a specific object.

RefSeek does more than just searching, however; if you’re studying in a specific field, RefSeek also has a “directory” page, which acts as a great directory of useful websites related to education. Once you choose the category you’d like to browse, RefSeek brings up a list of productive sites to help you with your studies. It’s ideal for exploring new topics as well.

Virtual LRC operates like most search engines, but its filters are what really sets it apart from the rest. When you search, you get general search results. Or, use a topic filter, such as Videos, Sci/Tech/Math, or News/Opinion to trim down the results. You can even filter by date.

On the main search page, click Directory to view a list of categories. Virtual LRC works much like RefSeek, showing you relevant sites to help you with your academic projects. There’s even a list of sites to find images. Alternatively, use our image search engine list to find images for your research.

It’s kind of an outdated design, but don’t let that fool you. It’s one of the more useful education search engines.

Semantic Scholar mixes your typical search engines for academic research with the power of AI to find papers others might miss. While the content itself isn’t AI-generated, the search engine uses AI to find links between resources to help you dive deeper into a topic.

The platform currently searches over 200 million research papers. When you search, there are also handy filters to narrow your results by date, author, field of study, specific journals, and more.

While it doesn’t have as many resources as some others on this list, having it limited to just respectable research papers and journals is a plus.

If you’re interested in more AI search, try these ChatGPT alternatives , or see how to use AI in your browser .

If you’re researching a science-related topic, one of the top education search engines for academic research is easily Science.gov . It’s currently in beta but lets you search through millions of research papers funded by the U.S. government.

The best part is the results come from multiple different government agencies, but the results are all in one convenient location. If you don’t want to dig through hundreds of results for your query, use the available filters. Filter by text, public access, multimedia, organization, date, and more.

You can even create a free account to save your research. You’ll also get alerts when new research is published in your area of interest.

CORE , or connecting repositories, was designed to help better connect academic repositories from around the world. It also includes what’s likely the largest open access collection of research papers, with full text available. The whole idea is to make scholarly literature more accessible and easy to find.

Currently, there are over 300 million resources. Filter results by field, year, type, author, language, and publisher. While not every resource offers full text, many do.

If you’re a research institution, you can partner with CORE to make your datasets available as well.

If your field of study deals with the Earth and environment, look no further than DataONE . It’s the single best education search engine to find the latest research on everything related to our environment.

It’s a unique design that not only includes research papers, but a map showing where the research was done or the area it’s about. Plus, it works as an academic social networking site, where researchers share their findings. Easily follow your favorite researchers as they make new discoveries.

While much of DataONE is free to use, some papers are behind a paywall. However, you’ll find plenty of data in the free version.

Remember, if you’re doing research, ensure you cite your sources. Many of the above include help with citing. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for and Google isn’t digging deep enough, try these deep web search engines .

Image credit: Unsplash . All screenshots by Crystal Crowder.

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Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Research progress on the preparation of transition metal-modified zeolite catalysts and their catalytic performance for the purification of engine exhausts.

* Corresponding authors

a Institute of Catalysis for Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shenyang Normal University, 253# Huanghe North Street, Huanggu District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China E-mail: [email protected]

b Dalian Marine Diesel Co., Ltd, Dalian, Liaoning, China E-mail: [email protected]

c State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, 18# Fuxue Road, Chang Ping, Beijing 102249, China E-mail: [email protected] , [email protected]

d Department of Environmental Engineering, Hebei University of Environmental Engineering, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, China

Engine exhaust pollutants have caused serious environmental pollution and harm to human health. As the most effective and economical technology to control pollutants in engine exhaust, catalytic purification technology has become a focus of current research. The development of low-cost and efficient catalysts is the decisive factor for the widespread application of catalytic purification technology. In recent years, transition metal-modified zeolite catalysts have been widely used to eliminate engine exhaust pollutants because of their low cost, high activity, and high stability. This article introduces the preparation methods for a series of transition metal-modified zeolites, such as Fe-modified, Cu-modified, Mn-modified, Ti-modified, Co-modified, and bimetal-modified zeolites. Meanwhile, the research progress of transition metal-modified zeolite catalysts for removing pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, soot particles, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, methane, etc. , has also been summarized in detail. Finally, the problems and future development tendencies of transition metal-modified zeolite catalysts for the catalytic elimination of engine exhaust pollutants have been proposed.

• This article is part of the themed collection: Journal of Materials Chemistry A Recent Review Articles

Article information

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X. Chen, S. Zhou, X. Zhang, S. Chen, L. Wang, C. Zhang, S. Gao, D. Yu, X. Fan, Y. Cheng, Y. Zhang, X. Yu and Z. Zhao, J. Mater. Chem. A , 2024, Advance Article , DOI: 10.1039/D4TA02492C

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What You Need To Generate Leads With Content

Find out the resources you need to build a scalable lead generation strategy with content and how to target your audience effectively.

This is an excerpt from the B2B Lead Generation ebook, which draws on SEJ’s internal expertise in delivering leads across multiple media types.

What, exactly, do you need to create a sustainable and scalable lead generation strategy with content?

It starts with an exceptional piece of content that the leads want – your “lead magnet” – but it doesn’t end there. Modern content marketing requires resources.

Without a content marketing plan and the ability to execute it, you’ll quickly exhaust your audience pool, and the leads will dry up. The good news is you don’t have to do all of this internally, but you need to assess the best use of your resources.

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Assets & Bandwidth

The four major components of successful lead generation with content are:

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Market & Audience Research

Research goes into every step of content creation . First, to create a “lead magnet,” you need to be super dialed in on your audience’s specific challenges and immediate needs that you can solve.

You need to understand what a model of success looks like for them and provide a resource that gets them at least part of the way toward that success.

In B2B, that doesn’t just go for your audience. You also need to understand the needs and problems your audience’s own audience has .

It’s a bit of a mind-bender. You must think backward and then forward at the same time. Before you can understand your audience, you need to understand what their audience is asking of them and get fully immersed in that consumer’s journey to your customer – and how that creates a need that applies to you.

When you provide a solution for your target audience, why is your target audience there? What is their audience asking of them?

Why does their audience need their solution, and why does that create a need for your solution?

You must think about all of those layers to provide the best content for them to solve their problem for their audience.

You have to create a whole experience of total immersion to create a remarkable lead generation strategy.

And you have to do this often. One lead magnet, solving one specific problem, gives you a lifespan of leads. But content becomes out of date, and the needs of your customers – and their customers – change.

The knowledge you need to create lead magnets isn’t a matter of a one-time research project. It’s the culmination of constant analysis and regular direct touchpoints with audience members.

You also need to know where you are now and where you can reasonably get to in terms of your audience size. Do you have an audience currently? How large is it? Do you have a plan to grow your audience?

While you absolutely can generate leads with direct tactics like ads, to do it with content marketing, you need an audience first.

The first step is knowing your current marketable audience. Then, develop a plan to expand it with your own content marketing efforts and partnerships that expose new audiences to your brand.

And, of course, you need to develop a distribution plan for your lead magnet content to put it in front of your current marketable audience and new audiences who might be interested.

Check out our upcoming webinar to get an exclusive peek into tactics we use when developing our own lead gen campaigns – case study style.  

Creating & Maintaining Exceptional Content

Audience research moves you toward planning content. As a business trying to generate leads, you need supporting content for each step of the process.

First, there’s the organic strategy that comes with building an audience. Here’s where the deep understanding of audiences really starts to matter.

Content that adds value for free creates trust and goodwill. It’s the kind of long-term thinking that allows you to generate leads from your own audiences and also creates leads passively from people growing to recognize and trust your voice.

Then, there’s all the supporting content that lead magnets need to thrive: landing pages , email copy, supporting articles, social media posts, ads, etc. All of these content pieces must also be carefully targeted toward the direct problems your audiences face, as well as the specific words and phrases that drive interest and action.

More than that, you need to understand what channels and platforms audience members with specific problems use. Your supporting content must be optimized for that channel and fulfill the expectations that users of that channel generally have in addition to the problems you address.

Creating Lead Magnets

Now, we come to the lead magnets themselves, which need to be exceptionally helpful.

An underwhelming experience with lead magnet content can turn a lead off. If you fail to uphold your end of the deal – providing a path to a specific definition of success in exchange for personal information – then you’ll struggle to convert leads.

Success could look like:

• “With this resource, I can perform a difficult task more efficiently or easily.”
• “With this resource, I learned something new, and I can use this knowledge directly to solve a problem.”
• “I can use this resource as a reference that will save me time or energy.”
• “I can use the data in this resource to build or change my approach to a problem.”
• “This resource changed my perspective and assumptions about a topic I already know something about, and I can take this innovation back to my team to discuss a new approach.”

To build a content resource that meets one or more of these goals, you need deep and expert knowledge of not just the subject matter and your products, but also, how to be useful.

You need to know how to teach someone something or persuade someone into considering new perspectives. You need to know what information matters and why.

You need to be a leader in:

• Knowledge of the subject matter.
• The craft of content, teaching, and curating impactful information.
• Empathy for your audience and the ability to approach problems from their point of view.

Then, there are the technical skills that go into data analysis, the design skills that go into laying out a document, visual assets, and much more.

One person might possess all of these skills. They might likely exist disparately among different people on your team, in which case you need to align them.

Very likely, you’ll need to find external partners to supplement one or more of these skills.

Testing & Optimization

Often, when content isn’t performing as well as a business wants, its answer is to put more money behind it in terms of distribution, for example, more ads.

That’s because it’s somewhat rare for a business to have the resources to keep content updated as frequently as it should be.

But if there’s a problem with the content, that’s what needs to be assessed. More distribution might get more eyes on content, but if the content is outdated or not quite the right answer, this will be a failing strategy.

Continually testing, updating, and producing new content can be a massive resource sink. Not only does every piece of the content puzzle need refinement – from organic intent analysis to CTA testing – but you also need consistent new and updated content to scale a lead generation strategy.

Updating and producing new organic content helps grow your marketable audience. And new lead magnets that solve specific problems create new opportunities to turn readers and subscribers into leads.

The “updating” part of this is critical. Many businesses focus on making new assets but not maintaining old ones. You should apply the insights that new research gives you about your audience to existing content.

But, again, we return to the problem of assets and bandwidth.

Get more tips on how we, here at SEJ, create holistic content campaigns to drive leads in this exclusive webinar.

What You Really Need Is A Content Team

When businesses apply ineffective fixes to boost content marketing, it usually comes down to resource issues, knowledge issues, or both.

Content marketing is the work of a skilled team of specialists .

Many businesses simply don’t have the resources to deploy the knowledge and time required to do it right.

Building content teams involves a mix of internal stakeholders and external partnerships. Even here at SEJ, where inbound traffic is our bread and butter, we use strategic distribution partnerships to expand our marketable audience. You can’t do it all on your own.

The great thing about a specialist distribution partner is they can help you build the knowledge and research you need to create stronger content efforts internally.

Publishers and influencers thrive on acutely understanding and serving the needs of their audiences. They’re a direct line not just to your audiences themselves, but also to:

• Up-to-date analysis on trends your audience cares about.
• Insights on the exact language your audience does and doesn’t respond to.
• The tone and content types that resonate with your audience.
• Deep understanding of your audience’s problems and anxieties and how they want to be helped.

But there are all kinds of external partners you can work with to fill gaps in your team, from content production to testing and research.

Don’t ignore the insight and knowledge you gain from working with external specialists, whether they’re helping you with distribution or creating the actual content assets.

Take everything you learn back to your team so that when you’re able to expand your resources, you have knowledge to build on.

The toughest thing about content marketing and lead generation is that all of these aspects flow into one another at different points. A sale could happen before someone even becomes a lead.

A lead could spend months in your “lead nurturing” (more later) flow before finally converting. And people can drop out of this process and never think about you again at any point.

Keep testing, perform new audience research, and relentlessly improve your value. That’s when you’ll start delivering exceptional leads to your sales teams through content marketing.

More resources:

• Multi-Channel B2B Lead Generation: 8 Steps To Success
• Lead Generation: How To Get Started
• B2B Lead Generation: Create Content That Converts

Featured Image: Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock

Jennifer McDonald is the Branded Content Editor at Search Engine Journal. With 11 years of experience in human-centric digital marketing, ...

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