Writers are artists, and what better place to show off your creativity than on your own website? You can have gorgeous, big images of your book covers, stunning visuals, provocative blogs, interactive surveys, and much more at a site that represents the essence of your expertise and talents.
As a published author, you’ve probably worked with an agent, publisher, or editor who has offered feedback and recommendations to make your book more readable, accessible, and marketable to your targeted audience. These publishing world pros understand that a well-written book with great content needs readers, just as an actor needs an audience.
Likewise, your website needs viewers. You can generate something akin to “feedback” from Google, Yahoo, and Bing – the major search engines – to make your site into a highly effective, lively, interactive marketing tool for your book. Authors generate this constructive feedback by using search engine optimization, or SEO.
Most authors don’t know how SEO works – or even why they really need it or what it is. The purpose of this three-part article is to demystify the topic, providing authors with the basic information they will need to hire an SEO expert or do it themselves.
- Part I offers basic information on why authors need to optimize their website. It serves as an inside guide to Google, the main search engine, and how you can use your knowledge of Google algorithms to bring more viewers to your website.
- Part II gets into 13 nitty-gritty tips and tricks to get your website to show up toward the top of Google searches, thus generating new and growing numbers of visitors who will then find out about you and your book.
- Part III covers what you need to know about an SEO specialist, and how to find and hire a really superb professional who will turn your website into the PR tool you deserve.
Part I: Why Authors Need to “Optimize” Their Website
Many authors believe that they have such an interesting topic that all they need to do is create a visually stunning website with smart content. This is the “if you build it, they will come” mentality. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t take into account how search engines like Google really work. If you stick your head in the sand and refuse to hop on the SEO bandwagon, the end result is that it will be difficult for someone to find your website by organic search – that is, a typical keyword search for things like “books about ______________.” How could this be, you ask? Keep reading.
How the Google Algorithm Affects You
Let’s talk about Google, because it is the major search engine, accounting for over 70% of online search traffic. Google has what they call their algorithm – a formula they use to evaluate, or index, websites and decide how they stack up when compared to other websites on that same topic. This is why you want to understand how Google search works – so your website will keep coming up at the top of searches.
Google is like the master Internet librarian, and just as a librarian you know well can suggest the “best” book for you, Google, based on your search query, will suggest the best websites for you to see in their search results (SERPs or search engine result pages).
Google’s credibility is based on the accuracy of their search results. If you, for example, searched for “self-help books for women” and Google showed you a bunch of clunkers instead of high-quality, on-topic websites, you might not be so keen on using Google for search anymore. The algorithm they use to size up websites, including yours, is based on their current technology, and it is updated almost every day. Therefore, things that made someone’s website show up on the first page of the results for certain keyword searches last year may not do the same thing today if those same keyword searches were used. The SEO world is constantly spinning and changing.
What Google Knows About You
Like it or not, Google actually knows a lot about you – perhaps even more than your local librarian. The aim of Google is to generate the best SERPs for each individual who uses it.
With the incorporation of “profiled search results,” big brother Google is recording characteristics of each user and displaying search results specific only to that individual, all based on that person’s past history of use. What this means, in a nutshell, is that if you have searched a lot these past few months for things related to planning a European vacation, and your sister is writing a school paper and has done a similar amount of searches related to politics in Europe, then Google will decide that you are generally interested in travel information, and your sister is generally interested in political information. Subsequently, if you both search for something like “food in Mexico,” Google will be inclined to show you restaurants, but they will show your sister articles about government regulations of the Mexican food industry. So, identical search terms will create different results.
So as you can see, there is a lot that goes into how search engines work, and good SEO specialists keep abreast of all the ongoing changes in the Google algorithm and recommend current best practices to their clients. If you are a non-fiction writer who is looking to generate book sales, speaking engagements, and new business from your website, it is critical that you understand SEO and perhaps hire an SEO expert who can optimize your website for Google searches.
In Part II, we’ll look at 13 SEO tips and recommendations for your website that will make Google sit up and take notice.