I’ve been neglecting my blogs and websites for several years – I used to rank on the first page of Google for a bunch of things, but now I’m invisible on the 5th page of search results… so I’m spending this month in Saigon eating Vietnamese food and writing blog content to boost SEO.
I’m not an expert, and like I said I’ve been doing TONS of things wrong, but this is the strategy I’m using and it’ll probably work well.
1. Research keywords my target audience is using; it’s helpful to understand which stage your audience is in and what they’re looking for. Example: most authors aren’t looking for book design or publishing resources, they’re still looking for writing tips and prompts (because most writers never actually FINISH a book).
2. Google the keywords and see what sites show up. See if you can partner with them, or at least leave a comment. Find sites that allow guests posts and write a relevant article with an anchor text link back to the site you want to rank for (I plan to build 10 mega-long guides and resources on the main problems and challenges authors need to publish successfully).
3. I’ll also increase general SEO by adding featured images, youtube videos and infographics – to encourage sharing and make my site look better; also make sure to use alt text for the images and name them with keywords too.
This strategy can totally work for fiction: for example it wasn’t hard to get my “best YA mermaid books for teens” post to rank on the first page of Google. I try to do that for every book I publish.
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Great SEO tips overall. I also include searching through sites like reddit under my chosen keywords to see what keyword combo my readers are using, while searching for new keywords to add to my list. It’s also SUPER important that the business/creative know who their intended market is. Which keywords you target changes drastically if you’re targeting other writers vs if you’re targeting a specific group of genre readers.
In your case Derek, you’ve got multiple sites that have multiple goals, which from what I can see cater to indie writers, so it makes sense to research topics indie writers would be interested in and cross link them to your fiction to boost your fiction relevancy. BUT you’re also offering services and courses which is also relevant to indie writers.
To get this tactic to work, it’s very important to understand what you’re selling and who you are selling it too, otherwise you(the person trying to apply the seo) can waste hundreds of hours driving the wrong sort of traffic.
Other tips to include once you’ve completed your keyword research:
include keywords into the title of the articles
Include three links that cross link to other articles on the website
Include a alt=”keyword based sentence” in the tag.
Include a alt=”keyword description” in all image tags. This helps accessibility too.
Include H2 tags with keywords, by breaking down topics into specific topics or focus points. This is why listicles can be so effective for SEO.
Domain names and length of registry matters for page ranking, but can contribute to SEO if thought through. Derek, you do a great job at this, but most authors don’t understand the power of a personal domain. Also having that domain on a separate webhosting service also boosts the page significantly. What I mean by that is not using shared hosting with WordPress, but rather installing WordPress onto your personal webhosted space. I understand why people would value the convenience, but i think the boost in relevance and seo really pays for itself.
Those are some of the big ones… oh and of course cross-linking from relevant sites while adding value is another HUGE one, which you have mentioned.
After that’s done, creating shareable content is a BIG must. Again, Derek, you’re on the right track there. What most author’s need to consider is what kind of content are their reader’s genuinely excited to see, what do they want? Too often, it comes off as personal gratification which can alienate readers.
Thanks for this – great tips! I have other sites for fiction I try to keep separate, though I’ll throw some links around for SEO I don’t want to attract the wrong audience.