Authors have enough on their plate: promotion, marketing, writing… the last thing you want is learning how to apply SEO.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization. It is the application of keywords and phrases in your blog posts that tells the search engines where to index you. But it isn’t just about “words”.
The first part of SEO is finding the right terms that will target your product, and still obtain a good search ranking. The second is writing a headline and description that will entice surfers to click.
So why would you care about keywords?
As an author, you are writing to sell your product. Sure, you write because you love to write but let’s face it — we ALL want to make sales — if only to boost our confidence that we are writing something people like.
So, how do you reach readers?
Besides hanging out in reader forums, you target your blog posts with appropriate keywords that will help index you on the first two pages of search results.
You heard right… the first two pages. In fact, you want to be on the first page.
IMPOSSIBLE?!
Yes, and no. Over the years I have optimized many websites, some selling such competitive products as “toys”. Instead of trying to break in and take a miniscule (if any) part of the multi-million dollar market of the big boys, I looked at what my clients’ business had to offer and targeted their site toward more obtainable goals.
Authors are in a similar situation — but only to a point. If you tried to target ‘Paranormal Horror fiction’ — you’d be competing with some of the “big boys”, who spend millions of dollars on marketing to retain their number one standing. but you have what they do not: flexibility, a blog, and your unique, one-of-a-kind manuscript.
Word Play List
Think of your keywords as your synopsis or product description. In fact, take out your synopsis and circle all the words that describe your novel: locations, genre, etc.
Location. If your book is situated in a specific location: Astoria, Oregon or outer-space, then write that keyword down in the first column.
Genre. If you book is a murder mystery for YA, then add that to the second column, one on each line.
Crime. What is unique about your book? Does it deal with vampires, or a kidnapping? Write down the generic term for the crime as well as any coined terms you may have come up with such as twice-baked vampire.
Hero. Is your hero a wizard, fireman, police officer, prostitute, detective, or a 60-year-old widow?
Now combine these terms – starting with 2-word and then 3-word combinations.
Reconnaissance.
This is the part I love. Let’s take a peek at what people are searching for. I am not going to send you to some fancy search tool, or complex analysis program.
This step is so simple, it will make you laugh. Google search. Yep. Google, years ago thought surfers needed help in what they were searching for. So, they starting providing results evey before you were done typing — they based it on what they “thought” you were looking for.
At first I found this ‘help’ very annoying, but then realized it is actually a very handy tool.
Google’s feature starts to think and offer results before you are finished typing. These “helpful hints” are amazingly … helpful. See anything sparking interest? Write it down.
Making Google Work for You.
Let’s do a test with a “hollywood vampire fiction novel”.
Open a new Google search page — google.com. Start typing in your fist keyword or keyword phrase. Type slowly, one letter at a time. Do you see the suggestions below the search box and how they change the more letters you type? Pretty cool, huh?
Now, let’s take our test novel. Type in first “vampire” and you are provided with several suggestions in the search box drop down:
- Vampire diaries
- vampire
- vampire diaries season 3
- vampire weekend
Let’s continue with the search and add “hollywood” to the search — typing slowly.
I type “vampire ho…” and “vampire host”, “vampire houses” and “vampire horror movies” are suggested. I continue, typing “vampire hol…” and two more possibles are suggested: “vampire holiday” and “vampire holy water”.
Each of these suggestions is a post you could write about. You could offer a contest and give away a signed copy of your book. (Title the your contest post “Vampire Holiday Contest”.)
People who search these terms more than likely would be interested in reading your book. Get the idea?
NOTE: Typos — I know. A writers nightmare — but in this example, I continued to write Dairies, instead of Diaries. You can bet that may of your readers don’t know how to spell either. I am not suggesting your riddle your post with typos, but when adding keywords to your post for blog search purposes (the Post tags used for search), add the typo there.
Competition
There are 83,000,000 results for “vampire hollywood”. I can hear you saying “see, I told you, too competitive.” And you would be right. But consider all the great suggestions you just got. Plus, I can guarantee, out of the 83,000,000 results, not all are competitive. Many just happen to be targeting a keyword that you are not.
By adding a third term, you will see your competition reduce. If you write several articles using “vampire hollywood novel” as the main keyphrase for the post you should see your articles to start climbing in the search engines.
Balance.
Now, there is a balance in using terms on a post. Too many of the same keyword on a page can lead to your post being classified as “spam” and that is a big no-no. You are best to have the keyword / phrase in the title, url link (if possible), and in the first paragraph of the post. The sprinkle (about 3-4 times) within the content hwere appropriate.
Don’t try to just stuff them in there — your writing will suffer.
Conclusion
Unlike offline promotion, wher eyou get one shot at hitting the target — the Internet offers a flexibility that is like no other. At any time, as you grow and learn more about seo, you can modify your posts– change the headline, reword a paragraph — all of these minor “tweaks” will reflect in your search engine ranking.
Don’t expect results overnight, and don’t put all your effort into keywords. They are only part of the marketing package. While author SEO may seem confusing now, I promise, you can do this. Eventually, you will find it almost instinctive.
More…
I have spent the last 12 years providing SEO and marketing services and never failed to obtain a front page result for a customer that helped their business grow. (not just any keyword – but ones that actually pulled in targeted customers.)
In November 2011 I will be launching a revise of my Learning the Basics of SEO, which will include many more tips and suggestions for the author.
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Have fun!
FUN FACT: Reconnaissance is a tough word (for me) to spell. I couldn’t even get close enough for Microsoft Word to give me a suggestion. What did I do? I typed in ‘reconn’ and Google gave me the suggestion “Reconnaissance” — Now THAT is cool!
