You may have created a website page & know how much care and effort went into it. But a great author website has no use if nobody ever visits. The solution is to use SEO to increase the traffic.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Good SEO optimizes your visibility online. In any case, this means that the more people see your website; the more your online traffic increases, and the better your chances to provide your product or service (in this case, it’s your book) to a greater number of people (readers).
If you’re looking forward to Amazon Kindle self-publishing, then it should be easy to find you on Amazon. Visibility on Google is also a good goal for any author.
How does SEO help?
- SEO increases organic discovery & high-quality website traffic. …
- SEO offers impressive ROI.
- SEO improves credibility & trust.
- SEO provides 24/7 promotion.
- SEO targets the entire marketing funnel.
- SEO reaches your entire target audience.
- SEO optimizes user experience.
- SEO together with paid search engine advertising (PPC) works well.
- SEO is a long term marketing strategy.
- SEO is key to search visibility.
How to boost your online visibility through the advantage of SEO?
- Finding the right keyword to optimize the sale of your book: It isn’t about slamming in a bunch of keywords that feels right to you, but digging in and finding keywords is what that matters. So, it would still be good to know what folks (or the audience you’re targeting) are searching for; so you can create an author website which supports those searches. Just look for relevant keywords and/or synonyms for those keywords which relates to your article, keeping those keywords in mind; also used by the abstracting and indexing services as a method to tag the research content- on Google. Try out your keywords in Google Scholar, etc. and if there are too many results, it may be better to consider a keyword with less competition.
- Title tags or website titles: The webpage titles should have keywords in them. You should use your most important keyword strings on these page titles. Sometimes, you will be able to drag a website from page 3 or 5 on Google, all the way up to page one by simply changing the page titles. Although in general, titles should be fairly short, choosing a longer title is advisable if there are many relevant keywords. A ‘How-to Guide’ would be ranked higher than one titled ‘Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Authors: Ranking Information and Publishing Tips’. It is generally wise to insert a keyword within the first 65 words of the website.
- Use headings for the various sections of your article. Tip off search engines to the structure and content of your article. Incorporate your keywords and phrases in these headings wherever it’s appropriate.
- Keywords on your website: Sprinkle keywords throughout the website. Avoid repeating the same keywords again and again. Use different keyword stings on different pages.
- Try blogging to optimize your website: Google loves websites that aren’t stagnant. So, adding fresh new content regularly via your blog is a solid way to kick your SEO into high gear. So, when it comes to blogging, often less is more.
- Text in figures and tables should be machine readable. Vector graphics containing font based text should be used instead of rasterized images so it can be indexed by academic search engines. HTML (ZIP, HTM, or HTML), RTF, TXT, Adobe PDF, DOC, DOCX, MOBI, EPUB are formats necessary for your books for Amazon self-publishing, UK. When documents are converted to PDF, all metadata should be correct (especially author and title). Some search engines use PDF metadata to identify the file or to display information about the article on the search engine results page.
- Do not overthink, just start writing: Nonfiction authors have the keen ability to speak to lots of current news topics, pop culture, or seasonal things—so make the most of it! Say, if you write about health, you can write on the seasonal health issues. If you write fiction, consider expanding on themes from your book. Or you could write about the process of writing. Or, about the settings in your book, your characters, why you picked a particular story-line, etc.
- Keywords on description of YouTube videos: Putting up author videos or book trailers, snippets from author events you’ve done, video interviews; on YouTube with keywords in description, is a great idea.
- Stay consistent. Refer to your characters and the settings consistently, if you have decided to write a series of books. Be consistent about your genre. Else, you will lose the precious audience base, you built up so laboriously. For instance, Jöran, Joeran, and Joran are all correct spellings of the same name (given different transcription rules), but Google Scholar sees them as three different names. Hence, your book will not be as highly ranked as they should be.
- Off-page SEO: On-page SEO is on your website. Off-page SEO are sites linking back to your website. A link to your website allows you to possibly get readers to sign up for your newsletter, or subscribe to your blog—and in the long run; having a potential reader’s contact information is much more beneficial for you.
- Do not addthe blogger link to your book on Amazon, instead of your own website— because the incoming link to your website has SEO benefits well beyond linking to Amazon.
Promote your article using the internet and social media after being published.
Share a few pages of your book in the following social media tools:
- Your website
- Your blogs
Employ social media to increase the visibility of the research, after your book is published. Update everyone in your social and other networks about your published book. Besides, the number of in-bound links is a factor in search engine ranking.
