Search Engine Optimization For Authors
There are a plethora of ways an author can set up their own website these days. From DIY sites such as Weebly, creating your own WordPress or to getting in a professional, it has never been easier to get online.
However, as many of you will know, it is not a case of ‘build and they will come’. The internet has its own tricks and secrets that you must master to get ahead. The most fundamental of these is good SEO or Search Engine Optimisation. This is the technique of improving the visibility of your website in a search engine’s organic (unpaid) results. You can spend years studying this topic. Indeed, it is constantly changing, propelled along by Google’s shifting prioritise and penalties
A Beginner’s Guide to SEO
For beginners, I have put together a few basic things that can be simple to implement into your website but produce big rewards. I would encourage all website owners to spend some time, if they have it, in looking further into SEO practices. For now though, go through some of these simple basics of SEO and implement them in your own website.
Search Optimization and Google
As we are going through the basics today I’m going to mainly stick with Google as it is really one of the biggest influencers in this sphere. No one knows precisely what Google’s algorithm for ranking sites is, however, many men smarter than I have put together a rough idea at what Google is looking for.
- Trust
It is estimated that the two biggest components of the equation are the ‘Trust’ and/or authority of the site and the link ‘popularity’ of the page. It is estimated that these two considerations make up roughly 23.87% and 22.33% of Google’s considerations respectively.
So what is ‘trust’? Well it seems to be made of a few different considerations but it mainly boils down to how much of an authority your website is considered in its field. For example, .edu addresses such as universities will rank well as they will be considered authorities in their areas. The age of a website will also feature into calculations, so if your site is only a week old that could effect its rankings. Similarly, moving into ‘link’ popularity, page visits will also feed into this authority.
- Link Popularity
You may have heard people mentioning ‘backlinks’ or trying to obtain links back to their page. We discussed why this was important in our SEO for Twitter article. However, the main crux of the issue is that the more people link to your page, the more highly Google regards this. The more people are recommending your content, the more comfortable Google feels with recommending it itself.
- Black Hat Warning
You may come across something called ‘black hat SEO’ which will promise you that it will create links for you and help boost your website. Avoid this like the plague. Google is seriously cracking down on this and will wipe you off the digital map if it finds any sort of black hat SEO on your site. Examples of black hat SEO include things like using keywords repeatedly and out of context at the bottom of pages and using ‘invisible links’ to increase authority by hiding them in white text. Basically it is any technique which is used solely to increase SEO and not for the benefit of the audience visiting the page.
- Anchor Text
To create a two pronged attack as far as links are concerned, Google also looks at the ‘Anchor Text’ of external links to your site. So, for example, if a link back to your article contains the phrase ‘read our historical epic based on the life of Nero’ as part of the blue hyperlink text, Google is going to recognise that the link is going to take the reader to an authority on Nero. However, if the text simply says, ‘click here’, Google essentially doesn’t know where that link is going. It is estimated that Google attributes 20.26% of its calculation to anchor text of external links.
Now given the link text is ‘external’ ie not on your own website it can be difficult to monitor this but do keep it in mind. Especially, for example, if you’re writing a guest blog on another site (which is an excellent way to increase your external links). Try to ask, politely, for the link back to your page to contain the appropriate keywords.
- Keyword Usage
As we mentioned before you don’t want to be tempted into the black hat area by just throwing key words out here, there and everywhere. However, it is worth making sure that you have a spread of your keywords throughout your site. Obviously your keywords will vary depending on your target audience. If your using a DIY website builder such as WIX or Weebly then they will usually have an option where you can just enter the keywords you want to use and they will incorporate them into the SEO of your website for you.
- Traffic
The least surprising on the list, although perhaps surprising in its lack of hierarchy, is website traffic. This is pretty straight forward concept. The more traffic you get to your site, the more traffic you will generate. It’s very much a catch-22 situation. However, Google will take into account how much traffic your page gets. If you are a bit low on the traffic side of things take heart in that Google equates more weight to the authority of your site.
I often get asked how much traffic authors should be getting to their website. There really is no easy answer to this. If you’ve done your marketing right and most of your traffic is made up of your target audience then your sales will inevitably be better than those who have a higher traffic stats but a lower concentration of potential buyers.
I asked a few fellow authors recently and the general consensus is that a good target figure to work to in the first instance is around 300 views a day. However, as always, figures should be taken with a pinch of salt. A useful exercise I do is to work out cost per click, cost per lead and cost per acquisition.
So, for example, if I spend a hundred pounds on advertising and I receive a hundred clicks to the website then my CPC (cost per click) is one pound. If ten of those one hundred go on to become leads (ie they sign up to a mailing list, or give you their details) then my cost per lead is ten pounds. If one of these people go on to buy my book then my cost per acquisition is a hundred pounds.
Obviously if your selling a book for say ten pounds, and it is costing you a hundred pounds per acquisition you’ve got some serious problems. However if you spend a hundred pounds and you get two thousand clicks, two hundred leads, and 20 buyers that’s looking a little better. So you can use your views to work out roughly how many views translate into purchases and work out what your necessary viewing number need to be for you to turn a profit. Importantly, you can also use this as a rough guide as to what you need to be spending on advertising and the likely returns of your investments. However, as I have said, this does depend hugely on other variables, such as the effectiveness of your market targeting etc.
- Social Traffic
Finally social traffic is considered to make up around 5.3% over Google’s equation. However, as with all things in SEO territory, this one could be in some state of flux given recent developments. Google have recently unveiled plans to give social media a lot more of a prominent role within their searches so keep an eye on this one! In any case social media has its own benefits, such as network and advertising in its own right. The fact it contributes to SEO is just an added bonus.
Conclusion.
Google’s algorithm should become the basic building blocks to plan your solid SEO strategy upon. Whilst this is just a brief introduction to Search Engine Optimization I hope this will point authors in the right direction in moving forward with their websites! If you would like to know anything in a little more in depth, please feel free to email your questions to enquiries@crownlesspublications.com and I would be happy to get back to you or create another blog post!
As always thanks for reading and sharing!
J
Crownless Publications 