SEO: Ten Little-Known Tips to Increase Book Sales

We’re going to talk about SEO and how to make it work for you. Most tips are easy and some are surprising.

Before we get into the details, let’s look at the big picture. You need to create a marketing story to sell your books. Excellent. You’re a storyteller, and you have a writing voice. That leaves you worlds ahead of other folks pounding on Google’s door.

Wait. What has Google got to do with SEO? As they say in the hokey pokey … That’s what it’s all about! SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

In other words, you are optimizing your content so that Google, and other search engines, can find you.

First, let’s assume you can think outside the box. You’ve heard some of this Search Engine Optimization information before, but most of it will be new to you. Terrific! None of it is difficult. We promise.

1) I’m getting this out there first, before I forget it. You remember when you went to godaddy, or wherever you captured your domain, as a name you wanted to grab ASAP. You did that. HOOORAY! You had choices, and one of them was how long you were going to keep that domain name. Most of us shell out our ten bucks, and give it a go for one year. Generally, that is smart because some of us buy domain names more often than we buy green vegetables.

But, when you get your site up and running, change the length of time you own that piece of domain property. The more years you’ve saved your domain name, the better search engines like you. You may wish you could spin back time, and that you’d saved your domain name ten years ago. (If that’s the major thing you wish for, WOW!, you are lucky. I wish I hadn’t lost a bunch of dough in the stock market in 2002 or whenever it was. It’s called denial.)

Right now, go to your server and save that name for a few more years if you’re confident you’re going to use it, and if you can afford it. Also, .com domains rank higher than the others. I have no idea why, but so it is.

2) The more pages your website has, the more likely it is that you’ll show up on search engines. What’s this got to do with you? Easy. Make a page for each one of your books, pamphlets, or any written material that a person can find and buy. Don’t line them up on one page in an infinitely long list. It’s boring, it looks bad, and it makes it harder for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to work in your favor.

3) Not all pages have to be in your drop-down. That can make for a messy site. Put up a page and nest it under another page or pages. This gives you more pages without creating forty drop-down lists.

4) Set up as many radio, podcast or newspaper interviews as you can. Each of these venues will post your interview, they will be picked up by SEO, and they will be found on Google.

Internet radio shows, in particular, are glad to have interviews lined up. Make a list of shows. Contact those that are relevant to your books or your personal life. Contact the host directly. We have one radio interview, twelve years old, that still comes up on Google. This is easy, it’s free, and it may get you more readers.

The main goal here really is for SEO. Example: We were on one local NPR radio show. The preceding guest was an exterminator. Long after our section began, people called in asking what sort of bug killer would get rid of roaches while not killing the cats. We answered all sorts of questions about vermin, and the radio hosts had a blast. One tried to give away a book to the fifth caller. No, no, no. They wanted free roach repellent. It was a hoot. No new readers, but it raised our SEO rankings.

5) Think of the key words someone might type into Google in order to find your books. First, you need to use key words that open Google’s door. That’s something you can learn. Example: If you write mystery books, go ahead and use mystery books as one of the keyword phrases on your blog site/website. (Look at your blog post. You will find a place to put your keywords.)

6) Now, put in some different types of key words. Your Google search terms can be very specific. (So are Amazon’s.) Mystery books with vampires. Mystery books that happen in Boston. (Or, Boston mystery books. Vampire mystery books.) The important thing is that they are phrases with key words, and each phrase is separated by a comma. Keep thinking of keywords. Go for a goal of 7 – 10 per blog post.

7) Get creative. How? Let’s say that you write romances and your protagonist is a woman who is a nurse. During her first two years as a nurse, she was in the military. This is back story in your book. But, it won’t be back story for all your readers. So, toss in some keywords such as: Nurses in the military, Romance in the military, Retired military nurses. Then add the rest of your key words: Surgical nurses marrying doctors, Writers who are nurses, Books about nurses, Romance books about nurses, etc. Again, think of what you would type into a Google search engine, or Amazon, to find something you’d want to read.

8) Use links, but use them sparingly. You want to keep people on your site, so use links that connect to other pages on your blog or website. If you can snag an interview or a guest blog with someone who is big in the industry or setting you’re writing about, link to them. Because they are not writers, and their web presence is larger than yours, their links will help raise your ranks when search engines crawl the net. Their followers are naturals for your books.

9) When you are writing your blog post, you just want to get it over with, and you want to publish it. Be patient. Looking at the working-end of your blog, you will see several spaces that you might be ignoring. Don’t do that.

a) One of these is TITLE TAGS. A title tag is that – your blog’s title. It is the main text that describes an online document. It is the second most important on–page SEO element, the most important being your overall content. It appears in three key places: browsers, search engine results pages, and external websites.

b) The other is META DATA. Meta Data describes parts of a post and allows it to be found by browsing or searching. You’ll see a place on your blog site labeled “Tags.” Use phrases like Finding Your True Love, Ten Things Singles Shouldn’t Do, etc. Use up to ten tags. (Five or six is a pretty good number.) If your site also gives you the chance to use categories, only use two to four, max. Google frowns on more categories than that.

c) Another space you’ll see on your blog is ALT TEXT. This is will be a short, very short, description of your post. Your readers won’t see it, the search engines will. This is often next to your image – every blog site is a little bit different. (I am not big on captions, although plenty of people disagree with me. My experience is that they often show up in the excerpt you send out, and they can make your copy pretty wacky.)

10) YOUR POSTS’ MOST POWERFUL SEO TOOL! If you have a .com domain, you can use this plug-in – it’s especially easy to use with a WordPress site. It is from Sempir Fi Web Design, http://semperfiwebdesign.com/. Get the All in One SEO Pack Pro. It is ridiculously cheap. It has a one-time charge of somewhere around ten bucks. You do not need the super-duper upgrade – although that’s inexpensive, too – but why get stuff you don’t need, unless it is something wonderful like a pair of red boots?

There is a space for everything that we have been talking about on an All-in-one SEO Pack Pro. It is clear. No code required. No confusion. Images are easy to upload. I am totally in love with it, it is heaven, and I wish I could make money advertising for them.

Bottom line: 77% of people who search Google don’t go farther than the first page of their results. Some go to the second page. What if you are on the tenth page? YOW! There is work to be done. You can do it. AND you can do it without spending a mint.

But what about the time involved?

Look, how much time does it take to talk on a few internet radio shows? Not much and it is fun. It is not going to go viral unless you read your book, a humorous one, stark naked wearing a Viking hat. But it will put your name in one more place that Google can find you, thus raising your rank.

I like to write fiction. I also take on work. I edit, I write travel for websites. I take care of my grandkids a few times a week. (Because I am not the parent, I am allowed to stuff them with food that takes a long time to eat, and they are allowed to play video games when I have to work. The end. That same philosophy can work for you and keep you working.)

Because I have a background in psychology and was an art/music therapist, sometimes people make phone appointments with me, and I help them through their writing projects. Wonderful work! It is a jump-start.  I listen. We talk. Brainstorm.  Work.  Helping someone’s dream happen is terrific. It is an emotional process, and it feels great to be there with a writer. Plus, it is one more piece of the puzzle that creates a livelihood.

You have a life.  Don’t feel overwhelmed. We all have lives. You want your books to sell. You want the relationship of an audience for your stories. Just do the things on this list above that you’re able to. Increased SEO rankings is a good goal. At some point you can narrow your target audience just by using the tools above.

Bottom line: You want a loyal reading audience that is deep and narrow as opposed to one that is wide and shallow. Let’s make that happen for you!

Best — Meredith

Please follow and like us: