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SEO for authors is necessary in the modern digital world to ensure your work can be discovered online. So, you need a grasp of how to use SEO for authors in the right way.
Writers need a platform in today’s literary scene, and that platform has to be easy to discover. So it’s crucial that anybody running an author website can follow website SEO best practices.
In this piece, we’re going to look at website search engine optimization, specifically using website SEO tips to boost your author’s website visibility. Here, we’ll cover the basics necessary to get a good handle on search engine optimization for writers and how you can easily improve your author’s website ranking.
Let’s dive into some author SEO strategies and advice.
What Is Search Engine Optimization for Websites?
Before we specifically look at SEO for authors and the different aspects of author website optimization, let’s take a moment to focus on what website search engine optimization is in a general sense.
When you search a term on Google (for example, best writing software), you get a multitude of pages. In reality, you are probably not going to trudge through 50 pages and click on every single link. It’s more likely that you will just look at the first handful of results.
In fact, a lot of people don’t even scroll beyond the first two or three pages that come up. Have you ever wondered how Google determines which results show up first? (It’s okay if you haven’t; we won’t be made, and we’ll still tell you anyway.).
Like a lot of aspects of digital life (for example, social media), is determined by Google’s algorithm. Imagine you are in a big library and want to find books of a specific genre. You could ask the librarian for help, and they would know where to point you.
Google search engine results are like a librarian helping you find something. But they are not in the room with you to speak with you. So, instead, the search engine takes a look at the terms you have searched for and searches the web for the relevant web pages based on the terms you searched for. And the web pages that Google deems most relevant show up first.
So when we talk about website SEO optimization, we’re talking about building your webpage in such a way that Google likes it and wants to show it at the top of the search engine results. When we get into the specifics of website SEO tips and best practices, we’ll look at how this is done.
How Does SEO Help In Content Writing?
When we specifically talk about author website optimization, we’re talking about increasing your visibility.
You’ve put a lot of work into optimizing your author website, so you want to ensure people can find it. In order to make that happen, you need to follow author SEO strategies, which will help you:
- Grow and establish your audience.
- Boost your author’s website’s visibility.
- Grow your business.
Author Website Visibility: Why It’s Key
Website search engine optimization is really important for content creators of any kind, including writers and authors.
Your website is essentially your online hub for everything to do with developing your author brand. Think about the kinds of things you have on your author’s website. You may have a blog, social media links, event lists, a page where you sell your books directly, and even a mailing list sign-up. That’s an awful lot! And you need people to be able to discover it.
Author website visibility is key to ensuring your readers interact with your content and continue following you. Also, SEO for authors helps you bring in new readers who can become your biggest fans.
Author Website Optimization
We know now that you need SEO to boost your author’s website’s ranking. The absolutely crucial thing search engines are impressed by is how long somebody stays on a website.
If a reader clicks on your site and immediately clicks the back button, then the search engine is going to interpret that to mean the content wasn’t useful or relevant, which will slow your page down a bit.
So, let’s dive into some author SEO strategies that will ensure your readers stick around.
Author SEO Strategies
A great way to ensure your author’s website stays consistently high on search engine results is to include a section for a blog. A blog is a powerful tool for an author. For one, it is an easy way to constantly create new content to keep your website up-to-date.
In addition, by keeping a blog, you can write about topics related to your work, which will direct more readers to your website. If you are a fantasy author and you put up some blog posts about, for example, common tropes in fantasy writing, then people who search for such a thing could stumble on your site. So, you are reaching out to more people who may be interested in your book.
You want your author’s website to get a lot of clicks regularly. You need to consistently get visitors. So whether you are posting blog posts or updating content on your website, keep sharing your website through social media. This will encourage more people to visit your page. Adding the link to your website, your social media bios, and anywhere else you have a presence will increase the likelihood of your page getting a boost.
As we have seen, you want people to stay on your page for as long as possible. Thus, in order to maintain your audience’s interest, make sure your website is as active as possible. Consider adding galleries with cover art or illustrations and different elements your audience can interact with, and be sure to add new content regularly to get return visitors.
The Importance of Author Website Rankings
Through marketing data analytics, you can constantly review how your website is doing in terms of visitors. This will help you get a sense of your author’s website’s ranking and popularity, as well as the rate at which the website is being interacted with.
Remember, you’re not going to be the only person with an author’s website, which is why you need to use search engine optimization for writers to show up higher on search engine results.
If you are, for example, a romance author, you want to ensure that your work ranks highly on search engines for terms related to “romance author.” And crucially, you need to ensure that when somebody searches your name (or penname), your website shows up at the top of the search engine results. This means full website SEO optimization on every page, rather than just the home page and blog post.
Your website should be where you build and engage on your author platform, so you need to make sure you optimize it to be easy to discover.
What Makes A Good Website SEO?
The crucial element of SEO for authors or anyone else to understand is keywords. Regardless of what type of webpage you are optimizing, you need to ensure you use the right keywords correctly.
Where Do We Use Primary Keywords?
It’s worth investing the time into picking your keywords. Put yourself in the shoes of your reader (or potential reader). What would they search for if they wanted to find someone like you? Your keywords could include:
- The kind of writing that you do
- Your genre (try to be specific)
- Your location (if relevant to the reader search intent)
- Your expertise
- Your experience
As for where you put these keywords, you need to be selective. You will have primary keywords and secondary keywords (note: your keyword doesn’t have to be just one word; it could be a term). For primary keywords, you need to include them in:
- In the title
- In the meta description
- In headings and subheadings
- Within the first 100 words of the copy
- In the body content
- In the URL
- In your images and alt text
To clarify what some of those things are:
- The title is the name of the page (for example: Dibbly Create)
- The headings, or the big headers, overcopy text
- The body content is the actual writing on the page (like you are reading now)
- The URL is the name of the website link (usually: http://www. and then put in the keyword)
Keyword Variations and Secondary Keywords
Secondary keywords don’t need to be used as much. But they should appear in images and alt text, meta descriptions and sporadically throughout the copy of your website.
It’s important to note that you can use variations of your keyword instead of using the exact same words each time. For example, if your keyword is “horror book,” it would still count as using it if you typed “horror books” somewhere else.
SEO for Authors On Their Websites
Crucially, when it comes to website SEO best practices, remember that Google wants to recommend websites and articles that are actually helpful. So you need to ensure your content is actually:
- helpful
- of high quality
- and, SEO optimized
Author Website SEO Tips and Tricks
Here’s some advice regarding website search engine optimization for writers or any other content creators:
- The headings and copy can’t have all the SEO fun; your images need optimizing too! One of the best-kept secrets when it comes to website SEO tips is optimizing images on your webpage. You can add alt-text or descriptions to images, so you should always do this and type in at least one keyword per image. Search engines can’t actually recognize what an image is, so by putting a keyword as the alt text, you are basically letting the search engine know the image is relevant.
- Search engines love pieces of relevant multimedia included on a webpage. And remember, Google owns YouTube. So including a relevant YouTube video will boost your author’s website’s visibility. To really boost your website’s SEO optimization, ensure the video you include has at least some of the relevant keywords you are using (you can do this by checking the video tags).
- Lists are really good for boosting your ranking. Google’s search engine loves lists, so where appropriate, try throwing in some bullet points like these!
- It can be really beneficial to use outbound links in articles. These are links that take the reader to a different page. Be sure to use links that go somewhere relevant to the article you are writing.
- Internal links are important for SEO. These links take your reader somewhere else within your website. These will help boost your ranking and ensure your reader stays on your site.
- Keep your website updated. Google prioritizes websites that are updated regularly and often have fresh content.
How To Implement SEO For Authors’ Websites
When it comes to author website optimization, you need to plan out how you are going to implement author website SEO. In order to boost your author’s website ranking, it’s vital that you think ahead in terms of the way you follow website SEO tips.
For example, keywords. You may have three or four terms you want to use as your keywords, but you can’t just use them a bunch of times at the start. In fact, if you cram several instances of the same keyword right next to each other, then that will have an adverse effect on your website’s SEO optimization. This is because search engines see this as keyword stuffing, and in order for your website and blog posts to rank highly on search engines, it needs to be well-written with useful information.
So, in order to follow website SEO best practices, you need to plan where your keywords are going to go. Plan your headings and content around the keywords and ensure they fit naturally. This way, you can avoid having to stuff them in unnaturally.
The best way to plan SEO for author websites is to open your document (whether it’s a Word document, a WordPress document, or a Dibbly Create file) and place your headings first, then spread your keywords throughout your headings. By following this author’s SEO strategy, you’ll be able to make sure your:
- Your content flows well
- The copy is well-written
- The keywords are placed naturally
- You don’t forget any of your keywords.
Final (Key)Words
Your author website is your digital calling card, and website optimization is crucial to ensuring you stand out in the crowded online marketplace. By mastering SEO for authors, you can boost your content’s visibility, attract the right readers, and ensure your work is easy to discover.
If you’re considering hiring ghostwriters to enhance your content, look no further than Dibbly | The Urban Writers. We provide expert SEO services and connect you with vetted writers dedicated to delivering high-quality, optimized content that aligns with your brand and vision.
Take the next step in building your online presence—partner with us today and let your voice shine across the web!
