The only thing that’s constant is change, especially when it comes to SEO.
For the past few years, the buzzword for online marketing is the so-called Search Engine Optimization. The process was a bit simple. Marketers will optimize the client’s site to achieve greater campaign outcome. They, they will assign specific keywords that will be used for the whole SEO campaign. Add in a little strategy and their client’s site lands on the first page of search results.
However, search engines have now become stricter when it comes to SEO. For instance, Google, the number one search engine that people use, have implemented various algorithm updates. Most of which were named after cute animals like the Panda and Penguin update.
Everyone was okay with it, they have learned to adjust every time an update rolls. Not until Matt Cutts and his team at Google made it a regular habit to change the algorithm and roll out updates every now and then. Since then, things got a little bit hard and challenging. So, what should you do to optimize your own author website?
1. Make your site SEO-friendly.
Search engines let their bots crawl the pages of your site. If they can’t easily read the elements of your page, then it’s possible that their results are also inaccurate. So, no matter how you beautify your author website, if it’s not also SEO-friendly, everything will be meaningless.
Hence, to avoid this kind of situation, make sure to read the best practices of building a website that can be easily understood by Google or Yahoo bots. Similarly, if you’re working with a web designer, make sure that they follow the guidelines religiously.
2. Choose your keywords wisely.
Perhaps, this is the most important step of your campaign. When you choose a string of keywords that are not relevant to your book, there is a high possibility that you’re going to be penalized by Google. And when that happens, you’re going to suffer the consequences in terms of ranking and search result status.
Free Tools:
Google Keyword Planner (GKP) – adwords.google.com/KeywordPlanner
Master Suggest – suggester.timrottmann.com
3. Make your anchor text richer.
An anchor text is a word or a group of words that you use for a link. More importantly, it can be a powerful tool if you know how to use it properly. Thus, when you include links in your website content, think about the connection of the words that you’re using and the target URL of your link. This will serve as a vote for your site as a good source of information for that keyword.
Good examples from Backlinko & Quicksprout:
Page title: On-Page SEO: Anatomy of a Perfectly Optimized Page
URL: backlinko.com/on-page-seo
Page title: The Definitive Guide to Landing Page Optimization
URL: quicksprout.com/landing-page-optimization
4. Utilize every webmaster tool available.
Did you know that Bing and Google provide free webmaster tools? You can use these tools to allow you to directly interact with the search engine’s view of your site and makes you see your rankings easily.
In the case of Google, once you have set your site on webmaster tools, their bots will crawl your site. In case of problems, they will notify you about it along the way. This will enable you to solve them as soon as Google pings you. It would also be helpful if you will subscribe to their alerts via email so you can stay on top of the news and updates. Therefore, if you haven’t submitted your site to these dashboards, then you should probably do so now.
5. Balance the quality and quantity of your website content.
Whether you have time or not, search engines really wouldn’t care. All they care about is how often you post content on your site, how good your content is, and how interesting it is to your audience. Remember, Matt Cutts and his team of geniuses is always watching you.
6. Give your images a name.
Do you often insert images on your website? Do you put alt text on your images? If not, then it’s time to do so now. The bots who will crawl your site won’t understand any image, therefore you should give them a hint on what the picture is all about.
7. Link more and link deep.
Try to create more backlinks from authoritative sites. Many search engines, especially Google, will give more credit if you have a lot of quality backlinks. They will consider your author website more relevant compared to others, therefore there is a high possibility that you can rank higher in the results page for a search query.
In all of this, one thing is for sure. SEO algorithms will continue to evolve and they are not certainly waiting for you to catch up. But don’t worry, as long as you have these seven basic SEO ideas on your side, you will be able to raise your status in the search results, reach your target audience and achieve greater results in no time.