Writers just want to publish their content and be done with it, books, articles, blogs, poems, whatever it is. No one wants to be bothered with the hard work of getting noticed as a writer, but nowadays you are going to have to put in all that work if you want people to read your content. There are several methods, and the easiest would probably be to just pay someone to do it for you, but that will also turn out to be quite costly.

There is a way to get traffic to your website and ultimately to your books; it’s called SEO. It is very effective, and the best of all is that it’s free.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of increasing organic traffic to your website through search engine results. Its purpose is to lead quality and quantity traffic to your site.

What is the difference between quality and quantity in terms of SEO?

• Quality: attracting visitors who are genuinely interested in what you are offering. For example, someone who is looking for historical fiction may not be that interested if your website features urban fantasy.
• Quantity: the right people who are clicking through from the search engine result pages
• Organic traffic: why is it called organic? Many websites attract visitors through paid ads, but organic traffic is the traffic that you don’t have to pay for. They come by themselves.

SEO For Writers – Let’s Have a Look

I did a few searches on Google to see what would come up. In my first search I typed in romance novels. The following list appeared.

If I narrow down my search to best romance novels, I will get more specific results.

Now I changed my search. I am looking for fantasy books. A long list appears.

How Do You Get on That Page?

I’m not going to lie to you, it takes time. You need to be patient and persistent. A lot of authors have built websites to generate more traffic to their books, but then gave up. So many people give up. Didn’t Brad Pitt win an Oscar recently? And wasn’t it his first Oscar? He won this after how many decades of acting? It is a good example of not ever throwing in the towel.

So, how do you do it? How do you improve your SEO?

First of all, what should you NOT do?

• Don’t overload your articles on your website with keywords. Google doesn’t like that. While keywords help to get traffic, too much of anything is never good, and that counts for keywords too. Don’t stuff your page with keywords. Focus on writing a good text instead.

Check out here a great lesson on researching and using keywords

• Too many ads … That’s a big no. Nobody likes an avalanche of ads. When I land on a website where ads are launched at me like missiles, I start clicking madly to get away from there.
• Spamming. Another no. I don’t have to explain that, do I? 😉

Then, what can you do?

• Use keywords wisely. Research keywords before writing your article. A great tool for that is Jaaxy. It’s easy to use and delivers clear and comprehensive results.

Keywords are the words people type in the Google search bar (as in the photos above). Those words will then lead to a list of pages where hopefully soon your page will also be 🙂 

• Quality content: well researched, well written, “hot” new topics, visitors spend time reading instead of quickly clicking away.
• Make sure you have Google Analytics and Google Search Console, and provide a sitemap to your website, so that search engines can “crawl” your website.
• Use social media to share your content
• Get website comments. Engage your readers and ask them to comment. Make sure that you reply in less than 24 hours.

If you are interested in learning more, click here for a great article that explains in detail how to improve SEO

Why is This Important for Writers?

I know many indie authors who pay others to market their books for them, and it takes a load of their back. It also works great if you are pressed for time. In the long term, the costs can add up, though, and why should you spend money when you can get your website noticed on Google for free?

So many books are left forgotten or never discovered. Most writers are not interested in marketing. Then there are others who excel at it, but let’s face it, most of us authors just like to write our stories and not worry about the rest. I used to be like that too, but I quickly learned that I had to work hard if I ever wanted people to notice my books.

The day I discovered the Wealthy Affiliate platform was my lucky day. I learned all about creating websites, keywords, SEO, using WordPress’s back office, and on top of that obtaining a strong website host and excellent site support with speedy answer times. My three websites are hosted by Wealthy Affiliate, and I am very happy with it.

The most essential for me was the opportunity to apply everything I have learned to my books. My online presence has improved considerably and my work is getting more attention.

Should You have a Go at SEO?

Yes, definitely! As an indie author – and even a traditionally published author – having a website is crucial. SEO is a great and free tool that helps anyone to improve their page ranking on Google, Bing, or Yahoo search engines. Learning about SEO is not that hard, and if you have any more doubts, you can click here on this training video to see how it works. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments below and ‘ll be happy to help you.