SEO for authors part one: what is SEO?

This is one of my most requested topics to cover on the blog! But let me start by saying, SEO is a HUGE topic. I think you could probably do a degree in it (or at least a Masters!). It's also constantly evolving, as with most things on the internet.

So I won't cover everything, but I’m going to try to cover the basics over the next few weeks so that a) understand what SEO actually is and how it impacts your author website and b) are able to make some simple, effective changes to your website to help improve it.

So what is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation.

It's actually pretty tricky to define. So I'm going to borrow a definition from moz.com (which is one of the leading authorities on the subject).

They say:

"search engine optimisation is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results"

Still no clearer? 

Basically, it means optimising your website and its content so that it's more likely to appear high up on Google, when people search for things related to you and your books.

Why is this a good thing? 

You can probably imagine just how many websites there are out there. Millions.

These days, getting your website to 'rank highly' (appear on the first few pages of Google) is really important if you want to encourage as many visits as possible to it. 

Now the good news is, as an author, unless you share your name with lots of other people, your website is likely to come up on the first page of Google when people search for you or your books.

But only if you've taken the time to make sure the SEO on your site is strong.

First things first

The most important starting point for your SEO is to ensure that your website title is your author name, as well as the website address.

So you don’t want something mysterious like spookycrimewriter.com as your website address, you want something very obvious, like yourauthorname.com. And at the top of your homepage you should have your author name very clearly displayed as your website title.

You also want to make sure that your website is hosted at a custom domain, not a blogpost or wordpress one (eg authorname.wordpress.com or authorname.blogspot.com).

Want more info on domain names? I’ve got a post all about that here.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to teach you a few important tricks and tips that can make all the difference for your website's SEO.

These are super easy things to implement (no tech knowledge required!) and will really help ensure that all the hard work you've put into building and populating your website isn't in vain.

I'm going to refer to Google primarily, as this is the most popular search engine, but all the tips I share will help your visibility on other search tools such as Yahoo and Bing too.

But for now, let me leave you with Moz’s very comprehensive guide to SEO, in case you want to swot up… 😉

Looking for help with your Squarespace author website? Check out my website support services here>>