Let Your Inner Geek Come Out to Play
The following post is from Book Bites -Lynne Klippel
SEO, which stand for Search Engine Optimization used to scare me to death. It seemed too hard, too expensive, and only for techno geeks who were good at statistics.
Consequentially, I ignored it and made some blunders- like naming a website Femme Osage Publishing.com. Who would be searching on the internet for such an obscure term?
While I cannot claim to understand everything about SEO or cover it fully in one article, I can share what I’ve learned so that you can avoid some of the internet mistakes that I’ve made.
SEO is the process of making your website attractive to internet search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN. Using keywords is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make your webpage popular with search engines.
Keywords are words that people type in the search boxes when they are looking for information. For example, if I want to find a book cover designer in Seattle, I’d go to Google or Yahoo and type “book cover designer Seattle”. In less than 1 second, I’d see a list of 300,000 websites that contain those four terms, making it easy for me to find book cover designers in Seattle.
Successful authors pay attention to keywords when they select titles for books, domain names, products, and e-books. You know people are searching the internet for information. Why not make your book or website easier for them to find?
That’s the purpose of keyword research.
If you like, you can spend thousands of dollars getting a consultant to do your SEO. The first thing that consultant will do is keyword research.
Instead of maxing out your credit card, I suggest that you do your own keyword research using a free tool. My favorite is at http://tools.seobook.com .
Go to this site and click on the Keyword tool
Then, put in a phrase that relates to your book topic or website.
Be sure to click on the box deleting ‘adult terms’ before you hit search so that you don’t have to wade through any nonsense.
Quickly you will see a list of keywords and how popular they are with internet searchers. Pay close attention to 3-4 word phrases that fully describe your topic.
Notice which terms are most popular with on-line searches and which ones have little interest. A good rule of thumb is to use key word phrases that are moderately popular to avoid competing n an overcrowded marketplace.
Use this list to spark your creativity. Include some of these terms in your website copy. Test your book title or product ideas to identify other websites that offer similar information.
When you play around with this tool and use Google, MSN, or Yahoo to search on titles you are considering, you will be able to make a wise choice of title and give your website a better chance of being noticed online.
It is actually fun!
And…if you’ve made a blunder with a difficult domain name or title, you can fix it.
I kept the business name Femme Osage Publishing.com and added a one-page website at www.BusinessBuildingBooks.com that directs people to several of my websites. That new web address is much easier for people to spell and find online.
Now you know a bit about SEO and have a free resource to find keywords. While there is much more advanced information available on this topic, start with keyword research. Just a little bit of time and effort on this research will pay you great dividends. Plus, you can impress your non-techy friends when you talk about doing your SEO and keyword research for your book. You’ll sound brilliant!
Lynne Klippel, a life-long bookworm, is passionate about helping people with a message share it in a book. She focuses exclusively on non-fiction, Business Building Books, designed to help coaches, speakers, small business owners, and spiritual practitioners write books that get them more clients, media attention, and additional income.
Lynne is the author of five books, many information products, and runs an active publishing company. Her background as a teacher, librarian, occupational therapist, life and career coach, and administrator gives her the ability to break complex tasks into simple steps and motivate you so that you can reach your goals. She also hosts Web Sorority Talk Radio, a talk show featuring authors who appeal to a female audience.
