Authorpreneurs! Are You Reaching the Right People? [SEO Basics for Authors – Updated for 2019]

Are You Intimidated by SEO?

Authorpreneurs – I know what you’re probably thinking about SEO. It’s the last thing you want to be bothered with when it comes to book marketing. It’s way too geeky and technical not to mention time-consuming.  You just want to write and publish. You feel like you have to sell yourself to get anywhere. You can’t separate yourself from book marketing and writing.

You know the saying – if you’ve touched one person, you’re an author and my guess is that you want your books to reach more than one person. If you are in the business of writing, you are an authorpreneur. Full stop. You write to make a difference with your blog, your books and perhaps your services as a coach, consultant or speaker.

Benefits of SEO

Here’s the million dollar question … can your writing website be easily found?

Fortunately, you don’t have to make educated guesses about how your readers search. The key is choosing the right keyphrases and keywords so you are found. Ultimately, your readers want to connect. That’s what SEO is all about – you use SEO Copywriting to connect.

Getting to know keyphrase research at all stages of your reader’s buying cycle

A real cool and fun thing about keyphrase research that I’ve come to appreciate is that you start understanding how to capture your readers at all stages of the buying cycle. While some genres and topics seem to be more popular than others, the opportunity to get web traffic is always there.

If you are worrying about how to get reviews on Amazon or how to sell books on Amazon, ask first what your reader is reading, searching for and thinking about.

SEO Examples of Entrepreneurs Killing It

Killing it with SEO means you are not only searchable but also you have an enticing brand that really speak to your target reader’s pain points. These entrepreneurs who are also authorpreneurs are the classic definition of what it means to use SEO to not only connect with their target audience’s pain points but also beef up their book marketing efforts. Here are two of my all-time favorites. More will be added.

Gary Vaynerchuk – I discovered Internet personality and entrepreneur Gary Vee while taking Dan Blank’s 3 month platform building program for creatives. (See Dan below) It was from Dan that I discovered Gary’s powerful video technique of what it means to  document your creative process (thank you Dan!) and as an author and writer and suddenly connecting with readers took new meaning. It meant I could use Instagram to share snapshots of my work-in-progress in a way that felt authentic. Every time he puts something out there on social, you can feel his voice, passion and wisdom emanate and he anchors those feelings with vibrationally hot keywords. This is what it means to humanize your brand with SEO.

Gary is out there in the trenches day in and night with his message and from an SEO point of view, his media name IS his brand. Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vee, and Vayner Media. Hint, hint – Hashtag your name and use it for your name branding purposes. And of course, make the name brand worth it so that when people hear your name, they know what you stand behind. Gary Vee also has his feet in every social media channel it seems, which means more opportunity to optimize content and voila…be found!

Dan Blank of We Grow Media – is another SEO household name in the entrepreneur and authorpreneur world. He’s also a feisty obsessed creative which gives him the marketing legs he is known for. Every Friday he puts out what I call a marketing gold newsletter that takes a human-centered approach to book marketing and offers tons of strategic ways for writers and authors to get excited about book marketing without feeling sales-y.”

I learned a ton from his mastermind including SEO concepts and examples like “masterminds for writers” and “reader centered writing” the pain points for authors like myself to get beyond the book sale and learn what it really means to connect with your target readers.

What Authorpreneurs Can Learn about Marketing Memoirs

A reader who is passionate about learning about other countries and cultures, googles “travel memoirs” which has a monthly search volume of 320. Note how specific this search term is. It is also very HIGH on the buying cycle which means that this reader is ready to buy and hop on either your site or Amazon.

Readers are using transactional queries as opposed to informational search queries to find what they need. A search query that begins with [how to] is an example of an informational search query. So if you were a travel memoirist, these are the targeted keyphrases to consider optimizing in your online content. But ideally, you would want to include keyphrases that represent the entire buying cycle.

Get to know your readers and their interests at all stages of the customer buying cycle.

Heather Lloyd Martin of the SEO Content Institute says, “background research helps to highlight your readers’ motivations, fears, hopes and desires. The more you know, the better your messaging can connect with your reader and drive a conversion.”

Don’t skip the step of doing some basic keyword research. “No matter how much you feel you ‘know’ your target audience and how they search, you’ll always want to conduct the research.” Yes, keyword research takes time but it gives you a big edge over the competition. You start understanding what your reader wants to know and this informs your marketing strategy.

Not doing keyword research as an authopreneur means you are leaving money on the table.

You Are Leaving Money on the Table if You Skip Keyword Research

SEO is the foundation of your book marketing success. Not conducting keyphrase research can doom your website optimization strategy (or your client’s strategy) before it even starts.

I’ll say it again and again — keyword research is crucial for blog optimization. For example, if you’re a non-fiction author writing about the latest 2018 tax reform laws, and your target reader is Googling about those new tax reform laws and your content cannot be found, you are leaving money on the table. This could mean a missed opportunity to connect with another author or reader or get hired as a speaker or a consultant. A conversion could mean that a reader signed up for your newsletter or downloaded a special report. This is where having some basic knowledge of SEO and specifically, keyword research can really make a difference.

If you’re an authorpreneur like me in the business of writing, you can’t afford to not connect with your target readers especially with new people who might not have found you any other way other than randomly putting in keywords into Google. You also can’t afford to let opportunities to build online visibility slip through the cracks.

SEO Best Practices

The tasks below inform your online messaging. If reading through this list feels daunting, fear not. You don’t need more than 1 hour a day to make progress with SEO. Seven hours a week adds up!

• Brainstorm your keyphrase keyword research to figure out what your readers are looking for and align that information with your content. Simply put yourself in your reader’s shoes and write down everything your target reader needs that fits what you offer. (I do this all in Excel.)
• Capitalize on keyphrase trends and find the best keyphrases for content building opportunities. This is where Google trends is a great tool and resource to help you discover keywords.
• Profile your “perfect” client or reader: Are they looking to be entertained or finding solutions to their problems?
• Translate your book content into hard-hitting benefits and compelling seo headlines.
• Choose best keyphrases for every page on your site from FAQ’s to blog pages to About Us pages. Avoid keyword density. (i.e. Using keyword every 2nd word) as Google penalizes for keyword stuffing.
• Spend time using specific keywords to increase Google rankings. Remember – every time your prospect puts in specific keywords, they are looking for answers to questions.
• Optimize your blog with those primary and secondary keywords from your keyword research in your blog posts and other forms of content so you are searchable and really giving your readers what they want not what you think they should know. It doesn’t work that way in Google!

Building Web Traffic: Spell Your Author Benefits

Most big name author websites are making a huge mistake. They are not spelling out the benefits of their books for the reader. Don’t expect your reader to figure out this information. This is a huge SEO opportunity for you. Let’s see how.

SEO Best Practices for Nonfiction Authors

Memoir is one category of non-fiction (along with prescriptive “self-help” type memoir) but what about pure non-fiction like self-help and how-to?

As a non-fiction author, you’ve already done a significant amount of research that lends itself to organized topics and learning points which you can now repurpose the book benefits as blog posts.

The way it works with SEO is that Google wants people to find authoritative answers to their questions. So, if you are selling product-based information as a nutritionist, ask yourself, “what are people asking themselves about getting healthy right now?” Using Google and Google trends, you’ll find that one of the hot items right now in health and fitness is how to keep those new years resolutions going. This is a great content opportunity!

Using targeted keywords and keyphrases will make your blog SEO friendly, which means your content will start getting indexed on Google thus increasing your ranking.

SEO Best Practices for Fiction Authors

Readers devour fiction for entertainment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t capitalize on SEO copywriting opportunities as an author of fiction.

• Hop unto Google Trends – this includes also happenings in your own town. What are some of the hot topics being talked about in the areas of current events? And are any of these topics connected to your own novels or short stories? If so, here’s a perfect SEO content building opportunity! You’ll want to use the name of your city as a keyword!
• If your fiction ties in with a specific place, you can blog about this place using targeted SEO keyphrases and keywords and submit content to digital and print magazines. This is another great seo marketing strategy!

Hey authorpreneur – you are probably realizing that keyphrase research and seo copywriting are big jobs that *do* get easier, but it’s never a fast job.  There is a learning curve, but as you can see, you cannot afford to not learn some SEO basics.

What’s Your 2019 Book Marketing Goal?

Let’s start 2019 with a bang! Is your 2019 goal to increase your book marketing to the next level so you can sell more books on Amazon? Or perhaps your goal is to firm up a book marketing strategy so you don’t have to spend precious time trying to figure it out.

I’m offering a complimentary consultation for fiction and non-fiction authors. Slots are limited.

Things we can talk about…