Google – Page 2 – Self Publishing Advisor

Alternative Marketing Methods, Blogging Tips for Authors, Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Book Promotion Strategy, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Self-Publishing

Rising Through the Ranks | A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization (Part II)

Last week, I launched a series of blogs to provide a primer to––or a launching point for future discussions about––one vital way to augment your digital presence: Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). I argued that by making our digital content easier for the average internet user to find, we can boost traffic to our websites––and by extending the reach of our voices, expand our audiences.

I have already examined the specific benefits to refining the way we use keywords, particularly in our website or blog titles, tags, and so on. This week, I’m going to turn to matters of content. How can we better utilize the meat and potatoes of our digital content––the bodies of our blog posts, for example––to push our websites up through the ranks of similar websites that show up in search engine results?

Step 2: Optimize Your Content

Even though traditional strategies for SEO (like keyword optimization) are vital and critical practices for the average blogger, the search engines of today call for even more sophistication. Consider: in 2013, Google alone had already indexed more than thirty trillion individual web pages. That’s 30,000,000,000,000 pieces of content vying for the top slot on any individual search. Thankfully, search engine algorithms are fairly good at slicing away unrelated material, but you get the idea. There is a lot of digital content, so you have to take certain steps to make yours stand out––and the best way to stand out is to create unique content.

The basic notion is this: readers have access to plenty of useful data, but they are looking for something more than just another blog on a given topic. They’re looking for the best blog on a given topic. And search engines like Google are getting better at finding it! According to blogger Sujan Patel, Google in particular looks for “longer content, images, videos, correct spelling, proper grammar, proper text formatting and […] both outbound links to other high quality sites and inbound links (and social shares) from high quality sources.” You’ll note that this list implies a certain level of polish in respect to presentation (grammar and et cetera), but leaves room for you to play with subject and theme.

If certain elements of SEO sometimes seem like common sense, that’s because search engines are getting better at shaping common sense into measurable data sets, and using those data sets to refine the search process. It may prove helpful to consider search engines as just another ‘average’ reader, albeit a powerfully influential one. So, how do you create content that hooks in the average reader or search engine? By posting regularly, on diverse but thematically resonant topics, using means that are equally diverse and up-to-date as well as easily shared across social media platforms, and by tying your content to other websites using links, keywords, and meta data. (As a matter of fact, Google does hire actual and real people to rate websites for quality of content. The process is a fascinating one, and well worth a look.)

As I mentioned last week, it’s important to remember that we’re not just looking for more users to stumble across our websites; we’re looking for the right sort of users––those users who will stick around long enough to fall in love with our written voices and, hopefully, our books. We all have probably had some experience in stumbling across bloggers who are so good at making their content findable that they forget to make it readable, personable, or worthwhile. Ultimately, your readers want to find a little bit of you in every blog post (or YouTube video, or tweet, or Facebook post) you put together. You are what keeps them coming back, week after week after week. Taking the time to craft quality content that reflects your personality is a practice that will pay dividends for a long, long time.

Check back every Wednesday for the next installation of this blog series! I’ll be taking a look at titles and tags in a week’s time––and how can you use lofty ‘meta-data’ to bolster your SEO. See you then!

If you have a question about any of these tools for self promotion, would like to hear from me about something specific, or have other big news to share, please comment below!

ABOUT KELLY SCHUKNECHT: Kelly Schuknecht is the Executive Vice President of Outskirts Press. In addition to her contributions to the Outskirts Press blog at blog.outskirtspress.com, Kelly and a group of talented marketing experts offer book marketing services, support, and products to not only published Outskirts Press authors, but to all authors and professionals who are interested in marketing their books and/or careers. Learn more about Kelly on her blog, kellyschuknecht.com.

Alternative Marketing Methods, Blogging Tips for Authors, Book Marketing, Book Promotion, Book Promotion Strategy, Kelly Speaks, Marketing Your Self-Published Book, Self-Publishing

Rising Through the Ranks | A Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization (Part I)

Over the last few weeks, I’ve explored some of the benefits of tapping into social networks (read those blog posts here, here, and here) for self-published authors. Even for beginners or newcomers, there are ways to take advantage of the complex tools now at our disposal. And social media is just the beginning!

This week, I’m going to launch a series of blogs to provide a primer to––or a launching point for future discussions about––another means of augmenting your digital presence: Search Engine Optimization (or SEO). What does this somewhat obscure term mean? Simply put, SEO is a constellation of processes that boost your visibility on the internet by making your digital content––whether book page listings, or blog posts, or book trailer videos––easier for the average internet user to find.

But first, a touch of necessary background:

These days, it’s much easier to find information online than it used to be. The internet has gone through a number of changes, but if you hopped onto a computer in the early 1990s, you will remember just how different the experience was. If you didn’t have a specific website address to type into your browser’s navigation bar––well, good luck finding anything other than an error message! Lucky for us, we now have access to search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. All you have to do is enter a couple of keywords into the search box, and a complicated algorithm takes those keywords, chews them over, and spits out thousands of websites that contain relevant information. This search process has become so easy, and so subsumed into our everyday activities, that it seems both natural and obvious to hop online to answer even the easiest questions, including ‘what’s the weather like today?’ or ‘what time does the grocery store close?’

We tend to think of search engines as democratic tools, as likely to spit out one piece of relevant information is it is another, equally relevant piece. All blogs dedicated to self-publishing should get their chance at the top of a list of search results, right? Wrong. The first thing you need to know about search engines is that the results they provide are strategically ranked. Paid advertisers on Google, for example, spend a considerable amount of money to guarantee that their websites are at the very top of every list. The second thing you need to know about search engines is that there are some extremely simple––and entirely free––steps you can follow to take advantage of, or optimize your digital content for, these algorithms. That’s where this blog series comes in––we’re here to help!

Step 1: Optimize Your Keywords

Functionally speaking, a keyword is a word or expression that you and your readers both use to collect together related material. The best keywords are not just those that show up often, statistically-speaking, in your book or in conversations surrounding your book. Articles, pronouns, and ‘be’ verbs remain the most common words in the English language, so a truly effective keyword will be just common enough to occur in a substantial number of related texts, and just specific enough to exclude truly irrelevant material. As an author working to amplify your presence online, it’s important to remember that you’re not just looking for more users to stumble across your website; you’re looking for the right sort of users––those users who will stick around long enough to fall in love with your written voice and, hopefully, your book! Incorporate keywords in your website (or blog, or YouTube video) titles, meta tags, bodies or descriptions, and in your link profiles. As Google converts to Latent Semantic Indexing (more on that in future posts!), make sure to identify and incorporate LSI keywords throughout your written materials.

[ For more free resources specifically related to keywords, check out Google’s AdWords indices, Wordtracker, and the Bing Ads Intelligence homepage. ]

Keywords are only the tip of the iceberg! Next week, check back here for the next installation of this blog series. I’ll be addressing matters of content––and how can you use the actual raw stuff of your digital presence to bolster your SEO.

Check back every Wednesday to read more about the art of self promotion! If you have a question about any of these tools for self promotion, would like to hear from me about something specific, or have other big news to share, please comment below!

Book Promotion

Google Self Publishing Promotion

When you are a self published author, sometimes book promotion is about who you know. Other times it is simply about having the time to devote.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a fast way to find the people or places that were right for your book? Knowing how to conduct an advanced Internet search that yields applicable results is very important. Luckily, it’s also very easy, and in case you don’t know how, I’m going to show you. Go to the Google website at google.com but instead of simply entering a term, use the “Advanced Search” by clicking on the link that says “Advanced Search” in small type next to the “Search” button. You will find a page that enables you to fine-tune your search. By conducting smarter searches, you will find places to promote your book faster.

You can promote your books on Google for free. You’d sell a lot more books if a lot more people knew about them. Google can help make that happen.

Help users discover your books: By matching the content in your books with user searches, Google Book Search connects your books with the users who are most interested in buying them.
Keep your content protected: Users are able to preview a limited number of pages to determine whether they’ve found what they’re looking for.
Drive book sales: Links to bookstores, online retailers, and your website make it easy for users to go from browsing to buying — with new ways to buy and access your books coming soon.

Learn more at: https://books.google.com/partner/

Good luck and have fun!

Uncategorized

Google misspelled itself: The weight of word choice in self-publishing a book

Scholars and sources claim that William Shakespeare invented as many 1700 in his published and performed writing career. Language is dynamic and words are invented all of the time. Or, in cases like “Google” reinvented through accidentally misspelling the word for the number, googol. When words, specific combinations of words, are used often they can become powerful. They can also become cliché.

An interesting definition of the word cliché from Wikipedia:

“a saying, expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect rendering it a stereotype, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. The term is frequently used in modern culture for an action or idea which is expected or predictable, based on a prior event. It is likely to be used pejoratively.”

How many of us where taught to avoid cliché in our writing at all cost? One popular creative writing professor focuses an entire week on the subject.

In print, the French derived word, cliché, came to denote a printing plate used as a cast in moveable type. Commonly used words and phrases were cast into a single mold. The idea was to take a novelty and replicate it easily and inexpensively. The overuse of such came to take on a negative connotation.

But cliché can work for the self-publishing author in marketing your book.

What do words and phrases like these bring to mind?

Change we can believe in
All for one…
Don’t leave home without it…
Google

Even if these are terms you don’t personally buy into, or even agree with, they are indelible. Think of them as the cast plate of the new digital work that come in the form of keywords, tags, Twitter handles, and the list goes on. The can become the brand for your book. And the best part is they are free.

Whether you’re published or just finishing the 1st chapter of your book, start thinking about what makes your work unique, and how cliché may become a key component in your book marketing campaign.

Self-Publishing

Self-publishing on the Road to Self-publishing

The Internet is great. Really. There has been perhaps no more organic, democratizing invention in the world since Gutenberg’s printing press. How empowering is the ability to compose an original idea, or start a new novel, and upload it to a website for the world to see within minutes.

If you are like me and find great pleasure and power sharing your writing with the world, be sure to bring it to an appropriate forum, preferably in a place where it will provide long-term promotion assistance for itself down the road. You also want to post where you trust the people to provide worthwhile feedback, rather than pilfering your ideas for their own or criticizing your writing for the sake of self-promotion.

Where do you start?

The answer depends upon what you hope to achieve, and the way in which you want to “spread the word.” Writing online is no easier than writing offline. In fact, it may seem harder at first. The extra effort is worth it later on.

If you’re seeking instant feedback on your writing from other people, I would suggest participating in online writing groups and forums. Yahoo offers “Groups” specific to a wide array of writing subjects. You can access the Groups section by going to the Yahoo main page at http://www.yahoo.com

Google offers groups also, and you can find them on the Groups link on Google at http://www.google.com

By conducting a subject or category search from either of these venues you can find a number of possible groups in which to participate.

I recommend you spend some time exploring Yahoo and Google groups. Register for an account with the one you like best. Don’t necessarily start writing online yet. That comes later. Instead, just look around and become familiar with the “environment.”

Then, down the road you’ve accomplished two things in one – established a platform or presence in your market and generated content to bring to your self-publishing option for production into a book.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: