Thinking SEO
How much does SEO matter for authors?
According to the high ranking sites touting the importance of SEO, if you don't hit top 5 results on Google search, your site won’t get search traffic.
Does appearing on the first page of a Google search translate into book sales?
As a reader, I get my book recommendations from reviewers, sellers, bloggers, friends, or following authors I like. I don’t seek out genres or titles on search engines unless I am looking for specific information on a title or an author.
If you search genres and combinations of genres, the first page of results consistently yields Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Goodreads, high level reviewers, and best-of lists. It’s the same if you enter specific titles.
It doesn’t matter what the author’s SEO keywords are. No author sites appear on that coveted first page.
While the SEO recommendations make sense for business, I don’t see how those recommendations transfer to author website design, brand building, or book sales. At least, not for fiction.
In my search for information on SEO specifically for authors, I found an interesting article by erotic romance writer Guy New York who talks about The Horrors of SEO Keywords and how SEO rankings are influencing book titles. Guy’s concern is that:
“In the era of click bait, big data, and keyword optimization, creativity is getting shoved aside in favor of mostly useless titles all aimed at driving the most traffic.”
Case in point, for the purposes of SEO, the subtitle of his article is:
A Hotwife Menage Erotica Romance in Victorian London with Werewolf stepbrothers and hardcore gay sex (MMF, butt stuff, m/m, con-non-con, laser tag)
He’s talking about erotic fiction, but from what I’m reading, his observations hold for indie authors in other genres. His arguments are the most elegant and entertaining to read on the subject.
There are countless how-to articles out there that offer instruction on SEO for authors developing their internet presence. The overwhelming message is that SEO is crucial for brand building. The advise offered is consistent and aligns with the business blogs.
But the advise is paradoxical in terms of creativity. From a long list of to-dos, these two stand out:
Your [book] title (and subtitle) should not be too creative or poetic...
Your [book] title (and subtitle) should be as unique as possible
Telling authors, writers, to avoid being creative or poetic seems antithetical to the idea of writing a book. Then one bullet point later, telling them “be unique”.
I get it. Selling a book is not the same craft as writing a book. While this advise is practical for business purposes, it creates more challenges for a writer who’s investing the majority of their energy on the product being sold.
I’m not saying it’s bad advice. I’m not qualified to judge. But I am not seeing the return on the effort.
Yet.
The word on the street is that ranking high on Google will boost my brand awareness and will establish me as an authority in my niche.
I’m a new fish on the publishing block and working on my first fiction WIP. I have no expertise to share in this realm. I’m learning about SEO as I go. So no rankings here.
With all this in mind, the expert data also says that likes and follows on social media don't translate into book sales. Last month I picked up three titles that I learned about on Twitter or Instagram from following authors, reviewers and fellow readers. I picked up a fourth early this month.
After tweeting about it, Twitter friends confirmed that they frequently select books based on their interactions on Twitter. So here too, anecdotally speaking, the assertions about likes and follows not translating into sales are inconsistent.
For authors getting started, general wisdom holds that minimally authors start with:
SEO for your author name
SEO for your book names
SEO for your book series name
SEO for your book genre
This where I am at as I work on building my brand and learning SEO. Beyond this, I’m not sure I can invest the time to develop comprehensive SEO for my website. That may change later.
For right now, I have done enough thinking on the subject of SEO. It’s time To get back to refining my craft.