Sunday, April 15, 2012

Why Care About SEO

The creepy crawlers are coming. They've been up in your junk already. I write of the spiders and crawlers, those creeping tools the search engines use to catalog your web content. They make decisions we never see, which is why SEO is critical.

What is SEO?
It's an acronym for Search Engine Optimization. If you write paranormal romance, you probably want your site listed as high as possible when a potential reader googles "paranormal romance." But if you haven't signaled to the search engines that you write in that genre by mentioning the keywords on your site frequently, then good luck. Here are a few simple tricks to optimize your web presence.

SEO is Simple
Labels and tags can do the trick somewhat, but the actual content of your posts and web copy must include clues to help the engines. You don't want to make your writing sound fake or awkward, but mentioning a keyword three times in three paragraphs can improve your chances of being discovered. Using the keywords in a heading also helps.

Keep It Fresh
If you don't blog but have a website, change the copy on the site at least once a month, more if you can stand it. Incorporate your blog with your website or start an Updates/News section. Search engines look for changes when they send the crawlers out to find content. If your site hasn't changed in a while, your place in searches drops and the crawlers come back less frequently. It actually makes sense because there are a gazillion sites on the web that are abandoned or irrelevant. Don't become one by default.

Search for SEO Examples
If you want to drive traffic to sell your erotic steampunk high-concept novel, google the keywords first and see what the competition is doing. You can learn from others about what works in searches.


Find an Expert
Or ebook. Or website on SEO. Tons of info is available for free. This post is a tiny push to get you started and myself started, too. I'm learning as I go, and advice helps. Good luck making your site SEO friendly.

Jennifer Fulford
@jmfwriter
www.livingonink.com





2 comments:

Mary Corrales said...

Excellent advice. I update my website at least once a month, but will do it more often now that I know that I want the attention of the creepy crawlers. :)

jfulford said...

Mary, It is a little creepy, isn't it? Even a small change can keep you from falling in the rankings. write on, @jmfwriter