Whether you plan to list your self-published books for sale on your own website or on a popular book-selling platform like Kindle or Kobo, one of the most important things you can do is increase visibility, also known as discoverability. . of his books online.
While there is no way to optimize your actual book for search engines, you can optimize the pages your books are published on and the links pointing to those pages to funnel in more potential buyers and increase your exposure.
Before going into details, think about this simple truth…
The way we discover books has changed forever
Imagine walking into a bookstore and looking for a book on a specific topic.
You will most likely go to the section of the store that has the type of book you are looking for. For example, a cookbook, a science book, or a literature book.
From there, I’d peruse the shelf of books until I find a topic that most closely matches the information you’re looking for. It could be a cookbook on how to bake cakes, a science book on geology, or a literature book based on space age science fiction.
Despite all your time and effort, chances are you’ll end up with a book that meets your needs.
Now come back to reality for a moment and think about how you would use the Internet to do the same type of book search.
Without an actual title already in mind, it’s often very difficult to hone in on the perfect book that fits the information you want.
On the other hand, if you learn and use the language of the Internet and combine it with the way the average Internet user searches for information, you can position each book you publish prominently in front of an audience that is likely to be interested in your content.
This language is known as Search Engine Optimization.
What is search engine optimization?
Search engine optimization or SEO is the practice of altering a website or a single web page so that it is naturally more visible in a search engine’s results. These unpaid search engine positions are also known as “organic” search results.
The goal of every search engine optimization effort should be to get the pages that list your books and their purchase links to appear as high as possible in search engines for certain keywords and phrases.
Do this and the result will be a gradual increase in exposure, interest, and eventually sales for your books.
How to use keywords to optimize book search
If your goal is to optimize your book listings for attention on search engine results pages, you better start thinking about keywords as internet currency.
A keyword or keyword phrase is any term that a searcher, or for that matter, a potential reader, types into the search box to find the information they are looking for.
Let’s say you’re a self-published author who focuses on creating specialty cookbooks, and your latest title is about creating flourless chocolate cakes and other gluten-free desserts.
Someone searching for your book may have no idea who you are or that you even have that cookbook available for purchase online. What they do know is what kind of information they are looking for.
If this person uses the Google search bar, they can type any of the following terms:
- flourless chocolate cake recipe
- gluten free desserts
- Flourless Dessert Recipes
- flourless cake
- Gluten-free baking books
- Flourless cake recipe books
Google then uses these keywords to find related websites, books, and videos before returning the web pages that provide the information that is closest to what the searcher is looking for.
If you’re not sure what kind of keywords to include on your pages, try using a keyword tool like the free one provided by Google or one of the many other options available.
This gives you an idea of the types of words that search engines might enter to find information related to the areas of interest you cover in your books.
The power of backlinks
In addition to performing on-page optimization with specific keywords and keyword phrases, getting backlinks from relevant and related websites is another key to increasing your book’s visibility in search engine results.
This is because Google and other search engines see them as a kind of endorsement of other websites.
That said, it’s important to remember that quality is far more important than quantity.
Having a link from a relevant and reputable website is worth more than a thousand links from a scam website.
Legitimate ways to get backlinks include:
- do blog tours
- Writing articles for websites.
- Social sharing
- Blogging to attract new readers
Simply creating relevant and valuable content attracts links because it is shared by your fans and picked up by various media outlets.
The key is not to force things and create a bunch of artificial backlinks, but to make your content so interesting that the links come naturally. Over time, you will see an increase in the search engine ranking of your book page and a subsequent increase in sales.
While doing things organically takes time and effort, the long-lasting results are more than worth it.
Blogging and search engine optimization
When it comes to SEO, blogging can be one of the most productive activities you can do to increase the amount of natural search engine traffic coming to your author’s website or pages featuring your book titles.
Earlier, we discussed how the average Internet user searches for the information they want to find online.
They type a search term or phrase into the search bar and scroll through the results to see if they find a page that seems to reflect the type of content they want to read.
Posting to your blog on a regular basis is a simple and easy way to keep your website fresh and up-to-date with relevant information your fans and readers want to know, as well as giving search engines the keyword pages they need. can use to index your pages and direct web searchers to your website and book titles when they indicate an interest in certain topics.
Along with naturally occurring keywords and keyword phrases, blogs tend to attract the attention of interested visitors, leading to social media sharing and SEO-boosting backlinks when pages are shared with others.
Blogging is also a great way to bridge the gap for a complete stranger who lands on your sales page but isn’t sure whether or not they want to take the leap of faith and buy your book.
By giving them a taste of what you have to offer with review snippets, manuscript excerpts, and by sprinkling a generous sprinkle of your true personality throughout your blog, your prospect gets to know you and your work better, making your book moves in your mind from maybe to must-have, it’s that easy.
The bottom line
Once you’ve written your manuscripts, you should never let them get lost in the vast ocean of the World Wide Web. By harnessing the power of search engine optimization, he is able to position his book titles and brand prominently in the minds of internet users, making them highly visible and discoverable.
