In my quest to build an author website, I've come to understand more about getting traffic to that site and how the web works. Maybe you already have a good handle on this, but I'll blame my learning curve on being from "an older generation". (Who knew a fifty-something-year-old would need a website?) Let's simplify my findings into 3 main points: 1) Keywords, 2) Links, and 3) Activity.
1) Keywords. When someone uses a search engine, they only want to see choices come up that are relevant to their request. This relevance is largely determined by matching the text on your site with keywords or phrases put into the search engine. There are keyword tools you can use to make certain you have text rich in word content that will attract more viewers.
2) Links. Both inbound (people coming to you by clicking on a link) and outbound links (where you create links for people to follow once they are on your page) help to improve your ratings. A popular site that mentions yours and creates a link to it gives positive "link juice" to your ratings. Make sure to link all your social media sites to one another.
3) Activity. Your blog or website needs to be active with new text or images monthly. Don't redesign the whole thing. Just freshen by adding or changing out a button, tab, or even a word to have those "spiders" that crawl the web see your site as active. Blogs that are active have got this covered with each new post. You can find lots of interactive things to make your site interesting, but start with the basics to get going (see previous post).
For more depth on these subjects, you might enjoy this article from The Guardian. As for me, the plan this week is to find the right images I want to put on my soon-to-bloom site.
Meet Rebecca on the new-to-me blog of the week at www.rebeccalamoreaux-anauthorinprogress.blogspot.com. You'll find some heartfelt posts, writing experiences, and book/author spotlights.
No comments:
Post a Comment