Once your author site is ranked, you must use SEO to maintain that ranking
(Click twice SLOWLY – not a double-click – to enlarge the image.)
____________________________________
We’ve spent a great deal of time talking about how to build a successful author website. From design to content to eCommerce, we’ve given you a lot to think about. We talked about how essential SEO is to improving your site’s visibility and ranking in the search engines so that it is among the top results for the designated keywords.
Our first conversations about SEO were more from a perspective of getting ranked in the first place. One day, your author website is born, but how do people find out about it? They can’t, unless you put some effort, energy, and/or money into good SEO. Today I want to emphasize the importance of ongoing SEO to maintaining your ranking.
Scott White is a personal trainer in Scottsdale, Ariz., and the person who taught me most of what I know about search engine optimization. Why do I trust Scott more than any other source on the topic? Because Scott built his website from scratch in the early 2000s, spent a few years getting it ranked on the FIRST page of the major search engines for one of the most competitive search terms in the world (personal trainer – try it in Google, and you’ll see it returns 54 MILLION+ results), and has kept it among the top two pages of search results ever since.
Why is this so incredible and important? Research suggests that only 8 percent of all Web users will delve deeper than the first or second page when doing a search. MOST people won’t bother to keep looking for you if you’re not at the top. To maintain a top ranking for years on end takes skill, effort, and energy … or money.
Came across this on Facebook on 2/24/12.
Would gladly credit it if I knew who created it.
The good news is that the search term for which you want to rank your site is likely to be a lot less competitive than “personal trainer.” You can always improve your rankings by adding geocentric keywords to your search terms. For example, “dental school success tips Northeast” as opposed to merely “dental school success tips.”
Now, I am not suggesting that you hire a company to do your SEO for you, although it is something you might want to consider, if you have the budget for it and you don’t have the time and/or skills to do it yourself. A good SEO company should offer services such as:
- Review of your site content or structure
- Monitoring your SEO rankings and tracking your traffic
- Technical advice on website development: for example, navigation, hosting, redirects, error pages
- Keyword research
- Competitive analysis between your site and others in your industry
- Content development and regular addition of fresh content
- Management of online business development campaigns
- SEO training
- Expertise in specific markets and geographies
Right up there with unreliable Web design companies, SEO service providers can be sketchy, so you’ll want to make sure you are getting your money’s worth. A few questions to ask anyone (or company) you are considering hiring to help maintain SEO on your author website include:
- Can I see some examples of your previous work?
- What kinds of success stories can you share with me?
- Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
- What kind of results can I expect to see, and in what timeframe?
- How do you measure SEO success?
- What’s your experience in my industry?
- What’s your experience in my country/city?
- What are your most important SEO techniques?
- How long have you been in business?
- How can I expect to communicate with you?
- How will you share with me the changes you make to my site and your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?
If you’re going to spend your time, effort, energy, and money to get your site ranked, don’t let it be for nothing. Do whatever you can to hold on to that ranking, because the Web is a most competitive place: someone else is just waiting to take your spot should you become complacent.
Happy ranking!
MARCIE
RESOURCES: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291 and http://www.isitebuild.com/seo-maintenance-services.htm
__________________
Download your complimentary copy of the highly useful Website Design & Marketing worksheet from Write | Market | Design.
__________________
We welcome and encourage your thoughtful, courteous comments below.
__________________
If you’d like us to add a link to your writing/self-publishing/book marketing blog, please send us a note. If we think it’s a good fit, we’ll be happy to add you. Of course, we’d appreciate the reciprocity of the same!
Additionally, Marcie would be happy to make a guest appearance on your writing/self-publishing/book marketing blog. Just let us know the theme or your idea (preferably including a 6-panel concept), and we’ll see what we can draft for you.
__________________
What's your take?