Optimizing SEO can sound intimidating and most authors don’t want to think about it. And yet, if you have a website or blog and want readers to find you, it’s becoming increasingly important. But what if you’re not technical or can’t figure out what to do next? What if you don’t know what SEO stands for?
J. and Zach bring SEO expert Dianna Gunn on to the show for a special and rare interview to discuss what every author can do to gain visibility. Gunn’s techniques work. She talks about what she did for The Career Author website and how to rank higher in search results.
The Career Author Podcast is a podcast where co-authors J. Thorn and Zach Bohannon share their struggles and successes as full-time authors, advice for improving your writing craft, and honest discussions of what it takes to build a successful career as an author.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- The definition of SEO
- Why it matters to authors
- How to make the most of SEO
- Which tools are best to optimize it
- How to keep from getting overwhelmed
Also, discover how to douse your business with rocket fuel and get lift off.
Send us your ways and hacks – https://thecareerauthor.com/waysandhacks/
Leave us a comment: How is your SEO and what can you do about it? If so, how?
Thanks to our new Patron – Anni Marjoram
Podcast sponsored by Kobo Writing Life – https://writinglife.kobobooks.com
Get exclusive bonus content by supporting The Career Author Podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thecareerauthor
Want to work with us? Get the details at https://thecareerauthor.com/services/
Links:
Rocket Fuel: The One Essential Combination That Will Get You More of What You Want from Your Business – https://amzn.to/2Ndnmkm
Dianna Gunn’s newsletter. Get on it! – “This newsletter offers biweekly business tips based on my years of experience in SEO and digital marketing, with a focus on how these lessons apply to author careers.” – http://www.authordiannagunn.com/for-authors or http://businessforauthors.com
The October Giveaway is up now! – http://www.thecareerauthor.com
The Career Author YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/thecareerauthor
Three Story Method – http://threestorymethod.com
Molten Universe Media – http://www.moltenuniversemedia.com
Events – https://thecareerauthor.com/events/
Comments
10 responses to “The Career Author Podcast: Episode 97 – Optimizing SEO with Dianna Gunn”
Morning guys.Great way J. I don’t think I am an Integrator.
Enjoyed your guest today. Dianna knows her stuff. Make my neglected website mobile friendly? You mean people can look at websites on a phone? Who’d have thought it? 🙂
That Yoast SEO plugin sounds interesting and I will definitely be buying the book “Branding for Fiction Authors”. I’m interested in the references to Twitter for authors. Is there a workbook on that in the pipeline? I have a Twitter handle but I never know what to do with it except occasionally retweet something and I am not interested in politics, celebrity and all that crap on Twitter. It would be good to find out if Twitter could be useful for authors even if it is not about selling because I love learning.
So can’t avoid it any longer. What am I doing for SEO?… skrika… skrika… skrika… that’s the sound crickets 🦗 make.
Great show today and I hope Dianna gets her health sorted out.
Always something to learn, right? That’s what makes this all so much fun.
Great show! I know Diana as we are both former ‘Book Smugglers’ authors (a great little press that closed its doors last year). She is a fantastic fiction writer.
I love the work she is doing for authors. Her suggestions are very helpful and I have known forever that I need to update my WordPress site to make it mobile friendly. That is going on top of to-do list in the website upgrade! And, I am signing up for her newsletter!
Nice!
SEO is something that always lingers in the back of my mind as something I should learn, but I can never find the time to dedicate to it. I know it’s a really valuable aspect of any business, but I struggle with the fiction aspect of SEO. I guess focusing on genre is the best way to do it.
It’s been that way for me too. If you just use Yoast and make sure you’re using the same keywords throughout your post or page, that gets you about 90% of the way there to good SEO.
Finally got through the show this weekend. I liked it. I come from a software background and while there is an obvious SEO integration needed when selling a product, Diana brought a good point about selling a brand.
The tips she had in the article were good and I am going to update my site this week.
Of Course there is always the Lindsay Buroker answer, promote by writing more books.
Yes, SEO in addition to writing more books 😉
I started using the Yoast plug-in a few months ago and it’s really helped me polish some of my existing blog posts in terms of recommending small changes to existing posts that will improve the SEO, and I keep those same things in mind when I am posting something new.
I struggle with blogging as a content marketing strategy for fiction. I mostly post writing updates or new reviews I’ve received, and I’ve written a monthly wrap-up post each month since January that has the best stuff I’ve read/listened to/watched in the past month. If I’m going to take the time to write a long blog post related to my books, I’d rather pitch it to a book blogger for them to guest post, so it can get more visibility.
Ironically, the most well-trafficked post on my blog is one I did several years ago on what writing advice we can glean from the first chapter of Game of Thrones.
Yoast is really great. Even the free version.