Part I of this two-part series focused on the natural next steps for book authors, upon finishing a project, for marketing and advertising his or her project through copywriting. Now, the second installment of this series will focus on one major component of that process: search engine optimization, or SEO.
Completing a writing project, whether a book or journal/magazine article, is a major accomplishment in and of itself. But it’s only half the battle—your work is far from over. The next step is about targeting the sales funnel—that is, the prospect’s journey from awareness to purchase—for your book or article.
And in today’s world, SEO is key to making that happen. The premise behind SEO is simple: The more popular keywords incorporated into the ad campaign for your work, the higher up in search engines your work is likely to appear.
SEO is crucial for a couple of reasons. First, it creates potential for your work to rise to the top of search engines whenever potential readers are typing words or phrases of interest into the search bars—this makes it more likely that your work will get exposure.
In addition, SEO is an essential element for authors who are using the increasingly popular pay per click (PPC) model for revenue. Every time the link to their digital content is clicked by a potential reader, the author receives payment. Increased exposure means higher payment, and it all starts with ensuring that those SEO keywords are embedded as much as possible.
Once your project is published, the first logical question might be: What does it take to write efficient and effective ad copy? This requires focusing on three main areas:
- Google ads: Authors who purchase Google ad space—that is, ads seen by those who search for relevant topics—are most likely to effectively market their works and earn compensation, both in terms of exposure and PPC. The more SEO keywords included in that ad, the more search results the ad will appear in, which in turn leads to higher odds of more hits.
With Google ads, authors are facing strict character and word limits. That means it’s all about making every single word and phrase count! As part of an ad campaign, any author should do diligent research on his or her work’s topic before ever submitting an ad. This will help the author understand which keywords on that topic are most likely to drive traffic—or, in other words, which keywords will best target the sales funnel.
- Social media posts: As is the case with Google ads, most social media platforms also come with word and/or character limits for posts. Again, targeting SEO keywords is an absolute must—it allows every single word and character to be productive instead of fluff.
Social media posts also come with their own set of questions for authors to be asking themselves when brainstorming productive SEO usage, such as: “Am I marketing a new audience or an existing audience? Does my work cater more toward a professional demographic or a casual one? Which age range is my target market for readership base?” The answers to these questions will heavily influence which social media platforms to focus on, which will then have an impact on tailoring posts, since every platform has different rules and regulations for those posts. Regardless of where you end up, though, the SEO factor remains imperative.
- Website content: As an author, this could mean marketing your project on your own personal website. Or it could mean a statement submitted to another website that will be used to market your project. Either way, though, it’s critical to make your text effective in drawing in potential readers—and the better your SEO, the higher your chances of making that happen!
On a website, you’ll likely have a larger amount of text to work with than in social media posts or in a Google ad. This is the time to get creative, without having to be as concerned with word count limits. But even so, keep in mind that most readers’ attention spans do still have limits—that means multiple pages of content is probably not the way to go.
Finally, remember that because digital marketing is a relatively new arena, and because popular keywords in digital search engines will inevitably vary, the rules about effective SEO usage aren’t set in stone—it’s a landscape that’s changing literally by the hour. So, what works for one project might not necessarily work for a project completed even a couple of months later; that makes it all the more important for authors to stay on top of the latest SEO trends!
By Anne Brenner
Anne is an Assistant Managing Editor at Technica Editorial
