OK, I'm in the midst of revising / editing my (and my co-author's) book "How to Market a Book" for 2013, and I just added a section on SEO that I think is actually important to everyone, so I thought I would put some of it here. And, just in case you're going to be all "SEO isn't Funny Strange," I'll just tell you that it actually SO IS funny strange, but most of the time you're sworn to secrecy when you do SEO, because people call you and they're all mortfied about what you find when you Google them, and then you have to try not to laugh when you hear the situation they've gotten themselves into, and then you go about fixing it, and they call you every day, like "When will my Google results change?" and you're like "You ignored your Google results for eight years, and you want me to change it in eight hours? I don't think so." The whole job is "Twin Peaks" absurd at times, and I can't really tell you about any of it.
Speaking of SEO-related emergencies, if you have one of your very own, I think I might be taking new clients starting in June (I'm not joking), so go over to my company's website and email me if you have a problem. I promise not to laugh.
Here's the deal: if you're an author (or you own a small business, or even if you're just alive in the world today and care about your Google results) you probably know that you need to have a “presence”
on various social media platforms (like Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc), and you might be wondering—why? Why should I be on all these sites if I’m
positive I will never use them?
This is actually a valid question, and I’m going to put on my SEO
(Search Engine Optimization) expert hat for a moment to explain why a website based on your own name as well as
exposure across multiple platforms (if only for syndication and reputation
management purposes) is something you definitely need. In fact, I want you to pay attention to this so much, I have employed Internet Marketing Related Stock Photography (above). Hey look! A graphic! Pay attention!
First off, what exactly is “Reputation Management,” and why
on earth would you care about a thing like this? You’re just minding your own business and
writing awesome books, which is how it should be. Steven Pressfield is right when he says (in
“The War of Art”) that spending too much time on social media is a distraction
and an excuse.
However (and this is a big however), establishing yourself
on the various social sites is important, and here is why:
When someone “Googles” you, all roads on Page One of search
results for your name should lead directly to you, and setting up your social
media properly is one way to insure that happens. Page One of Google results for your name
should belong to you and only you, and should offer only opportunities for you to sell
books (or soap, or your hair salon, or just your good name– whatever you happen to be putting out there in the world right now). Page One of Google is not where you want a mention of say, the fact that someone doesn't like you, or a bad review of one of your books (or your business), or anything that might get in the way of the good impression you're trying to make.
Just for fun, let’s take a look at the results I get when I
Google Michael Pollan, the author of “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” I like Michael’s website and think he’s savvy
when it comes to social media and generally being organized, so I’m confident
his Google results will be a great example.
Here we go!
As you can see, Michael has a website based on his own name, so Google is of course showing pages from his site as the first three results when you Google him.
This is excellent news for him, and means that anyone that searches for him is likely to quickly find their way to his excellent website, where they will find examples of his writing and be given opportunities to sign up for his newsletter, buy his books, and follow him on their preferred form of social media.
The next entry down is a Wikipedia page, which is great to have, but which needs to come about organically (meaning, it is frowned upon to make a Wikipedia page for yourself). If you keep producing excellent work, eventually your Wikipedia page will happen.
Let’s move on to the next result down: the Amazon Author Central listing.
Amazon Author Central is definitely something you can control, and if you have books out, you should go over there and flesh your Author Central listing out so it appears in Google. https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/home
Next result down: Michael’s Twitter account. You’ll notice that he’s not even that much of an active “back and forth” tweeter, using his Twitter stream mainly to syndicate his articles. This is a perfectly acceptable use of Twitter if the medium just doesn’t appeal to you. Notice that his Twitter page ranks in Google, his profile contains a link back to his main website, and (as I mentioned), his feed is being used mainly for syndication, so there is always fresh content going through there. Another example of “all roads lead back to the author.”
Other results (not shown here because they fell below what I could capture in a screenshot): Pollan’s Facebook Fan Page, which also syndicates his content, and his GoodReads profile, which is also filled out, contains a photo, and has a link back to his main website. He teaches at the Berkeley School of Journalism and writes for the New York Times, so those profile pages are also included.
If you’re about to say “I don’t write for the New York Times, so how do I get a link like that?” I will simply encourage you to volunteer to write for publications and blogs/ websites with more traffic than your own to obtain this kind of listing.
Tomorrow, we’ll go through a checklist that you can replicate to insure that have good results like this and to head off any potential “red flags” at the pass. Believe me, you’ll thank me one day for this post, because it will give you the tools to actually help yourself if you get into what we call a reputation management "situation."