Writers in the Storm

Penny Sansevieri

If you’ve ever built a website, you know that it can take a lot of time, effort and planning. And that’s before you get the SEO rolling. And with Google and other search engines constantly changing the way they crawl through sites, SEO rules change frequently as well. It can be hard to keep track of what’s really going to get Google to notice you.

Why does SEO matter?

Well, Google ranks top in search and you want to be found. In fact, over 65% of us search on Google with only 7.31% searching on Bing (this is down from 33% in 2015). Sites like Ask, Yahoo, AOL and others make up the remainder.

We recently noticed our search started falling from the the first page. It’s easy to stop paying close attention to all of the factors that go into SEO, and that’s what happened here. Thankfully, it is relatively easy to bring it back. Especially if you have a site that’s been around for a while. But, with that said, it’s incredibly important to keep an eye on SEO. So let’s have a look at the elements that matter in terms of achieving a great ranking.

Every so often, Google changes how it will rank sites. About five years ago, Google did an algorithm change that was so vast, it literally wiped some sites off the map. An internet cleanup like this likely won’t happen again, however you should be aware that there are rules to follow, if you want to gain some visibility for your website.

First and foremost, know your keywords. If you aren’t sure ask whoever designed your site where to find that data. We use a plugin called Yoast and we also use Google Analytics to filter data like this. This tells us specifically what keywords people searched on and which ones brought them to our website. This is hugely important for reasons I’ll go into in a moment.

1. What Keywords are on your Homepage?

This is where some of these keywords will come into play. Having these on your homepage and spread throughout your site is a good way to gain some traction and appeal to the Google gods of search. Also, don’t make your homepage too wordy. Keep it to 250 words if you can.

2. Do: blog. While it may seem boring, blogging is still the number one way to get the attention of consumers and Google. Use keywords in your blog title and sprinkle them throughout your blog post.

3. Blog often.

Most SEO experts recommend three times a week. The more you blog, the better your search is. Generally, I recommend content in three lengths, so long content (1000-1200 words) shorter content (650 words) and then super short (500 words or even less).

4. Always use images.

Images are crucial not just because of the value of search but also the value of keeping your consumer on the page. Our minds are image processors, not word processors to having one or two images per blog post as well as on your site, helps to draw users in. When you use images, make sure to name them appropriately using keywords.

5. Page titles: If your pages aren’t named, they should be. Make sure your web site pages have titles, if you’re not sure ask your web designer about this.

6. Three clicks. Any page on your site should be accessible within three clicks from your homepage.

7. Do: Check out your competition. If you’re trying to get incoming links, see how’s linking to your competition. How do you search for incoming links? Pop the following into your Google search box: linkdomain:www.website.com

8. Be focused.

Have a focused goal on your home page. While your site can do a good many things (and many sites do), your home page should have one goal. Once you get someone to your web site you don’t want to confuse them. A confused mind doesn’t make a choice and will likely click off to your competition.

9. Get a good URL.

Choose something that relates to your topic and is easy to remember. Ideally your URL should also have keywords in it. If you have a few different web site addresses (such as your name, maybe an old domain, etc.) make sure they aren’t all forwarding to the same page on your site. Have them forward to different pages, this will also help with your search rank.

10. Don’t: And speaking of keywords…try avoid using slogans, catch phrases or industry jargon. Here’s why: first off your reader might be a lay person and doesn’t understand what you’ve written, if you confuse the reader you will lose them. Second, when you search for your site in Google, you’ll see that some text comes up with your site URL, this text is pulled from your home page so use that space wisely.

11. Guest blogging helps.

Guest Blogging is a Great Way to Build SEO Love! Offering yourself up as a guest blogger is a great way to build relationships but also a great way to get some good incoming links to your site. By the same token, inviting people to blog on your site is a win, too. You’ll want to invite people who are active on social media so they can share the posts and if they have a good following all the better!

12. Social Media Won’t Help your SEO.

The thing about social media is that it’s good for outreach and networking, but it won’t help your SEO per se. It used to, quite a lot actually but now all of that’s changed. It doesn’t affect your ranking, but it’s great for networking.

13. The Mystery that is Google+.

When Google first started their social networking site, everyone in the tech and SEO community jumped on the bandwagon. Then Google seemed a little iffy about the social media platform, and lots of people (including myself) stopped posting there. A lot of SEO people may tell you that Google+ doesn’t matter in terms of SEO, but I have a hard time believing that Google wouldn’t give preference to their own site so post there, even if it’s just your own blog, a few times a week.

14. Use Google AdWords.

Even if you don’t want to run ads, sign up for an account there and dig into that platform to find great keywords. Their results are quite accurate in terms of searches per month and this can help you greatly if you’re struggling to find the right keywords to use.

15. Getting local reviews on Google.

With 43% of search focused on local results, even if your consumer isn’t intentionally searching locally these results will still dominate the page. So focus on pushing some reviews to Google to get some local love. Even if you aren’t promoting a business necessarily, these reviews will always help you in search.

16. Broken links are bad. I’ve had this happen, we all have, but 404 links are bad news so check the pages on your site frequently. This is especially true when you have made any kind of changes to your website.

17. Mobile is a must.

For the first time since 2014, mobile is exceeding desktop usage and Google is penalizing non-mobile sites, or sites that aren’t mobile friendly. By being mobile it means you need a site created specifically for the various phone and tablet platforms.

18. SEO Experts are a Myth.

I get a lot of emails from people offering to optimize my website. Granted there are great things you can do, and our website person is fantastic at giving us input and advice on SEO, keywords and making sure our website is gaining rank in Google. But Wordpress has a lot of tools that can help you zero in on your SEO if you’re willing to spend some time to do it. Trust me when I say, it’s not overly complicated. If someone is trying to sell you heavy duty SEO services, run the other way. You’ll spend a whole lot of money for a whole lot of nothing.

19. Get a good website.

There’s a temptation these days to get a site using places like Wix or others that build sites for you for free. These sites won’t rank as long as they’re connected to the bigger platforms. You have to pay to own it and you should. My suggestion is always go to Wordpress. A Wordpress template site will get faster traction in Google and probably in the end, cost you less, too.

20. Incoming Links Rock.

So how many sites are linking to yours? Well a good way to find out is to do a linkdomain search on Google. Just type in linkdomain domainname.com and see what comes up. When you insert our URL (www.amarketingexpert.com) it shows over 50,000 incoming links, but keep in mind that I’ve had that URL for 17 years so the older the domain, the more incoming links it’s likely to have.

Getting ranking for your website doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult, the thing to remember is that a static site, boring site doesn’t help your ranking.

What SEO tips do you have to share? And do you have questions for Penny?

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About Penny

Penny C. Sansevieri, CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a best-selling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert and an Adjunct Professor with NYU. Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most cutting-edge book marketing campaigns. She is the author of fourteen books, including How to Sell Books by the Truckload. AME is the first marketing and publicity firm to use Internet promotion to its full impact through online promotion and their signature program called: The Virtual Author Tour™

To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, you can visit her web site at http://www.amarketingexpert.com. To subscribe to her free newsletter, send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@amarketingexpert.com

Copyright @2017 Penny C. Sansevieri

Dawn Ius

I’m going to let you in on a little secret—I didn’t land my agent from a slush pile.

Mandy Hubbard—founder of Emerald City Literary Agency and affectionately known by me as Agent Awesome—never read a single sentence of a query from me. No full manuscript. No verbal pitch at a conference. No gushing recommendation from a writing pal.

In fact, Mandy signed me based on two chapters of I book I’d written, that wasn’t even my own.

Let me explain.

Back in 2013, Mandy was an agent at D4E0 Literary Agency, founded by Bob DiForio, a rock star agent I’d been thinking about querying for my adult thriller work. I was new to Twitter, and while looking up Bob’s wish list, I happened upon a tweet by Mandy. I wish I’d taken a screen shot of it, but the gist was basically that she and a co-agent, Bree Ogden, were auditioning a writer to execute a story they’d brainstormed. The successful writer would win representation from Mandy, as well as a chance to write the book in their mind.

The odds weren’t great. Semi-finalists were chosen from a 300-word sample—a few paragraphs to demonstrate voice, style, and craft. Plus, it was young adult…and I’d never written young adult before.

Nevertheless, I submitted my entry and then did my due diligence on Mandy. It took me about a nano-second to realize that she was my dream agent. I devoured her books, stalked her clients, and wrote down her sage Twitter advice. I dreamed about “the call.”

And then, it came. Well, not so much on the phone, but rather, the notice that I’d been selected as one of three to write two scenes from the proposed book—a modern retelling of the torrid romance between King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. I had two scene outlines, a setting, and POV direction. The rest I was free to explore on my own.

Two painstaking weeks later, I submitted my chapters. A day or so later, my husband and I went to the liquor store to buy some wine. While there, he said, “Do you want me to pick up champagne?” I said, “No. It’s a long shot. Don’t jinx it.” But, like any patient, non-paranoid writer, I was checking my email every three seconds on my phone. As my husband stood at the till to pay, I got this message from Mandy: You blew us away, and you ARE our writer.

A lot of that night is a blur, but I distinctly remember yelling in a crowded booze store, “HONEY! BUY THE CHAMPAGNE!”

That book became Anne & Henry, and while the story was conceived by Mandy and Bree, they handed over the creative reigns and allowed me to make it my own. For better or worse, I did.

But Anne & Henry wasn’t just my first book. It was the beginning of my career, and the start of a tradition that has become almost a joke in my house: we celebrate every milestone.

Every.

Milestone.

This industry is damn hard. Seriously. You weather rejection, paranoia, writer’s block, bad reviews, absent muses, quasi-alcoholism, partners that don’t understand, questions about when you’ll be famous/rich/award-winning/insert belittling comment here, exhaustion, financial stress, and crippling self-doubt. There isn’t one week that goes by when I haven’t asked myself WHY I do what I do—and my third book from Simon & Schuster (literally my dream publisher…but that’s a different blog for another time) hits the shelf on April 10, 2017.

The writer’s curse, though, is sometimes a debilitating lack of confidence.

And yet, when I see that hardcover on my desk, or that ARC drops in the mail, or I get that letter from a fan who just gets it, I remember that I’m married to this job—for better or worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer. And like any marriage, it takes work. 

Which is why my husband “picks up” champagne whenever:

• I finish a first draft of a new book—no matter how terrible.
• My awesome agent greenlights that book or a new proposal.
• That book or proposal sells to an editor.
• I hack my way through every. single. revision.
• I receive advanced reader copies of my book.
• I get my first trade review that doesn’t tell me I suck.
• The hardcover hits the shelf. (Extra champagne if it’s available in my city!)
• The soft cover hits the shelf.

And sometimes, he brings home champagne when I’ve just made it through a really bad week of really bad self-doubt. Because that’s how I like to celebrate each milestone. Milestones that are determined by me. They’re what gets me through the tough times, and propels me to that magical moment of seeing my book come to life.

Next month, I’m excited to pick out a new champagne to celebrate the advanced reader copies of my third young adult from Simon Pulse, Lizzie—a modern teen retelling of the Lizzie Borden hatchet murders, with a lesbian twist. I’m thinking hubs will pick up a Rosé. <wink>

What are your writing milestones—and how do you celebrate them? (Also, if you have champagne recommendations, I’m all ears!)  

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About Dawn

Dawn Ius is the author of Anne & Henry, Overdrive, and the forthcoming Lizzie, all published by Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster). She is the Deputy Editor of The Big Thrill, a book coach with Author Accelerator, and a co-instructor at Lit Reactor. When not slaying fictional monsters, Dawn can be found geeking out over fairy tales, true love, Jack Bauer, muscle cars, kayaking, and all things creepy. She lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and two giant breed dogs. 

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Kimberly Brock
Taking a fresh look at things

I am consumed by the idea of perspective. At the moment, I’m witnessing the effects of a visual processing disorder in one of my children, which means that for him, nothing is as it seems. I admit that as a parent, I’m busy doing everything I can to learn about what he’s experiencing and I am searching for anything that will allow me to see what he is seeing, the way he is seeing it.

Do I want to correct this stressful and frustrating issue for him? Sure. Do I want to be sure that everything is being done to give him the tools he needs to succeed in spite of this challenge? You bet.

But I’m sharing this with you today on this writer’s blog for a different reason, because of the single motivation that keeps me up at night since faced with this neurological puzzle and that is this: I don’t want him to feel alone.

And it struck me as I was pondering a topic for today’s post that this same driving motivation is really why we write. We want to share our own perspectives in a way that connects us with readers who can find themselves in our prose and our characters. We want to be assured that the way we see things is a common experience. Even when we disagree, we want to be able to say to ourselves and our readers that we can imagine feeling or behaving in just a certain way, faced with a certain set of circumstances.

We don’t want to be alone, not as writers or as readers. And so we spend hours and days and years of our lives casting our thoughts onto the page in the hopes that we’ll find a meeting of the minds. And yet, we so often don’t.

Why are we so afraid of seeing things from a different point of view?

Lately, the internet is a dangerous place when it comes to freely expressing individual perspectives. I think a lot of writers – and readers – are exhausted by the constant war of words that can be found in any comments section.

I’m one of the exhausted. But I woke up this morning with the realization that these two things – my son’s difference in visual perspective and what I’m seeing from every voice raised with the hope they’ll finally be heard – are the same thing.

We writers call it voice. The thing that makes my writing mine and your writing yours. Voice is what reveals us down to our bones and shows our substance in written form. Voice is perspective and perspective is the magic in our mundane human lives. It’s what sets our stories apart from one another and keeps them from being the same rote retelling through the centuries. It’s what makes a character, rather than a caricature.

With that in mind, I decided to, well, change my perspective. I wanted to see what would happen if I relaxed a little, let my vision lose its sharp, critical, even frightened focus and took a second look at my son’s difficulty, my work, and even the gnashing teeth of recent social media.

A few days ago, I watched a video that allowed me to see some of the visual images my son experiences when looking at a screen or a page of black and white print. They blurred and jumped and shifted and swirled. At first, I admit, I felt only horrible dismay at not realizing sooner that he was struggling so profoundly and I’d missed any sign of it.

But today, I watched the video again, with idea in mind to see things differently, and I came to a new conclusion that filled me with wonder. I’d just seen the world through someone else’s eyes. Someone who saw things completely differently than I ever could have imagined. And it changed me. It changed my mental perspective. It connected he and I where we had been disconnected and I was struck by the knowledge that I’d just accomplished the very thing I feared I would never be able to do for him: neither of us was alone.

With that in mind, I took a look at the characters I’m writing and tried to apply the same idea. I tried to move my own perspective aside and allow my imagination to conjure a perspective that is completely individual to the character. The most amazing thing started to happen. I learned something I hadn’t known about the character and about the story I’ve been trying to tell all along.

Now, granted this is really a little mind game when you’re working from your subconscious, but believe me when I say it was freeing to give myself permission to step outside the box where I keep my favorite ideas and see what mysteries might be discovered. There were layers and colors and impressions I’d never considered and the ideas brought a new depth to the story, and maybe a fresh connection to a reader I might have missed out on knowing if I hadn’t been brave enough to take that second look from a new angle. It was different from the way I usually see things, but the truth is, an author shouldn’t write from only one perspective or what would be the point?

I’m saying, take the chance on the power of voice and give it free rein to make your work stand out.

Of course, when it comes to the many perspectives we meet online every day, what I hope I’ve learned (or am learning) from my son’s gift is that I may not be able to see things the way another person sees them, but it doesn’t make their perspective less real or less valid. 

As I writer, I am consciously trying to apply that to all my good guys and bad guys, all my lovers and haters, all my dreamers and doers. Same goes as a human being. And as it turns out, if there’s anything I had to say to you today, I guess it was really what all those voices are saying, what my son said, what all our characters are saying, if we let them.

I wish you could see what I see.

Why do you write? What has helped you develop your writing voice? What tricks do you use to see more deeply into your story and see it from each character's perspective?

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About Kimberly

Kimberly Brock is the award winning author of the #1 Amazon bestseller, THE RIVER WITCH (Bell Bridge Books, 2012). A former actor and special needs educator, Kimberly is the recipient of the Georgia Author of the Year 2013 Award. A literary work reminiscent of celebrated southern author Carson McCullers, THE RIVER WITCH has been chosen by two national book clubs.

Kimberly’s writing has appeared in anthologies, blogs and magazines, including Writer Unboxed and Psychology Today. Kimberly served as the Blog Network Coordinator for She Reads, a national online book club from 2012 to 2014, actively spearheading several women’s literacy efforts. She lectures and leads workshops on the inherent power in telling our stories and is founder of  Tinderbox Writer’s Workshop. She is also owner of Kimberly Brock Pilates.

She lives in the foothills of north Atlanta with her husband and three children, where she is at work on her next novel. Visit her website at kimberlybrockbooks.com for more information and to find her blog.