SEO for Book Blogs

[Jo]

Hava of Nonfiction Lover, who writes reviews on nonfiction books, has a post up on her blog, SEO for Book Blogs. SEO being Search Engine Optimisation.

It's a post that tells you how to correctly link to other people's blogs, and what to ask them to say when linking to yours, in order for your blog to rank higher in search results from search engines.

I never heard about this before, but it looks like it's going to be extremely helpful from now on.

[LadyD]

Thanks for sharing these great treasures here. I learned so much... I feel like someone just turned the light on! I sure needed this info... much appreciated!

[Jo]

You're welcome! I never new search engines worked this way. I'm sure going to try to make everything links right from now on.

[Amber Stults]

Thanks for sharing this, Jo! It was extremely helpful and will make me do a better job with my links. :)

[Jo]

It's all cool. It's thanks to Hava for posting it in the first place, and every little helps.

[Hava Lyon]

Hey Jo, thanks for the link!! :-D I really hope that the article helps you guys. I have it on (very!) good authority that Google pays more attention to links coming in to your site than ANY OTHER THING when determining how to rank your blog on the search results page.

Of course, there are other things you can do to make your blog more SEO friendly, such as:

* Putting your keywords (the words you want to rank high for in Google) in the title of your blog and in the URL of your blog.
* Using descriptive titles for your posts that include words that you want to rank high for.
* Labeling the pictures that you put on your blog with good keywords.
* In your sidebar, Google pays attention to who you link to and the title of your widgets. So if you have got a blogroll of other book review bloggers that is currently entitled "Blogroll" change that to "Other Great Book Review Bloggers!" etc.
* Use categories and tags. I get TONS of hits for the name of a guy in one of the books that I've reviewed, and I literally only use his name as a category for that book, and I only talked about that book once. So Google definitely pays attention to tags and categories. I would NOT suggest going overboard with your categories like I have on my site (check out the left sidebar - it's like a monster out of control over there!) but incorporate them in moderation. You'll be surprised by the traffic you can get from that.

You'll notice that the above only works if you know what you want as the keywords for your site. You can't focus on doing well for a set of words if you don't know what those words are. Check out the SEO post above for the list of my keywords, and then sit down and see if you can't come up with a list yourself for your site.

Most important though? Incoming links! They're gold. Incoming links using the right keywords? Platinum! ;-) Keep in mind: Google ranks one way links higher than two way links, meaning that if I link to you, Google puts more emphasis on that than if I link to you and you link back to me. But even so, two way links are still very helpful.

Just so you guys know, I am running a contest right now on my site that has to do with linking to me and then winning one of five prizes I am offering, and I am also starting a new feature where I interview book bloggers on my site. Both of those are done primarily because I wanted to have a contest (in the first case) and because I want to get to know other book bloggers (in the latter case). But quite frankly, it doesn't hurt that both of them will help my rankings in Google and the rankings of my fellow book bloggers. :-)

Have a wonderful day!

Havs

[Jo]

Ohh, even more to make things better for my blog! Thanks Havs!

[Maw Books]

Amen, amen, amen! 80% of my traffic comes from Google, so I definitely agree with you on all points! I've tried really hard not to link out to other bloggers using the word "here" as anchor text. I once tried to run a contest where the anchor text linking to me had to be a certain anchor text phrase. It failed horribly. People just don't get it. One of the best things you can do is read a lot of blogs that talk about SEO. You learn a lot.

FYI - I also interview book bloggers. One of my most favorite features that I do on my blog. You'll really enjoy doing it!

[Hava Lyon]

Maw Books, I am glad to hear of another book blogger who concentrates on SEO! Every time I see a "here" link, I cringe, because A) I was EXACTLY that way just a year ago, and B) It is such a waste of possible SEO goodness. :-D

I have had fairly good luck with the SEO contest, but that's because I've spent a lot of time helping bloggers understand what I mean and giving them extremely simple step by step instructions on what to do. I am a teacher in my heart (and soon will be in person - I am going back to school to be an elem ed teacher) so I have limitless patience for teaching people. But it certainly took a lot of time, and wouldn't have worked for everyone. I individually helped four people who initially linked to me wrong, even after my explicit instructions in my contest blog and SEO article on my site. It's something that makes sense after you've done it for a while and have gotten used to it, but initially, you're like, "Say what? Why do you care how I link to your blog? Isn't it enough that I linked?"

Umm...No, not really. ;-) LOL!

I really give two thumbs up for the blog I linked to in my SEO article. Grizz makes more sense than any other blogger I've ever read when it comes to SEO. His blog on Today.com (the one I link to) has only been up for a little while, so it isn't too overwhelming to go to the start of his blog and read through every article he's posted. You'll learn a lot doing it, especially if you're new to SEO.

I'm glad to hear that you love interviewing book bloggers. It's been fun so far, although my inbox is out of control! LOL!

Have a wonderful evening,

Havs

PS I just went to your page here on Ning, and SHAZAM! Your hubby is HOT! LOL! I should probably be careful posting that 'cause, you know, my hubby is around here somewhere, but I just had to tell you anyway. ;-) And your little boys are adorable. You have got a beautiful family.

Now I'm off to kiss my own (very cute!) husband. :-D