Using SEO as Part of Your Author Marketing Strategy

by Jeniffer Thompson, Monkey C Media

Editorial update, October 21, 2026: Smith Publicity refreshed selected SEO guidance and links in this guest article. The original contributor credit is retained.

Did you recently write a book that you’re super excited about but find that your sales numbers are a bit lackluster and disappointing? Or maybe you have a blog, and it’s just not getting the traffic you want? Well, there’s something you can do about it. Among the most significant of those things is incorporating search engine optimization (SEO) into your author marketing strategy. I’ll tell you how you can do that below.

A Quick SEO Primer for Beginners

SEO helps readers and search engines understand your website. Start with clear page titles, descriptive headings, useful content, and links that help visitors explore related topics.

How SEO Works

When someone uses a search engine like Google, Bing, and Yandex to search the web, that search engine tries to deliver the most relevant website results. Simple right? For the sake of simplicity, I’ll reference Google moving forward; it is the most popular search engine, after all. 

Search engines need to discover and understand your pages. Clear headings, useful content, and relevant links help explain what your site offers. Google’s SEO Starter Guide explains the basics; no single tactic guarantees a ranking.

Start with the questions your readers actually ask. Use keyword research to understand your audience, then write a useful answer in natural language.

What Can SEO Do for You as an Author? 

So, what does all this mean for you? So many good things! When it’s easier to find you, it makes it easier to grow your audience, build your brand, follow, and sell your book.

It Can Make Your Book More Discoverable

Describe your book accurately wherever readers encounter it. Your author website and retailer listings serve different roles, so follow each platform’s guidance rather than assuming every search system works the same way.

An example: If your novel explores counterculture in 1960s New York, say so clearly in its description. Specific details help readers decide whether the book interests them. Use accurate language naturally rather than repeating a phrase to meet a keyword target.

It Can Help Build Your Following

Search visibility can introduce new readers to your work. Give them a reason to stay: a helpful article, an excerpt, or a clear next step. More page views alone do not guarantee better rankings. Explore Jeniffer Thompson’s author marketing articles for more ideas.

Where Authors Should Be Using SEO Strategy 

As an author, you’ll basically want to use keywords on all platforms, as I mentioned above. You want to increase your search ranking wherever you can, so you’re more likely to come up in search results on multiple platforms.   

On Your Website and Blog

Publish when you have something useful to share, and update older articles when advice changes. Adding posts more often does not automatically improve rankings. Google’s people-first content guidance emphasizes usefulness and reliability.

On Your Profiles

Any online profile you have is an opportunity to provide relevant content and powerful key phrases. Take a look at those profile descriptions to see if your content includes your genre and the specific value of your book and message (why should people read your book?). Try not to be coy when you are writing online content—be obvious, speak clearly about the value you offer so your audience gets it (the search engines will get it too).

You’ll want to have profiles on multiple platforms and use keywords and phrases to optimize all your profiles. For example:

• Goodreads author profile
• Amazon
• Social Media
• YouTube
• Your publisher or distributor’s author page, where available

Your SEO Strategy Beyond Keywords

Keyword usage is essential. It’s also the easiest and most obvious part of SEO. But there are some other important SEO tactics you’ll want to use as well. Because, besides the body of your page content, you’ll be using SEO strategy in things like your bio, book description, and even your images, such as your headshot. Your SEO strategy shouldn’t leave out important tools like alt tags, metadata, backlinks, and plugins. 

Alt Tags

Alt tags are used to increase visibility and optimize images on your profiles, blogs, and website. They used to be one of my best-kept secrets, but these days it’s pretty commonly used. An alt tag is “alternative text” assigned to images on your website. Alt tags were created to help improve the experience of visually impaired searchers. The alt tag describes the image so that a screen reader will read the description to the visually impaired person “viewing” your website. Imagine how frustrating it must have been for our blind friends looking at image-heavy websites that didn’t bother describing those images—just a bunch of dead ends. 

Bonus: Descriptive alt text also helps search engines understand an image. Its first job is to communicate the image’s purpose to people who cannot see it.

A word to the wise: Always write to your audience. Never write for the search engines. It will backfire. Always write alt tags with your blind friends in mind. Please don’t stuff keywords in there unless they are actually relevant. Otherwise, you might get flagged for spamming, not to mention how rude it would be to any blind person trying to enjoy your website and get valuable information. 

Metadata

The term metadata sounds scary. It’s not. Simply put, metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. The alt tag I described earlier is a type of metadata, as is a caption or an image description tag. Any time you have an opportunity to design something or describe it from the backend of your website—do it. The Yoast plugin, which I mention below, will help to automate this process.

Backlinks

A backlink is a link from another website to yours. When you earn a relevant interview or review, ask whether a link would help readers find your book or learn more. Focus on relevance and credibility; avoid buying links or exchanging them to manipulate rankings. See Google’s spam policies.

SEO Plugins

A WordPress SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO can help manage titles and descriptions. It supports your work; installing a plugin does not guarantee rankings.

Hopefully, you’ve realized how SEO can be a powerful and integral part of your author-marketing strategy in reading this. It can seem a bit overwhelming, I know. But now you understand how SEO works. So, start implementing those keywords and other SEO tools in your online content! When you start seeing the results, you’ll be happy you put the time in.

Jeniffer Thompson is a personal branding expert, digital marketing strategist, and the host of The Premise podcast. She is an author and speaker who delivers strategy-rich content and actionable tools that educate and empower authors. Her company, Monkey C Media, founded in 2004, is an author services design firm offering award-winning book cover and author website designs that integrate digital marketing strategies and author branding. She is a co-founder of the San Diego Writers Festival, serves on the San Diego Memoir Writers Association Board, and is currently writing her own coming of age memoir. Visit www.monkeyCmedia.com and listen to her podcast at ThePremisePod.com.

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