SEO for Authors: 3 Tips from Yoan Ante

December 12, 2017

It is not enough for a writer to only write. Content is king and very important but if people can’t find your site there really isn’t a point. I attended at talk by Yoan Ante hosted by the WordPress New Jersey Meetup. Yoan is the author of The Book on Service Business SEO. He owns his own junkyard removal company, Power Clean-Out Junk Removal. He lives and lives and breaths SEO and has been able to get is business on the first page search results in Google.

A high Google ranking is important for a business. It has been estimated that 75% of people will only look at the first page.

His presentation had some great tips however some of the products he uses has a cost. I asked him to share the tops tips an author or business can use to increase their SEO without spending money.

#1 Create great content

Writing regular posts is the one most important thing an author or business can do to increase their SEO. Make sure that the posts contain key words that users are searching. You can find these words by looking through Google Ad words. Yoan recommends being strategic when choosing words. In the presentation he showed that when a user types in the word “shirt” Amazon comes up as the top result. He advises using more descriptive terms as opposed to using one word. For example use the description “red shirt with pearl buttons”. This phrase is what is called a long tail key word, which means it a key word without a lot of search volume but much easier to rank for than a one word term.

#2 Index Your Site

WordPress has free plugins to help you index your site. Yoan says that a site can be submitted to be indexed 10 times a month and there is no penalty in asking for more indexing. It is a good idea to request indexing a site after making a big change or adding new content.

You can submit a sitemap using the YoastSEO plugin from Yoast. This is a free plugin that helps you optimize your pages for particular keywords and has other SEO benefits including adding meta descriptions to pages that might not have them.

#3 Ask others to link to your Content

The way this works is that the more links you have to your site the higher your Google ranking however not all linking is equal. It it is better to have links for higher domain authorities. The highest ranking in domain authority are Google, Bing and Yahoo. The second tier are CNN and other news sites. The more links you have with higher domain authority tells Google that you have good content and will help you rank higher. You can do this by volunteering your time or services to Websites with high domain authority.

The domain authority for different site can be seen if you install the MOZ toolbar for your browser. This is also a free browser extension.

Bonus Tip: Sign up for Help a Reporter Out

Helpareporter.com is a site that reporters use to get sources. This site posts questions at 5 am and noon. Yoan recommends that you sign up as a source. These reporters use you as source and then link back to your site helping you build authority. Yoan says this has helped him get links from high domain sites which in turn raised his domain authority and helped him rank higher on Google.

Bio:

Yoan is a small business SEO consultant and an entrepreneur with a passion for business development. He enjoys finding ready made solutions to business problems. He is the CEO of Power Cleanouts a regional waste hauling business that helps home owners and businesses get rid of unwanted things quickly and in environmentally friendly way. He is the author of “The Book on Service on Business SEO. A practical guide for the clueless or the informed to get found online.” Yoan is also a Veteran of the United States Air Force; he served 4 years on active duty and 5 in the Air National Guard.

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