Novel News Winter 2008 - Novel Website Design Newsletter

Winter 2008

Easily boost your website's SEO rankings by building natural, inbound links

What are inbound links?

Inbound links are simply links from other websites to pages within your website.

How can I create them if they're on other people's sites?

The best way to build them is to provide useful and unique content on your site that other people will want to link to and hope that they do. Outside of that, here are a few things you can do to build those links yourself.

Write an article

Investigate Digg and Delicious. Don't think you have anything to say? How about how you got your agent? What happened to you when you first got 'the call'? Even a couple of brief paragraphs on a small detail of writing could be very interesting to other newbie writers. Think about your experience and never underestimate what you have to offer.

Get Blogging

Blogging is a massive time commitment, especially when you need to be writing another 2,000 of your 90,000 word novel. But you don't have to have your own blog to get some of the benefits of blogging.

Post comments to other blogs and forums and leave a link to your website in your signature. Be thoughtful and take your time and people will not only follow your link to learn more about you, but you might even be asked to guest blog for a day.

Both the link back to your site and the hits that follow it will help your site's SEO.

Get out there

Opportunities to meet people and trade information are huge. Don't be shy about handing out your business card to new people. Keep in mind, it's not just writers or other business colleagues who might have something to contribute.

For example, if you write a series about an amateur sleuth who loves to knit, and you meet someone with a knitting website or forum, offer to interview her. Your readers would probably like another perspective on their favorite characters, and if she links back to you, which she probably will, you might just get a whole new audience.

One last note...

Remember, like Charlotte, spiders want to help people get what they want, and on the web people want information. If other relevant sites are linking to you, and linking to different pages within your site, then the spiders figure that you've got something interesting to say that more people might want to know about, thus boosting your SEO rankings and bringing you more readers or clients.

Natural, inbound links are a great way to improve your site's SEO and the best thing about them is that you don't need to hire an expensive SEO professional to get them. These are things you can do yourself.

For more information on SEO, check out last quarter's newlsetter article on What You Can Do for Your Site's SEO.

Headed to a Conference this Summer?

If you plan to attend a writers' conference this summer, keep your website in mind.

Bring your camera

Update the About page on your website with a few pics of you with some of your fellow writers or business colleagues, or even visiting some of the local attractions.

Interview someone

It isn't always the famous writer or agent who has something interesting to say about writing or your business. Do a quick interview with a fellow writer or critique partner, or even take a witty quote from someone you meet at the dinner table. This is a great way to meet someone new and exchange business cards and website links.

Make a good impression:

In addition to websites and book trailers, we now design stylish and professional business cards to match your website and brand.

"Regret eats the soul."
John Dufresne,
The Lie That Tells a Truth.

(Like this quote? Get the desktop)

Remember:

Mother's Day is Sunday, May 11th, and Memorial Day is Monday, May 26th.

We love referrals:

Refer a client to Novel Website Design and we'll send you lots of good karma. (Oh, and a big "Thank You!" in the form of a goodie you can use elsewhere.)

What's new:

A new website for Easy Week Recipes; writer Justin Holley; and writer Anne Gray.

NWD stuff!