Building Websites for Writers Part IV of IV: Meta Tags, Search Engines, and Analytics  by Nicki Salcedo

I wish I could tell you everything there is to know about websites, but I don’t know everything.  These are only the basics.  I have provided you with essential keywords and concepts, and I hope you take this little bit of information, do your own research, and build a website.  It doesn’t have to be a perfect, but you can improve your website over time.  One way to do this is put your website into the wild Web and see what happens.

Say What You Mean: Meta Tags vs. Specific Content

Meta tags are a way of cataloging the content on your website to improve your ranking in a search engine.  Because people manipulated keywords in the 1990’s, search engines don’t overly rely on meta tag information.  I still use them, but in order to get meaningful traffic, you should have specific content and be linked to related websites.  Put your name in the copyright line at the bottom of every page, and make sure that if you write medical romances set in Alaska you mention medical romances set in Alaska somewhere on your website.

 
Creepy Cyber Crawlies: Search Engines vs. Web Directories

You can register your website in a web directory where your URL is submitted and then reviewed for inclusion in search engines.  Try Yahoo! Standard http://add.yahoo.com/fast/add, the Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org/add.html, or Google http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl. Commerce site pay fees for directory listings, but you should only consider the places where you can submit for free.

 
If you are lazy like me, let the “web crawlers” or cyber “spiders” do the work for you.  Some search engines automatically look at the full text of your web pages.  They harvest information from your site, and you don’t have to do anything but have specific content.  This shouldn’t be too hard for you since you’ve spent all that time in craft workshops honing your hook, book blurb, elevator speech, high concept.  If you want to draw traffic because of your writing, put these teasers on your website.  It makes more sense than posting your mom’s cherry pie recipe.  But hey, I like cherry pie, so you can post the recipe and your book blurb.

 
Norman Bates and the Web Psycho-Analytics

Do you look through your peephole before opening the door?  Do you answer the phone only after you read the caller ID?  You want to know who is trying to reach you and why.  The same goes for your website.

There are many free Web analytic programs options available. I’m cheap, and unless you are a commerce site, you don’t need much analysis to figure out how your website is doing. Google Analytics is free and requires the insertion of six brief lines of Javascript at the end of your source code. Webalizer is one of many free programs, including some that come with your a hosting plan.  Or you can ask your friends with websites what analytics programs they use.

A Little Goes a Long Way: Basic Data And Reports Reveal A Lot About Your Site

Visitors: The number of people that come to your website. Look here after you’ve done a promotion to note trends.

Visits: How often they come to your website.

Keywords: The search phrases people use to find your site. 

Referring sites:  The websites sending traffic your website.  Look here after you’ve register with directories or exchanged links with writing buddies.

Site Content: The web pages visitors viewed.  See what interests your users.

 
You can also get geographical information, the length of time people spent on your site and the entry and exit pages.  You should track the trends and understand what is happening on your site.  Then ask yourself these questions to further improve your site performance.

Are you using the most important key phrases for your site (your name, your genres, your brand/category)? Are you showing up in search engines? What number of visit/visitors do you expect for your site?  Trend from week to week and month to month, and then you’ll know what specific goals to set for your site in the future. Don’t be discouraged if your numbers seem low.  Learn from these numbers and update your site to increase traffic.

Analytics without Analytics: What Would Bloggers Do?

If you have a blog, you can still set Web goals and see if you can achieve them. Consider a standard of success such as counting the number of comments posted in response to blog entries.  Maybe three comments on a blog post is a success for you.  Think about why some of your content gets better reactions than other content. Then provide more of the content people like.

Does your content spark interesting online conversation? Are you making friends? Are you getting letters or e-mails from your fans? Have you honed your fiction skills by writing concise creative non-fiction in your blog? Are you learning marketing skills that will be important as your writing career develops?

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye

By the time the article goes to print, it will already be out of date, but something that doesn’t change is the art of writing.  If you made a goal at the beginning of this series to improve your website, make another goal now to focus on your writing.  This is your true talent and gift to the world.  Marketing your books may involve the Web, video, podcasts, speaking at conferences, or an ad on the side of a bus.  None of this should change how you write your stories. 

Building a website is an interesting exercise in goal setting (determining what you want your site to be like), implementing a plan (building the site), and then understanding the results (analyzing Web statistics).  If you’ve never finished a book before, these three steps are surprisingly similar to plotting, writing, and revising.  Learn from building and improving your website, and then get back to writing your next book (The bestseller, remember?). Happy cyber journey and happy writing.