SEO for Authors: How to Choose the Right Website Name for Visibility | Ep. 49

Is Your Author Website Helping or Hurting Your Discoverability?

If you've ever struggled with what to name your author's website, you’re not alone. Should you use your personal name, or should it reflect your book’s theme? And what about SEO, will the right website name help more readers discover you? 

Allison Lane breaks it all down so you can make an informed decision and build a website that works for your long-term success. Join her as she shares practical, no-nonsense tips for choosing a website name that enhances your credibility, improves your search rankings, and grows with your writing career. Whether you're just starting out or rebranding, this episode will save you time, headaches, and costly mistakes.

Hit play now to learn how to set up your author's website for long-term visibility and success.

What You’ll Learn:

• How search engines rank author websites, and why your domain name matters.
• The pros and cons of using your name vs. a mission-driven URL.
• Simple SEO strategies to help readers find your website, no matter what you write

Resources Mentioned:

• Allison Lane’s website: LaneLit.com
• SEO guide for authors: SEO Starter Guide - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/seo-starter-guide
• Domain registration site: Namecheap - https://www.namecheap.com  or GoDaddy - https://www.godaddy.com/

Timestamps: 

[00:01:18] – Should your website name reflect your personal brand or mission?
[00:03:04] – SEO basics: How search engines rank author websites
[00:06:28] – Why your website name doesn’t need all your keywords
[00:09:14] – How to structure your site for long-term growth
[00:12:38] – Using metadata and headlines to improve SEO
[00:15:48] – Next steps: How to optimize your site without tech overwhelm

If this episode helped you, please take a minute to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Your support helps us reach more authors like you. And don’t forget to share this episode with a fellow writer who needs it.

Tag me on Instagram @allisonlanelit and let me know your biggest takeaway. Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJVNVvvXnew

Your book launch is your chance to build your visibility and grow your audience. In the Bestseller Launch School guided program, I'll show you how to get buzz before your book hits the shelves, master pre-orders and early sales to get attention and keep sales going long after launch day. Live trainings start April 30th - June 11. Grab your seat now: https://lanelit.com/bestseller 

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Transcript

Allison: 1:34

A good domain name can improve your searchability, which makes it easier for Google to understand and rank your site. It enhances your credibility because a clear name builds trust with the people who are looking for it, and trust with the search engines. Hey there, and welcome to the Author's Edge or welcome back. If you are new around here, I'm Allison Lane and I'm so glad you're spending time figuring out how to market yourself as an author, whether you are planning your first book and you wanna get it out of your head and onto paper and into bookstores or you're working on building your brand so that you can get your book into the world or find an agent or a publisher, or you're one of the OGs thinking my eighth book is coming out. What do I do now? Everything is changing all the time in terms of marketing yourself, and it's my job to help you do the things that are streamlined and effective and focused and fun, cause this should be exciting and it shouldn't feel like a third or fourth job. Now, today is one of our shorty episodes. It's Q and A day, which is what I do every Thursday. And I'm tackling a question from a listener who writes about Jews fighting fascism and they are wondering, should they name their website after that mission or use their own name instead? And since they're new to SEO, what's the best choice for getting discovered online? If you've ever wondered how your website name affects your search ranking, or if SEO is like a mystery to you, stick around. I'm gonna break it down step by step. First, let me explain how you can ask me a question that I can answer on one of my Thursday episodes. If you scroll down to the episode description at the very top, it says, send me a text, click it, and send me a text. That's all. And then, ask me your question. And if you want, you can add your name so that I can address you by name. This person did not add their name, so I will not make up a name'cause that would be weird. Okay. So send me a text. I would love to answer your question. Also, just send me what it is that you're thinking about. It doesn't have to be a question, but what do you like, what do you want more of? You know, it could just be a comment. Send me anything. I get your, comments and your questions immediately. And it's nice'cause it drops it into my inbox and it's like a nice hug from I know, from like other writers and word nerds and people doing good things in the world. Alright, let's get back into it. How does your website name impact SEO and should you go with a personal name or a mission-driven phrase? And if you are SEO illiterate, which most of us are, where do you even start? First, we have to start by defining SEO. This is search engine optimization, and it's what helps people find your website when they search online, when they go to Google and they're looking for something. Your website name plays a big role in that and a good website name. And your website name is called a domain name. A good domain name can improve your searchability, which makes it easier for Google to understand and rank your site. It enhances your credibility because a clear name builds trust with the people who are looking for it, and trust with the search engines. And when I say trust, it means that when someone's searching. And the search engine shows them your site and they go to your site, if they quickly bounce, if they show up in a third of a second, they go,'oh no, this was the wrong place.' Then, your website name is not enhancing your credibility because somehow people are going to your site and they're realizing, oh, this wasn't what I was looking for. So, we don't want that. We want your website name to be credible so that when people come to your site that they stay, which the search engines, they know and they can track your balance rate versus that people get what they need when they're on your site. The third thing a good domain name can do is give you long-term flexibility. That means your name for your website should serve you not just for today, but for years to come. Because let's face it, you are going to be writing more and doing more, and expanding, or going deeper. So, your website name should be able to flex with you. Okay, let's break this down. The key question about the SEO and searchability from this listener is what should they name their site? Should they name it, jews fighting fascism.com? Maybe. If it's available, I would snap that up. But will people be searching for that on Google? Is that something that they're gonna be typing into the search bar and if people are searching for you or your books, is that something that they would be searching for? Okay, those are two different questions. Maybe. But if they search for your name, they are not gonna be necessarily identifying Jews fighting fascism as your site. So, it's your job to make sure that that is integrated. If you name your site, I don't know your name, but you know Allison lane.com. Google will associate it with you and you can still optimize your site to rank for Jews fighting fascism through the content you put on your site. And I'm gonna talk about how to do that in a sec. Now, an SEO tip search Engine optimization tip, your website name does not have to include all the keywords related to your topic in order to rank well. Google looks at the content on your site and the titles of each of the sections on your site or your pages, and the descriptions of each page more than the URL itself. So, more than allisonlane.com It looks at the content on my site and PS, that's not even the name of my website. It's lanelit.com since allisonlane.com was already taken. So, if you wanna go to my site, you can go there or you can even search for my name and my website pops up because the content is related to the literary world and publishing. Now, the second point here is that is related to credibility and branding. When you use your own name as your website domain, it makes you easier to recognize, especially if you're an author. And you've gotta think about how most public figures structure their websites. It's like a personal name or it's mission driven. It's one of the two. If you are an individual and you don't have like a organization or a business behind you, using your name makes sense because it connects to all your work. No matter what topics you cover in the future, you can still feature a phrase like, for this writer, Jews fighting fascism, you can still feature that as a tagline, or a section, or a subhead, or a blog pages on the site, and that will then flag that for Google, which then prioritizes your site and other sites. Especially, when it's really reacting to people, asking for information, asking for sites that include these topics and these words. I'm not saying one or the other. I'm really saying this is up to you. But I seem to be leaning to your name and then weaving in your keywords because the third point here that I wanna make is that you wanna be flexible for your future SEO growth, because the search engine optimization isn't just about your domain. It is about everything on your site. Your site should be structured to grow with you, and that means using a section or one webpage that you can just put a blog, and go deep into why I wrote this book, and then put, instead of this book, put the name of the book, or why I write about your topic? What brought me to this? And then for this writer, it would be why I write about Jews fighting fascism? And then, you're using those words. The other thing you can do is use those words in a headline or metadata. This is marketing jargon, which makes me wanna gag and I'm so sorry to throw it at you. But metadata is a data that we can't see when we go to your site, but you or the person who's helping you set up your website can behind the scene, like under the hood, assign a description to a page or a description to each photo. And that's something that you should be doing. And if you don't know how to do that, I'm gonna talk to you in a minute about how to do that and how to get it done. And what I did, what I needed to get it done. Because a couple of people told me inside of a month, like you need to do X, Y, and Z. And I was like, holy crackers. Okay, I will get it done. You only need to tell me like 15,000 times, and then I will do it. What I really want is for your website, which is the only platform you own, it is your owned media. It is the only thing you own. To be SEO friendly and to be flexible and to work for you because you are going to continue to write other things and also maybe you'll write reviews of other people's books. Maybe you'll expand, maybe it you'll expand and add another topic you don't know today at least purchase the domain in your name, and then you can purchase other domains, other website names, and maybe you don't have a separate site. Whatever you do, do not create two different sites and then say, oh, I'll just connect to them. What you do is you create one site, and then all those other domain names think of as, other doorways into your site. And we call them vanity URLs, which is whatever. It's like, you know, a side door, but it still lands at your house. That's all you know how I think of it. What you want to do is make sure that whatever people are searching for, they end up at your website. So, the keys here are searchability, a personal name as your domain helps people find you, cause you are a big effing deal. And if you didn't know that, I'm telling you yes, you listener, driving on the highway, or folding the clothes, or baking, which is so, so time consuming and boring. While you're listening, yes. We want people to find you'cause you're a big effing deal. And the keywords in your content help the search engines understand what your focus is so that they offer your site up to the person who's looking for the solutions you provide or the insight you share, or the experience you had. The historical view that you have cultivated. It also in terms of credibility, using your name gives you long-term authority cause you're you. And chances are no matter what you're writing about today, you will end up writing about, talking about, representing two or three other topics that are tangential but not exactly. You know, one focus. So, give yourself that flexibility, which is the third point. You can still optimize your site for any phrasing through content on the site, even if it's not the domain name. So, if you're new to SEO, start simple. Choose a name that represents you, and build from there like I have lane lit.com. And a lot of people say, oh, buy all the book titles that you think, you wanna write. No, don't do that. All book titles change, so don't do that. It's a colossal waste of your time.'cause your domain is just one part of the equation. What really matters is the content and the structure of your site. If you need help setting up your website or optimizing it for SEO, I am going to do a part two of this episode. So, check out the next episode because I wanna talk to you about how to set up your site so you don't blow a gasket. And how to optimize for SEO without hiring a website marketing agency who will, you know, try and sell you a Ferrari when you need a, you go. I mean, seriously, this is so simple and I want you to have some options'cause all of this should be easier and super straightforward and I am here to make that happen. If you want my help and you wanna work with me, go to lanelit.com, and you'll see a how to work with me. You are welcome. I would love to work with you. And you can jump in my Author Ex brand accelerator, which is about visibility. Author visibility is something that we need to zoom, so don't claw your way to being visible and discoverable. Don't plot and think, oh, I have to put five years into building my brand. B. No, that is bologna and we don't need to put in more time'cause you're a grownup and that's not the way things work anymore. Those are olden times ideas. So, next week I will talk to you about setting up your site and optimizing it for SEO. Just some hacks that you can use so that you don't claw your eyes out'cause I really don't want that. Thanks for listening, and I will see you next time. Oh, and by the way, share this with someone who needs it, please. This should all be easier and if we don't help each other, we're missing out on such a great opportunity to bring good things into the world, which is always a good idea. Okay, until next time.