Today I did a little more SEO (search engine optimization) for my Tell Your Story book site.
Doing search engine optimization
Doing SEO covers a variety of processes involving helping to get a site found better by search engines.
Text content: I usually focus on what is called “Organic” search engine optimization. This “Organic” optimization is what I personally believe to be a “common sense” approach to optimizing a site for the search engines. It is about having content in the website that simply explains what the website is about. Since this website is about my Tell Your Story book, I want it to be recognized as containing a lot of content about what telling your story is and how telling your story to the world helps to make the world a better place.
Backlinks: It has shown to be helpful to have backlinks to one’s website from other sources. My hosting for this site is at CharlesWorks. The hosting includes publication of a link back to the Tell Your Story site within the CharlesWorks directory as part of the ongoing monthly hosting fee.
Speed: I have read in many places on the web that the speed that a website loads at can help its ranking in search engines. This appears to be widely disputed as to how much weight is given to a website’s speed. However, taking a “common sense” approach dictates endeavoring to make a site’s page load as fast as possible. One way this can usually be accomplished is by using more compact graphics. I noticed that the .png files I had created, particularly for the book cover, could be compressed even further by placing them in .webp format. I spent a little time to convert the .png files to .webp format and did arrive at far better compression. The Tell Your Story site’s logo went from 196kb to 34kb, which is just 17% of its original size. The Tell Your Story book cover went from 6000kb (6mb) to 284kb which was an incredible reduction to only 5% of its original size. Even the background graphic I was using, which was a scan of the actual blue tee shirt displayed elsewhere on the site, went from 94k to 2kb, which is only a whopping 2% of the original size.
Encryption: I think that it is helpful to have encryption on one’s website as well. Many Internet users are savvy enough to realize that there are potential issues when their browser is telling them a website is not secure. CharlesWorks also includes SSL (secure socket layers) encryption on their WordPress websites at no additional charge as part of their hosting fee.
My most recent search results
As of today, I have seen that when I type the phrase wuss world in a Google search, I come up number one from here in Peterborough, NH, USA. I have noticed while in other parts of the world it is not number one. So adding more information about wusses and my Wuss World book will hopefully change that in the near future.
Most recent search results
As of today, I am unable to get noticed in Google for the phrase tell your story by itself. However, I have seen that when I type the phrase tell your story charles in a Google search, I come up number one from here in Peterborough, NH, USA. I have noticed while in other parts of the world it is not number one. So adding more information about telling your story and my Tell Your Story book will hopefully change that going forward.
I am having the same problem in Bing using the tell your story search terms. My results there are identical. This means I will need more information yet to make the Bing Bot “see” more info on my topic before better search results will be rendered. Bing accounts for about a third of all Internet searches that are done. In any business endeavor, that can be a significant amount of business, so there is little sense in throwing it away.
