Does Google Page Rank Increase Book Sales?
It’s a fact of life. Google, Twitter, Facebook: the world of social media is an ever changing one. And with the changes come challenges beyond user frustrations. For authors, they can mean a drop in your book or website’s profile, rankings, and traffic. So BadRedhead Media, in a recent post on their blog, suggests that authors can still benefit from learning how to increase their SEO, SMO and Google Page Rank to increase book sales.
Per BadRedhead Media:
Google PageRank is an algorithm that some speculate has been diminishing in its influence as a ranking signal. Many SEOs are reporting a significant increase in the influence of social signals from Google+ and other social networks as a counter to the influence of PageRank. Marketers need to worry less about Google PageRank and more about creating, optimizing and socially promoting content that is useful to their customers.
That’s the official spiel but what does it mean for authors? Where can time and money be spent for greatest impact? BadRehead Media suggests it may not be all about followers, likes, clicks or +1s, as is often thought. More people may not mean more sales.
Being as they are from Google, +1s actually have more impact than several of the others because they directly effect Google page rankings. The blog writes: “‘By simply gaining +1’s (same as Facebook likes or Twitter retweets), your webpage can be ranked higher in Google’s search engine.’”
Okay, but what if you’re not on Google Plus and have no desire to expand there?
Retweets on Twitter still matter, for one. BadRedhead writes: “Retweets are a terrific way to know how people are reacting to our words. You can see retweets either using the Connect button on Twitter or creating a stream for retweets (i.e., on Hootsuite), though I’ve found searching on my name to be more effective. You can also check using Buffer, Pluggio, or even SproutSocial.” And with Twitter’s CEO announcing pending changes in how Twitter popularity is determined–an effort to counter attempts to buy Twitter ranking by spammers and others–this is good news for authors.
Retweets can help you determine which of your content is resonating with people. And that is like a pot of gold. BadRedhead adds: “Fresh content is of the utmost importance when it comes to your SEO and SMO. This is why using Twitter memes such as #MentionMonday are so important – share your latest blog post, retweet others doing the same. Besides being terrific author karma and building up your network of author/blogger friends, it’s a way to up your numbers in retweets.”
To read the full post, click: http://badredheadmedia.com/2012/10/18/how-important-is-google-page-rank-in-selling-books/
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author and editor of adult and children’s science fiction, fantasy and humor books, short stories and articles. A frequent contributor to blogs like SFSignal, Adventures In SF Publishing, Grasping For The Wind and To Be Read, he also hosts Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Chat under the hashtag #sffwrtcht on Twitter and blogs about writing and creativity on his own blog at www.bryanthomasschmidt.net/blog. Connect With Bryan On Google+
Leave a Reply
Sorry, but you must be logged in to post a comment.