Today I did a little more SEO (search engine optimization) for my Wuss World book site. The work can be quite comprehensive if you want to really gain significant benefit from it. Like everything – that benefit is long term and relative to the work you put in.
Doing search engine optimization
Doing SEO covers a variety of processes involving helping to get a site found better by search engines. These process can involve several aspects of the website that can contribute positively to its performance:
Text content: I usually focus on what is called “Organic” search engine optimization. “Organic” is what I 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 about what the website is about. Since this website is about my Wuss World book, I want it to be recognized as containing a lot of content about what a wuss is and how the wusses in the world are actually a danger.
Backlinks: It has shown to be helpful to have backlinks to one’s website from other sources. My hosting for this site is with CharlesWorks which includes publication within the CharlesWorks directory as part of the regular 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. It is widely disputed exactly 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 quickly as possible. One way this is usually be accomplished by is 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 took a little time to convert the .png files to .webp format and did arrive at better compression. The site’s logo went from 35kb to 12kb which is just 34% of its original size. The Wuss World book cover went from 3000kb (3mb) to 321kb which was a whopping reduction to only 11% of its 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.
I noticed I am suffering very poor placement in Bing with my searches for the wuss world phrase. I could not find it anywhere. So there is a lot more work to do there. Bing accounts for about one third of the 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.
