My Surprising Fix for Authors to Boost Your Visibility Online

In today’s busy online world, for an author to be visible and to stand out from the crowd, you have to focus on specifics. Generalities just won’t cut it. 

Knowing specific places to be online, specific people you want to connect with, and using the words your ideal reader uses to find what they are looking for all contribute to a solid online presence and increased visibility.  

The words that you use, in particular, are vitally important. That’s why keywords play such an important roll in your book marketing. 

Keywords are the most popular words that people use to find what they are looking for online. 

For example, if I was looking for a gift for my son I wouldn’t just search for “toys.” Rather, I’d search for “science toys for 9-year-old boys” - it’s much more specific, detailed, and it will help me find what I’m looking for faster. 

When authors use specific keywords that their ideal reader uses, it gives a better chance that their book and information will show up in their search. 

A common hang-up is that authors are often too broad with the keywords they come up with. For example, if you’re writing a romance novel you need to be more specific than just including “romance novel” in your copy. 

You have to really narrow it down and be very specific to stand out from the crowd and make your book, content, or copy discoverable.  

The easy part is coming up with the broad terms - narrowing it down and getting really specific is another ball game altogether. 

And let’s be honest, Google can be overwhelming when it comes to narrowing down our keywords. And while we’re at it, so is Amazon. 

That’s why I want to share with you my secret to get the ball rolling to find very specific keywords.

Surprise! It’s Pinterest. 

Here’s something important to keep in mind: Pinterest is actually a search engine, not a social media outlet. 

It kind of changes your perspective, doesn’t it? 

You don’t need to be actively involved on Pinterest to make this approach work. It’s about tapping into the tools that are there and putting them to work. 

This approach will help you narrow down your broad keywords so you can discover specific and searchable keywords. This will help you with your website copy, blog posts, blog topics, social media content, Amazon copy, book descriptions, ad copy, and more. 

Let me show you how it works…

The layout on Pinterest is pretty straightforward and easy to use. The main tool we will use is the Pinterest search bar, which is located at the top of the page. 

For our example, let’s say you’re a historical fiction author. To dig deeper and get more specific in what topics and words people use within that genre, let’s put “historical fiction” into our search. 

Here’s our first bit of important information - historical fiction BOOK shows up in the search, not historical fiction NOVEL. That’s something important to take note of. 

So I decided to search for “historical fiction book” and look what shows up below the search. A bunch of specific sub-topics and keywords that people are using with “historical fiction book.”  

This list of words shows up in chronological order of popularity - the first results are the most popular and they go on down the line. As you can see at the far right of the screen there’s an arrow, so there are even more keywords available. 

For our example, let’s say my book is based on a true story so I select “true stories” in the results. And a new layer of options and suggestions show up. 

Keywords can be used separately or as a phrase. You can use several results from your search to string together a keyword phrase. 

Continuing with our example, instead of just using “kids historical fiction,” use “historical fiction for 5th-grade boys,” which is much more specific, targeted and a phrase your ideal reader would use to find what they are looking for. 

Keep a list of keywords and keyword phrases that pertain to your book, your website copy, blog post ideas, and so on. That way they will be ready to use when you need them. 

And be sure to test them out on Google and Amazon. You’ll be surprised at all the information that pops up!

Keywords play a big roll in helping you connect with your ideal reader. This is just scratching the surface of what role keywords play in your book marketing! 

Sign up for our free Book Marketing Blueprint to set up your book marketing for success - it’s a game changer!

And if you want to go a step further and get all of the tools, resources, and help that you need to market your book, grow on social media, and sell more books - join The Author Circle membership!