How to Promote YOUR book on Amazon discussion
Kait Neese (Moderator) Posts
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SPO or SEO? What do YOU think?
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Hi Kait,I would say SPO but with my very limited understanding of the issue, I don't know if my opinion counts for anything--how can we change way of searching?I thought certain words brought up certain results--for instance if my blog has certain labels it brings people looking for those things there...would like to know more about this issue.
Hi Kait: I think the term SEO refers more to the specific channels (i.e., the Internet search engines) than to the persons who use them to search for or provide information. But I do agree that our digital marketing efforts have to be people-oriented to be successful. This is especially true for authors - the more we know our readers and focus on who they are, where they are, and what they read and like (and adjust our keywords accordingly), the more successful we'll be in reaching them via digital or any other means.
In my other life I do web development. Our position all along has been that the best SEO is organic, meaning create content that is relevant to your readers. We create a clean, semantic, performant framework for the machines, and a great user experience for the audience. But the traffic that matters is the traffic that returns, and people return for things relevant to their own interests.So does this put me on the "SPO" side, as you've framed the question?
I've been using the who, what, where, why, when and how method of keywording, as in "How can I bake bread" instead of "Baking Bread is fun" for my titles and content themes. When I do that, I think I have better results as people find me more easily in their search results. I try to make all my posts have some type of "How To" aspect and that seems to be serving me well. I'm not sure how that falls into your idea, but I always write what I want to say and then continue posting on topics that people want to read. The posts I like that people don't care about end up dropping to the bottom of the barrel.
Is there such a thing as good content today? I'm sure having a hard time finding any.Now why is that? It's because most content marketers are using their content to drive sales to their products. That content doesn't necessarily have to help you, it just has to sell you on something.
This is worthless content.
And let's not get into the sheer amount of copying. People can't think for themselves and they have to rehash the same thing again and again.
When was the last time you read an original blog post?
Visit My Site, Bitch! Unconventional SEO Tactics for 2014
Hi Kait,If I put my author's name in Google I am No 1 on first page - BUT I only published 14 January this year so am still unknown! If I put my authors name in Amazon I am first on page but if I put my book title (minus subtitle) in to search I am so many pages in you give up before you find me.
I think it depends on how common a name you have. If you put some names in Facebook you get pages come up and other names are more unique.
Next time I publish a book I will be searching the title in Amazon to see how many books come up with the words in title and adapt accordingly. A bit of a learning curve this time.
Good article - I think my answer is - it depends! Am sure there is many more intellectual things one could say here but am only halfway through morning coffee as morning here in Australia and I think this is a good start.
I confess that I had never heard of SPO, but identifying a person that knows something and will help seems to be the right way to go.
Most of the time we just call these people content curators.
Don't we all trust a person that we think knows more than a machine anyway? SPO is (hopefully) the future of these two. :)
I work for an internet services company. All the news I read tells me that SEO is dead. I don't know exactly what SPO is, but all of us here as writers should instinctively realize what Matt Cutts and the whole Google gang are trying hard to tell us: create great content, and we'll take care of the search engine rankings.As writers, we should deliver the goods, because that is why people are searching in the first place. I certainly don't write my novels with anything like SEO or SPO in mind.
Create great content, by whatever lights you follow, and Google and Bing and everybody else will ultimately find you, and stick. That is precisely the direction that Google and everybody else is taking the search algorithms.
B. wrote: "I work for an internet services company. All the news I read tells me that SEO is dead. I don't know exactly what SPO is, but all of us here as writers should instinctively realize what Matt Cutts ..."Yes, very good points, I believe they're true. Unfortunately many major blog and SEO sites out there have their livelihood on services that tell you great content isn't enough, you need to measure things.
Jeez, I've just written "great" content for the past year and while my site isn't anything earth-shattering it does get steady traffic increases each month, more hits from Google, and has never seen a penalty.
I think that's pretty good.
Hello Kait,I’m afraid that I really don’t have much of an opinion about all this.
All I want is a system that works, one that’s simple and delivers the desired result quickly.
SEO or SPO?
Surely that’s just terminology?!!!
Kind regards
To me, SPO, as in Search Person Optimization, would be preferable. It's always much more helpful to connect with a person. The problem would be that one would have to be sure that the "Person" actually is knowledgable about a subject (and not just opinionated) - and that the person would be willing and/or able - and have the time - to help you!
I don’t see SEO going away anytime soon. On a typical day I search by subject matter far more often than for individuals. Anything from “Trim molding for 2004 Passat” to “average rainfall California” to “affirmation experiments.” I rarely do a personal search unless I already know something about that person and want to know more.
Namaste Kait, I posted this late the other nite so I will post it and expand here. Searching for articles or people is determined by the search engine not marketers. Different search engines do it differently. Many discussions have been going on as the Internet continues to expand and grow how best to do that and yet keep it interrelated to everything else. Google lets you do what you describe by how you tag things and by the quality of sites one is on. That is determined by a complicted math formula. Other search engines use other ways to do that. I can pull my book up on the first page of Google by title, by my name or by some of the main characters names. It is getting sophisticated. I learned from Daniel Russell Google Research class that Google takes questions and can search by question. All of which is helpful. I like the people idea but how would you know they are trustworthy. Many people create pages with names not their own or use a celebrity name. Then like me I have in common my name with the fantastic actress Mary Page and a librarian for a national organization. For instance I work for many Internet SEO companies writing articles here and there. All use different ways to optimize content in the formatting of the articles but the basic premise remains the same. The writing has to be high quality, it has to be based on research from a quality site with edu and gov domains still ranking high but sites that intentionally create quality materials such as corporations and companies can rank high as well. They have to form positive relationships with others and their work force. That is the people part. A company is only as good as the leadership is in trying to do their best the right and fair thing. It shows up in the writing and the relationships if not. Berns who created the original programming of the Web made it all possible gave it all away. There is no choice if you want to have long term success on the net but to be fair, credible and trustworthy. How that is done is left up to the public and as creative as you can think it can manifest on the web. There is a set of over 125 entities such as universities, and organizations and WWW3 that watches over the net as well as telecommunications (have a son who works in the industry) corporations. There are reasons why certain protocol happen on the net the way it does. Anyway I follow Matthew Cutts writings about the net for Google. Right now Google is the agreed upon by consensus search engine that does the best job at maintaining credibility and ensuring trustworthy sites rise to the top. Other search engines are getting better at it with their protocol. Learning how to search and finding it quickly makes it fun.
hahahahha LOL Larry. How about a real discussion? How much SEO do you do? What is the number one thing in your book that is recommended for Amazon use? What have you learned lately, Larry? (Texas educator)
The Internet is so inundated and/or overloaded with information these days ... and this is multiplying each second at a phenomenal rate ... that ANY mode of searching will never work as well is it originally did, or is expected to. As a lot have commented already, you could be actually spot on with your search re subject matter, etc but STILL generate pages upon pages of "useful" info. Until someone can come up with a search method that works with laser point accuracy we'll all have to put up with having to wear our waders when working in the mire of the Internet.
Yesterday I was interviewed in a G+ hangout by a man from Sweden doing a podcast about blogging. I asked him how he found me. He said he typed the word "Wordpress" into a search bar looking for experts on blogging.SEO still relevant.
I can't see how SPO can take precedence over SEO because I believe there is more searching for general topics than there is for SPO. To search for SPO you either have to have found the name through SEO or have known the name through other sources, such as the name of an author, artist or who ever.
I think it is impossible to reach astronomical heights as an Author without a carefully marketed combination of the two. Initially SEO is an introduction to people who are interested in your genre, your subject content and your style of writing. If they like what they read they may search for you personally and then word of mouth comes into play. There is no better advertising or promotion than a personal recommendation. SEO and SPO - One cannot exist without the other.
Maria wrote: "I think it is impossible to reach astronomical heights as an Author without a carefully marketed combination of the two. Initially SEO is an introduction to people who are interested in your genre,..."That's very well said, Maria.
I don't understand a lot about SEO, let alone a new concept you call SPO, however you have my attention. I'm certainly aware that SEO is important when you want to draw attention to a subject! I'd like to stay tuned.
Both are important. You have to get on the first (or maybe) second page of google for people to even know you exist in the search engine, and you have to have keywords, etc that grab the attention of your ideal client/reader.
Laura wrote: "In my other life I do web development. Our position all along has been that the best SEO is organic, meaning create content that is relevant to your readers. We create a clean, semantic, performant..."I have to agree with this. This is always what I've been told. I go by, this thought. SPO, is a duh for me, because people are doing the searching. They most likely search for what they want to find, what's relevant to them. Who types in random things just to see what will come up? Maybe they will type in a phrase and your SEO will be relevant. To me, they are kind of one in the same, SEO and SPO. Without more info about SPO, that's all I can say about it/think of it at this time.
Larry wrote: "Huh?"Huhx2
We must separate fiction from non fiction in SEO vs SPO to begin with. If you're selling fiction then SEO is a waste of time. People don't use Google to find a new novel. Second, content is king, as always, but the challenge is creating unique and relevant content.
Do that and you will have people looking for you.
SEO optimization is still 20% of being found however, so we still have to get our headings right, name our pictures and use Google Authorship.
Laurence wrote: "Larry wrote: "Huh?"Huhx2
We must separate fiction from non fiction in SEO vs SPO to begin with. If you're selling fiction then SEO is a waste of time. People don't use Google to find a new novel..."
But they do use a search engine known as Amazon to find books, and that is why SEO is still relevant to fiction. There are plenty of things authors can do to help their novels perform better on Amazon searches, and since they don't take much time to implement... why not make the effort?
SEO as it was once practiced (mostly witchcraft and magic :-))is changing and may go away, but the importance of search engines is growing and will continue to do so. As search engines continue to sharpen their skills at supplying relevant replies to search queries content is becoming very important. In a way your SPO concept is a good one. Social media, Amazon (and others), web sites,Goodreads, PR and traditional promotional activities are all part of what you call SPO and so is SEO.Jason: Can you post your ideas for getting better search results on Amazon? Probably the most important out let for Self Publishers.
IMO, I think SEO is more effective. My reason for thinking this way is because you will have no idea how to find these individual experts without first using SEO. For example. I love AngryJoe's gaming reviews on Youtube. I usually watch his reviews on a game before buying because most of his reviews were of games I have already played and either liked or hated and he shared those opinions. I never would have found him if I were not searching for gaming reviews on youtube. I think books are the same way. I typically look for the genre and go from there. If I don't know who you are as an author or what content you have to offer as an individual then how I know to search for your name personally to begin with? Unless I'm totally misunderstanding the difference between SEO and SPO lol!
Harry wrote: "SEO as it was once practiced (mostly witchcraft and magic :-))is changing and may go away, but the importance of search engines is growing and will continue to do so. As search engines continue to ..."If you have fiction it helps immensely to have a title or subtitle that aids with a keyword or two. Of course doing good homework on your keywords before uploading to Amazon is also important, along with category choices. Beyond that, your "look inside the book" part of your paperback gets indexed, so that's another area authors don't think of to add a few keywords, especially in the front matter under the copyright that readers don't really read anyway. Amazon search engine does.
I've made a couple videos on this subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC8lD...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LoKn...
Thanks i will look at the videos. Of course, when you search for me my books come up first. No so many harry Hallman's on Amazon. My book Mercy Row comes up when you type that because it is a unique name. I have a short story titled WORD and that is never in the first pages. To common a title. But people general search for books by subject when looking to discover something. Like all search engines you have to contend with multitudes who are using the same keywords. It is tough. Looking forward to your videos.
I think I'd have to try it out before I could comment on it intelligently. My big gripe with search engines is the apparent lack of subcategory search capability. For example, if I'm looking for "keel bolts in a Catalina 30," I type in <"Catalina 30", "keel bolts"> which brings up a long list of results that include both "Catalina 30" and "keel bolts", but not necessarily both in the same context, i.e., one result might be for keel bolts on a Cal 34, but the result is included because both "Catalina 30" and "keel bolts" occur in the same article, what though they're not associated with one another. It would be nice if I could search for "Catalina 30" and then search those results for "keel bolts," but to date I haven't found any way to do that.
I think they both sound relevant! Sometimes I want information, sometimes I want to search for specific person ... I know there are ways to manipulate the search engines to make things pop up ... I'm not that sophisticated ~ it's an interesting subject ...
As long as Google is boss, SEO is dead! SEO will do you more harm than good and is difficult to undo. SPO will have a future as long as it's organic. My site was recently sandboxed, it took a hell of a lot of work to get it back to top ranking. CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT! tell people things they need to know so they;ll respond with quality, relevant back links. Videos, Facebook, Twitter and quality forums will work for you because it's organic and not spamming, but don't waste your time blogging on sites with a nofollow tag as there will be no back traffic.
I think that I would have to say SEO if my understanding of SEO is correct. I thought that we need to use words that indicate a need such as "where can I buy..." or "how can I ..." which will find people with a particular need.To me it seems that SEO is supposed to find my target audience.
I think that both have their advantages. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can work wonders if you are focusing more so on a product, and SPO (Search Person Optimization)if you are an author trying to brand yourself rather than just your work, as this can seperate you from the pack. dioncheese.com, and iurban.org
I would not say SEO is becoming obsolete. In my opinion it is only getting easier as Google is removing so many of those spam search engine marketers. Virtually all my sites are on the page one, but I have been doing SEO for a long time and know what Google wants. I think it really depends on your marketing strategy, how much time you have to dedicate and if you have a budget to help pull your listing up.
SPO as you have named it (Expert Marketing, Personal Branding, Guru Branding etc. are all variations) is nothing new. Nor is it a competitor to SEO. SEO's focus is on getting the webpage to show up on the search engine. It doesn't matter if that page is a product page, an article supporting a brand, a book, or a personal description. As such it is a micro-focus tool (i.e. focused on the lowest levels). It is a traffic generation tool. Think of it as a sales tool or more correctly a lead generation tool.
SPO/Branding/EM/et al. is what you do with the traffic that has been generated. It's how you appear once you are found. As such it is a macro-focus tool. It is independent of the traffic/lead generation techniques used. Think of it as a marketing strategy.
While an argument can be made that traditional SEO is obsolete, SPO is one of several possible marketing strategies and does not depend on a particular traffic generation method. It will work just as well if you buy traffic via FB/Google/Twitter ads, use Social Marketing, use Content Marketing, use Search Engine Marketing, or Affiliate Marketing.
When you ask either/or you are mixing apples and oranges.
This reminds me a lot actually of my marketing book I just wrote, specifically what I call The TechnoMaze. You can see it here without buying the book. http://viestcreed.com/book/technology/Each way to find you is a door to begin investigating your product or service. Thinking about it this way means that SEO and SPO are both important because they are doors of entry. I personally don't think the hardest part is being found. The hardest part is what you do with the few seconds of attention when you get it. That's where it is important to be remarkable.
That's how life works best. Knowing who knows much about whatever you want to know. I love researching myself, but when I know that a certain person is an avid researcher of something I am interested in, I always begin by asking that person.
Mod
Well said Carl!! I very much agree :)
- Kait Neese(Group Moderator)
@KaitNeese
Read the article here: http://kaitneese.com/search-person-op...
I would love to see if we can get a intellectual debate going in this thread about one aspect of the evolving future surrounding digital marketing.
Give the group your opinion below by commenting on which form of optimization you think will grow in importance and popularity in the years to come?
What do you think: #SEO or #SPO ?
Keep on Keeping on...
Kait Neese
(Moderator)