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Mango At The Harware Store

2022-11-27

One of the drums I thump regularly has to do with the direction of web traffic for fiction authors. Lots of social marketing people will try to convince you that you must blog regularly, that quality content will draw readers to your website, and that good SEO techniques will find you readers. 

I'm not one of them. 

My stance is that readers aren't looking for fiction on Google, just like they don't look for mangoes at the hardware store. 

They go to the bookstore to shop for books. These days, maybe GoodReads or StoryGraph.

Once they've read your work, then they might look you up on Google. They might want to see what else you're doing, or who you are when you're at home. They might want to see if you've got any DVD extras on your site, or just find out who you're reading. There are lots of reasons why a reader might want to look you up on the web. They're all predicated on their discovering you somewhere else first. The two largest factors for readers deciding to read a book involve knowing the author and liking their work, or a recommendation from a trusted friend.

In 2014, Google's biggest competitor was Amazon.1 It's probably YouTube these days, or perhaps TikTok, but that's not where people search for something to read.

While it's true you can find mangoes on Amazon and a lot of the searches on the 'Zon are not for books, the lesson for fiction authors is clear.

For authors writing fiction, discovery does not happen with Google and SEO is how to get people looking for one thing to find you instead.

  1. https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt-says-amazon-is-googles-biggest-search-competitor-2014-10

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