Online marketing firm Newfangled breaks down the current SEO situation, and it isn’t pretty.
“Even if you are an exemplary student, play exactly by the rules and do every single thing right and start publishing this week, it’ll take you at least 18 months (or longer) before you could have any hope of seeing real results from organic Google rankings.”
The writer argues that two of the main reasons are Google’s decision to index AI content (and there is a lot of it) and that users simply do not scroll anymore. If they do not get the result they want, they change the search term rather than scroll. Bottom line: content creators are going to have to find new routes to user engagement.
“The rules of great content have not really changed at all in the past 20 years — great content engages people, builds trust and credibility, and educates the specific masses. Those are the rules and what you should do to achieve your goal of lead generation. That’s what’s changed a lot over the years.”
All of this illustrates that authors setting up their websites should not rely on automatic engagement. They will only be found by someone searching very specifically, probably for their name, or the title of their book. It is good to have a website that showcases an author’s work, but it is important to have other strategies to garner attention.
Newfangled have another interesting article on the kind of content you should put on your site, and in social media posts, to rise above the generic.