If you’re an independent writer, chances are you’ve decided to build your own website and are wondering how to do SEO for writer website. I say chances are, but in reality, we all know that you don’t have a choice. You need an online presence. Note that this isn’t necessarily a matter of survival — because unfortunately having a website is a guarantee of success. It’s one of those must-haves in the 21st century. If you don’t have a website, it’s as if you didn’t exist.
Besides, you need a platform to list out your books, share your bio, and connect with your readers. There are many other advantages to having a website, but let’s be realistic for a moment. If you already have a website, you are probably aware of some, if not all, of these advantages.
But here’s the thing. Having a website is just the beginning of your nightmarish journey online. The first and most common challenge is to decide where to build your website.
Should you use WordPress?
Should you go on Wix?
Is Squarespace the right thing for you?
Should you explore Weebly, the webby writy thingie to paraphrase Doctor Who?
You might have come across other options too, like Ghost and Substack, which revolve both around newsletters and paid-for content rather than blogging. Not that these are wrong per se. Yet, as an overworked, indie writer considering a website to get noticed, you probably don’t want to jump head-first into a highly competitive, fast-paced and monetisable environment. Sure, they’re great, but not right now, bae.
Best Platform for SEO on Writer’s Website
So, how do you get started with SEO for your writer’s website?
First of all, if we get to compare the main platforms available in terms of SEO, you’ll get to the following conclusion:
- WordPress: Has plenty of SEO plugins (nothing useful in the free version if you’re working with WordPress.com)
- Wix: Basic SEO setup but no option for improvements
- Squarespace: Built-in SEO tools with less room for play as WordPress (also no free version available)
- Weebly: Very few SEO tools and a slightly old-fashioned approach (not just in style but in SEO too)
So, if you are new and trying to rank in Google Search, WordPress.com would seem to be the best option.
OMG, I’m Not Using WordPress, My SEO Is Ruined!
Chill out. This doesn’t matter.
Know why?
Because you don’t need your website to rank on Google to be visible in the search result pages. Google can also index social media presence. So, if you’ve been building your content on YouTube, Instagram, and so on, you can still appear in the search results. Then, your social media bio page can include links to your website.
Another thing to remember: You’re a writer. Who is most likely to look for your site? Readers who type in your name. I’m going to assume that your website is either against your name or your book title. In any search engine, your domain name will rank your site on top for any search that specifically includes this domain name.
So, if your name is Writer McWriterFace, and your website is www.writermcwriterface.com (don’t click, this is a spoof URL), it’s highly likely that your site will be listed among the top results on Google and any other search engine each time someone searches for “Writer McWriterFace”
That being said, I do hope that you have a better name.
What Are The Go-To Tips for SEO Writer’s Websites?
If you’ve spent more than 2 minutes on Google, you’ve probably already been looking for tips.
The general list of tips you can find online from both reputable and unreputable marketing sources includes the following elements.
- Keyword research
- Web structure optimisation
- High-quality, SEO-friendly content
- Meta elements
- Technical SEO
- Backlinks
- Leveraging social media
- Evergreen content update
- SEO performance monitoring
- Google Analytics tracking
If this sounds like you’ve got yourself a to-do list, allow me to burst your bubble.
The majority of those tips is not applicable to an indie writer’s site. Worst than that, it’s also unrealistic.
Let me explain:
- Keyword research: Honestly, the only keywords that are relevant to your site are those that relate to your books and yourself. This means your name and your book titles. If you’re writing YA fantasy, the last thing you want is to target the keyword “YA fantasy”. It’s too generic, too competitive, and, more to the point, it’s unlikely that people typing “YA fantasy” in the search bar are looking for you. That being said, you can check on trendy and relevant keywords for your niche with free keyword tools.
- Web structure optimisation: This is about making sure your navigation menu is clear and understandable, well-linked, and visible to search engines like Google. You are probably already doing all of this, but in case you are not, I’ll expand a little bit on it in the next section.
- High-quality, SEO-friendly content: This is, in theory, the fun part of SEO, writing high-quality blog articles that are valuable and target your keywords. Now, in practice, what kind of blog articles are you going to write, and what are your keywords? As an indie writer, you’re more likely to write about your latest news and events, which means you are naturally including the most relevant keywords, aka those that relate to you and your books.
- Meta elements: If you’ve got access to your Meta elements, you may want to place relevant keywords in your Meta title and Meta description. There are ways to do this in WordPress. But the sad reality is that it doesn’t weigh as much on the SEO scale as the efforts you actually put into it.
- Technical SEO: Realistically, you are never going to dive into your website to increase the page load speed or ensure it has a responsive display. Also, at the time of writing this, 2025, I have yet to see a website platform that doesn’t provide responsive mobile display as a given.
- Backlinks: This is the kind of utter bullshit you’ll hear from marketing agencies. Sure, backlinks are useful (these are links coming to your website). But who’s going to link to an independent writer’s website? There are ways to add some backlinks to your site, but the truth is that the ones you can easily add are not going to make a big difference.
- Leveraging social media: If you know how to blog, you know how to share your content. Unfortunately, while this approach was helpful in the early 2000s and 2010s, there’s far too much social media noise to drive consistent results.
- Evergreen content update: Once again, ask yourself: what are you going to write again so often? Regular blog updates may seem like a good idea, but unless you can truly write something valuable every time, this can turn into a time-demanding effort that doesn’t deliver any of the results you need.
- SEO performance monitoring: Preferably with all the paid-for SEO tools… I ain’t no time for that, as the meme goes. You’re a writer. Not a marketing machine.
- Google Analytics tracking: While this one is fun to have and comes for free, there may not be any value from using Google Analytics, depending on your website’s purpose and your tangible marketing resources. If the website only exists as a portfolio to showcase your books and your bio (which is often the case), do you need to capture tracking data that you can’t even act on? At the start of your journey, you may not need this level of data. You might also not have enough visitors to gather data.
A Realistic Guide to SEO for Writer Website
What can you and what can’t you do? This is the most important thing you want to determine.
As an independent author, you don’t want to make things too difficult or impossible for yourself.
Having an SEO-optimised website is a good thing. But it shouldn’t come at the cost of your time and sanity.
If you have chosen to use WordPress for its SEO features, be aware that with WordPress.com, you will need to choose a paid plan to gain access to customisable SEO tools. The current plan with SEO tools is called Business (it used to be the Creator plan, and it’s got nothing to do with the corporate world; it’s only the name of the plan).
Compared to the other options, this is the most complete SEO toolkit. But if you are an indie writer on a shoestring budget, the annual fee may be a little steep.
Would it be cheaper with WordPress.org? Absolutely, but you’ll have to add the cost of hosting and probably building a website on top of it. So, the answer is no, unless you know what you are doing.
Realistic SEO for Writer Websites Across All Web Platforms
Regardless of your chosen platform, there are some SEO aspects that you can add to your website.
Your Domain Name
This is not relevant to the platform you pick. Ideally, you want to buy your domain name. For something that would carry some SEO weight going forward, you’ll probably want either your author name or your book or series title. The good news: it’s unlikely to break the bank and it will ensure you can rank for all searches related to those terms. Writer McWriterFace for the win!
Your Navigation Menu
Again, this is the easy part. What you choose to call each category in your menu can also fit within any SEO strategy. Nobody is stopping you from using strong keywords in your menu:
Homepage
- Author bio
- Fiction books
- Sci-fi and Fantasy books
- YA romance books
- Crime and thriller novels
- Author blog
- Writer’s life category
- Fiction writing category
- Writing rules category
- Book design and cover category
- Book marketing category
- Contact the author
This might seem simplistic, but with this navigation, you are already nailing a few keywords in place.
Internal Links
Inner links are basically there to show search engines how your pages hang together and relate. For example, if one of your blog articles refers to a topic that you mention in another article and in your bio, feel free to add links between those pages.
Do they help SEO? Yes, in the sense that they provide a better understanding of your web content, which is precisely what search engines need to rank your site.
Links to an External Source
In SEO terms, this is an outbound link. Why should you link to another domain? It’s all part of credibility: if you link to a reputable, quality source, you essentially show that your content doesn’t exist in silo and engages with the constellation of other websites.
It also showcases that the content is thoroughly researched and relevant, which search engines love.
Besides, if you want people to link to you, it’s only fair game to link to them too.
SEO-Optimised Page Structure
This is about the H titles you use on the page. You want to use them to highlight the relevant keywords for the page content.
But I haven’t a keyword research tool! I hear you. You don’t need one. You’ve got Google, and it’s free. You can use the autocomplete function to find some keyword ideas.
Alternatively, if there is anything trending, you’re likely to see popular content appear on social media too. Trends are really hard to miss. You don’t need expensive tools to find them.
Say, you’ve spotted a TikTok trend for writers and books: Take your MC (main character) on a date. Personally, I’d be up for a day out with Rhode and the Shadow. It’ll be great fun, I’m sure.
Your H titles could look something like this:
- H1: What Happens When I Take My MC On A Date
- H2: Who is My MC?
- This section can help you attach your book to the trend and connect the keywords that relate to your book with the trend.
- H2: A Romantic Date With My MC
- This section can help investigate a little further into the psyche of your MC and even highlight traits that you think would be appealing to romance readers.
- H2: I Take My MC On An Action Date
- This section is all about the adventure and action-packed scenes in landscapes and environments that are relevant to your book.
- You can use it to introduce people to the locations and sceneries described in your book while showcasing your MC’s abilities.
- H2: My Date With My MC, Verdict
- This section can be the conclusion of your dates together, why it wouldn’t work (or would work), and essentially a nice fun way to share more about your book while tapping into a trend.
- H2: Who is My MC?
The H titles here let you use “take your MC on a date” and other alternatives, which means you can rank high on the trend.
Bonus point if you also turn your blog article into social media content, so as a fun teaser video for TikTok for example.
The thing is, it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. Don’t believe anyone who says otherwise.
Your Images
Search engines tend to prefer content with some images for obvious reasons:
- It’s more engaging to read
- People tend to stay longer on the page
- It is an opportunity for SEO (however, on most web platforms, you won’t be able to use it as such)
But, even if you can’t use the images for SEO, it’s still good practice to use them to segment your article into readable chunks (she says barely using any…)
All platforms let you set up some level of alternative text for your images. This is where you can use some relevant keywords. However, here’s a tip: search engines and screen readers (for visually impaired web visitors) both read alt text, so make sure to write something meaningful rather than a series of keywords. Ideally, you want to describe the image in terms that highlight its impact within the content.
Update Your Blog
How often and how regularly should you update your blog? Even in an ideal world where you can dedicate most of your time to writing, you probably won’t have time for several blog posts a week.
Indie writers do not even live in an ideal world, so regular updates feel like an impossible dream.
In reality, what you want to do is to update the blog each time you’ve got some news or something you want to share. It’s never about forcing yourself to jump on all the trends and tag all the keywords in your posts. Not only is it not feasible, but frankly, it’ll be both a pain to write and a pain to read.
Sure, search engines prefer regular updates. But even Google doesn’t catch up with updates fast enough. It can take several days, if not more, for your articles to be indexed by Google when you’ve got a small website. So, why should you go through the effort of posting new articles every day when Google can’t even see them in real-time?
The key here is to update when you can about what is relevant to you, and spread the word. Does it truly boost your SEO? Let’s put it that way. It does more good this way than posting too much content too often, especially as this will only dilute the quality and relevancy of your posts.
Sitemap
Your sitemap is the GPS of your website. It tells search engines where everything is, and it ensures that your new content can get updated.
All platforms let you connect to Google Search Console, which is like the free Google assistant for your website. It tells you whether the site is being indexed by Google and highlights other issues. Some of these issues fix themselves over time, others you can fix yourself, and some you can’t change because of the limitations of your platform of choice.
You can create a dynamic sitemap directly with each platform for your website and share it directly in the Google Search Console. This will help the search console catch up on your new content and index it.
This is probably the most important step because, no matter how hard you work on your website, if Google isn’t seeing it, it basically doesn’t exist.
Realistic SEO for Writer Websites On WordPress.com
Here are a few more tips for indie writers who are using WordPress.com with at least the Business plan. If you are using any plan below the Business one, you are already up-to-date with the SEO tips.
In the Business plan, you can start adding SEO plugins.
Are these a game-changer?
No. Don’t upgrade your WordPress plan because of these.
But if you are already investing in a specialist plan, you could as well make the most of it.
Pick Your Favourite SEO Plugin
There are plenty of popular SEO plugins, so figuring out which one works best for you is all about how comfortable you are with each of them.
YOAST SEO is a popular SEO plugin. It lets you create Meta elements, such as Meta Title and Meta Description (those are what you read on the search results page on Google and other search engines).
Do I like YOAST? Nope. The free version feels dire for what I want to do, and I am heavily reluctant to pay more to get the premium plugin. Nevertheless, as basic as the free version is, it’s quite decent and if it’s all you need, it’ll do a good job of it.
YOAST SEO also provides a sitemap of your website.
I prefer Rank Math SEO, which offers more features in its free version, including Meta Title, Meta Description, basic SEO analysis of your content against your chosen keyword, and some schema.org generation.
Schema.org is another way of dumping information about your page content in a format that is accessible to search engines. It’s designed to help search engines understand your content, and therefore it makes it easier to index and rank your pages.
There are also other SEO plugins:
- SEOPress (strong on content analysis and suggestions)
- Squirrly SEO (this is great for keyword research and optimisation tips, also it actively integrates with Bing too)
- All in One SEO (another great tool for schema.org markups)
I wouldn’t specifically recommend one over the others. I have my preferences, but whichever plugin you choose to use, it’ll move your SEO forward regardless.
Do I Need a Separate Sitemap Plugin?
If you are using YOAST SEO and All in One SEO, you don’t necessarily need one. I am not sure whether SEOPress and Squirrly SEO have a sitemap feature.
Even when I was using YOAST, I still switched to an additional sitemap plugin because I was updating the website faster than the free sitemap feature could catch up with. It’s a case of how fast you update your content. I was too fast but this may not apply to you. You can check in Google Search Console which pages are updated and which aren’t to figure out if your sitemap is doing the right job for you.
If there’s some lagging, I would recommend adding a plugin that specialises in creating dynamic sitemaps so that you can keep Google Search Console in the loop. Currently, I’m using XML Sitemap Generator for Google, which is great because it allows me to choose the frequency of update for different pages, such as how often I want to update the search console about my blog content vs. how often I want to update it about my homepage content.
Accessibility Plugins & SEO
What has accessibility got to do with SEO?
Accessibility comes in different forms and shapes. For your website, you may want to consider a plugin that will focus on adding alt attribute text to images. This is typically designed for screen readers, but you can use this feature for SEO too.
Other accessibility plugins that can make a difference, not just for SEO but also for your visitors:
- Accessibility widgets that allow users to adjust the font size, contrasts, and greyscale to their needs
- Plugins for ADA Compliance, which can give you a report on what to change to improve accessibility. In case you are wondering, ADA stands for Americans with Disabilities Act. As with everything online, it often needs to be US-focused. Nevertheless, ADA compliance is about web standards for accessibility and remains relevant, regardless of where you and your web visitors are based.
Search engines like Google value positive user experience as part of the ranking factors, so making your website more accessible can also make a big difference.
So, that’s all for the realistic SEO tips for a writer’s website. As a former Google tech who’s spent long hours telling people that things don’t have to be made more complicated than they are, I hope that at least I have managed not to confuse fellow indie writers more than necessary!