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Digital Pubbing – Guest Post: How to Use Guest Appearances and Interviews in Tandem with your SEO

By Jason Khoo

You’ve written your book, you’ve reviewed it a million times and you finally published it.

Now, it’s time to publicize and market it!

By now, you’re most likely aware that in order to do so, you’ll need to be doing speaking circuits and getting on podcasts, video interviews, and features. If you’ve been doing all of the above, great—that is a first major step in really getting the word out.

However, when I work with authors, I often see that they don’t utilize all of these great efforts in tandem with their SEO—and the reality is that if you are already putting your work out there, you could easily be taking advantage of all this for your website’s search optimization. Here’s how!

Driving Links

You’ve most likely heard about the importance of driving links before. However, in many of my conversations, I’ve noticed that not all authors, or even business owners, actually have a strong grasp of what link building is all about.

In short, it is one of the main pillars of SEO.

What does this mean, exactly?

That the more high-value and strong links you can drive to your website, the better it is for your website and overall digital presence, as Google will view you as an authoritative name in your industry.

To use a simple metaphor, it’s like asking your friends and neighbors which restaurant you should go to. The more votes a certain place has, the more confident you’ll feel with that choice, right?

Now, if you’ve been doing guest speaking circuits, chances are that you’ve been promoting your Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook pages—and that’s very important for visibility.

The question is, do you ever mention your website?

If not, that needs to change.

At the end of the day, it’s important to work on driving strength to your website, because it is something that you own, unlike your social media accounts.

So, it’s quite simple, every time you go on a podcast or have an interview, make sure there’s a hyperlink going back to your website.

And if Possible, Not Just to Your Homepage

As an author or creator, you’ll probably, at some point, go beyond just one piece of work. Hopefully, you’ll have the chance to write multiple books and create your own repertoire of stories.

And that’s exactly when the SEO gets more nuanced.

Each different piece you write needs to get exposure of their own and, for that reason, it’s important to drive the links back to the sections of your website that are devoted to whatever you’re promoting at that time.

Your website is a whole library of pages, each of which has the opportunity to rank on Google, so you want to make sure that your website has distinct sections for distinct pieces of work.

I know that this might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many authors have a one-page website with nothing more than a list of their writings.

By having an individual page for each piece (or, if you really want to be thorough, entire sections of the website devoted to each), you can try to rank not only for your homepage but for other pages of your website, whenever you make a guest appearance.

It’s important, however, that you make sure the page where your driving links to is relevant to the audience and to the overall message you’re trying to convey. Otherwise, it won’t be authentic and that will translate in the results you get.

Just Remember to Tie the Loose Ends Up

The tips that I gave you in today’s article don’t necessarily require you to do anything extra or to change any marketing strategies – they’re simply ways to tie up loose ends.

So remember, when you go out there to promote your book, make sure you drive those links as well!

Jason started freelancing in SEO back in college, sold his first agency, and now is founder of Zupo, which is an Orange County based SEO consulting agency helping construct powerful long term SEO strategies for our clients. Jason also enjoys multiple cups of tea a day, hiding away on weekends, catching up on reading, and rewatching The Simpsons for the 20th time.

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