March 6, 2025 • 17 mins
Is Your Author Website Helping or Hurting Your Discoverability?
If you've ever struggled with what to name your author's website, you’re not alone. Should you use your personal name, or should it reflect your book’s theme? And what about SEO, will the right website name help more readers discover you?
Allison Lane breaks it all down so you can make an informed decision and build a website that works for your long-term success. Join her as she shares practical, no-nonsense tips for choosing a website name that enhances your credibility, improves your search rankings, and grows with your writing career. Whether you're just starting out or rebranding, this episode will save you time, headaches, and costly mistakes.
Hit play now to learn how to set up your author's website for long-term visibility and success.
What You’ll Learn:
- How search engines rank author websites, and why your domain name matters.
- The pros and cons of using your name vs. a mission-driven URL.
- Simple SEO strategies to help readers find your website, no matter what you write
Resources Mentioned:
- Allison Lane’s website: LaneLit.com
- SEO guide for authors: SEO Starter Guide - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/seo-starter-guide
- Domain registration site: Namecheap - https://www.namecheap.com or GoDaddy - https://www.godaddy.com/
Timestamps:
[00:01:18] – Should your website name reflect your personal brand or mission?
[00:03:04] – SEO basics: How search engines rank author websites
[00:06:28] – Why your website name doesn’t need all your keywords
[00:09:14] – How to structure your site for long-term growth
[00:12:38] – Using metadata and headlines to improve SEO
[00:15:48] – Next steps: How to optimize your site without tech overwhelm
If this episode helped you, please take a minute to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Your support helps us reach more authors like you. And don’t forget to share this episode with a fellow writer who needs it.
Tag me on Instagram @allisonlanelit and let me know your biggest takeaway. Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJVNVvvXnew
Rate, Review, & Follow The Author’s Edge
“So incredibly helpful!” >>> If that sounds like you, I’d be so grateful if you’d rate and review the show! Your support helps more authors build their brands, reach their audiences, and launch their books successfully.
Here’s how:
- Click here, scroll to the bottom, and tap to rate with five stars.
- Select “Write a Review” and tell me what you loved most about the episode!
And don’t forget to follow the podcast if you haven’t already. I’m sharing bonus episodes packed with insider tips, and I’d hate for you to miss out. Hit that follow button now.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Allison (00:00):
A good domain name can improve your searchability,
(00:03):
which makes it easier for Googleto understand and rank your
site.
It enhances your credibilitybecause a clear name builds
trust with the people who arelooking for it, and trust with
the search engines.
(00:45):
Hey there, and welcome to theAuthor's Edge or welcome back.
If you are new around here, I'mAllison Lane and I'm so glad
you're spending time figuringout how to market yourself as an
author, whether you are planningyour first book and you wanna
get it out of your head and ontopaper and into bookstores or
(01:08):
you're working on building yourbrand so that you can get your
book into the world or find anagent or a publisher, or you're
one of the OGs thinking myeighth book is coming out.
What do I do now?
Everything is changing all thetime in terms of marketing
yourself, and it's my job tohelp you do the things that are
(01:31):
streamlined and effective andfocused and fun, cause this
should be exciting and itshouldn't feel like a third or
fourth job.
Now, today is one of our shortyepisodes.
It's Q and A day, which is whatI do every Thursday.
And I'm tackling a question froma listener who writes about Jews
(01:52):
fighting fascism and they arewondering, should they name
their website after that missionor use their own name instead?
And since they're new to SEO,what's the best choice for
getting discovered online?
If you've ever wondered how yourwebsite name affects your search
(02:15):
ranking, or if SEO is like amystery to you, stick around.
I'm gonna break it down step bystep.
First, let me explain how youcan ask me a question that I can
answer on one of my Thursdayepisodes.
If you scroll down to theepisode description at the very
(02:38):
top, it says, send me a text,click it, and send me a text.
That's all.
And then, ask me your question.
And if you want, you can addyour name so that I can address
you by name.
This person did not add theirname, so I will not make up a
name'cause that would be weird.
(02:58):
Okay.
So send me a text.
I would love to answer yourquestion.
Also, just send me what it isthat you're thinking about.
It doesn't have to be aquestion, but what do you like,
what do you want more of?
You know, it could just be acomment.
Send me anything.
I get your, comments and yourquestions immediately.
(03:19):
And it's nice'cause it drops itinto my inbox and it's like a
nice hug from I know, from likeother writers and word nerds and
people doing good things in theworld.
Alright, let's get back into it.
How does your website nameimpact SEO and should you go
with a personal name or amission-driven phrase?
(03:42):
And if you are SEO illiterate,which most of us are, where do
you even start?
First, we have to start bydefining SEO.
This is search engineoptimization, and it's what
helps people find your websitewhen they search online, when
they go to Google and they'relooking for something.
(04:05):
Your website name plays a bigrole in that and a good website
name.
And your website name is calleda domain name.
A good domain name can improveyour searchability, which makes
it easier for Google tounderstand and rank your site.
It enhances your credibilitybecause a clear name builds
(04:31):
trust with the people who arelooking for it, and trust with
the search engines.
And when I say trust, it meansthat when someone's searching.
And the search engine shows themyour site and they go to your
site, if they quickly bounce, ifthey show up in a third of a
second, they go,'oh no, this wasthe wrong place.' Then, your
(04:54):
website name is not enhancingyour credibility because somehow
people are going to your siteand they're realizing, oh, this
wasn't what I was looking for.
So, we don't want that.
We want your website name to becredible so that when people
come to your site that theystay, which the search engines,
(05:17):
they know and they can trackyour balance rate versus that
people get what they need whenthey're on your site.
The third thing a good domainname can do is give you
long-term flexibility.
That means your name for yourwebsite should serve you not
just for today, but for years tocome.
(05:39):
Because let's face it, you aregoing to be writing more and
doing more, and expanding, orgoing deeper.
So, your website name should beable to flex with you.
Okay, let's break this down.
The key question about the SEOand searchability from this
(06:04):
listener is what should theyname their site?
Should they name it, jewsfighting fascism.com?
Maybe.
If it's available, I would snapthat up.
But will people be searching forthat on Google?
Is that something that they'regonna be typing into the search
(06:27):
bar and if people are searchingfor you or your books, is that
something that they would besearching for?
Okay, those are two differentquestions.
Maybe.
But if they search for yourname, they are not gonna be
necessarily identifying Jewsfighting fascism as your site.
(06:48):
So, it's your job to make surethat that is integrated.
If you name your site, I don'tknow your name, but you know
Allison lane.com.
Google will associate it withyou and you can still optimize
your site to rank for Jewsfighting fascism through the
content you put on your site.
(07:10):
And I'm gonna talk about how todo that in a sec.
Now, an SEO tip search Engineoptimization tip, your website
name does not have to includeall the keywords related to your
topic in order to rank well.
Google looks at the content onyour site and the titles of each
(07:34):
of the sections on your site oryour pages, and the descriptions
of each page more than the URLitself.
So, more than allisonlane.com Itlooks at the content on my site
and PS, that's not even the nameof my website.
It's lanelit.com sinceallisonlane.com was already
(07:56):
taken.
So, if you wanna go to my site,you can go there or you can even
search for my name and mywebsite pops up because the
content is related to theliterary world and publishing.
Now, the second point here isthat is related to credibility
and branding.
(08:16):
When you use your own name asyour website domain, it makes
you easier to recognize,especially if you're an author.
And you've gotta think about howmost public figures structure
their websites.
It's like a personal name orit's mission driven.
(08:36):
It's one of the two.
If you are an individual and youdon't have like a organization
or a business behind you, usingyour name makes sense because it
connects to all your work.
No matter what topics you coverin the future, you can still
feature a phrase like, for thiswriter, Jews fighting fascism,
(08:59):
you can still feature that as atagline, or a section, or a
subhead, or a blog pages on thesite, and that will then flag
that for Google, which thenprioritizes your site and other
sites.
Especially, when it's reallyreacting to people, asking for
(09:23):
information, asking for sitesthat include these topics and
these words.
I'm not saying one or the other.
I'm really saying this is up toyou.
But I seem to be leaning to yourname and then weaving in your
keywords because the third pointhere that I wanna make is that
(09:47):
you wanna be flexible for yourfuture SEO growth, because the
search engine optimization isn'tjust about your domain.
It is about everything on yoursite.
Your site should be structuredto grow with you, and that means
using a section or one webpagethat you can just put a blog,
(10:13):
and go deep into why I wrotethis book, and then put, instead
of this book, put the name ofthe book, or why I write about
your topic?
What brought me to this?
And then for this writer, itwould be why I write about Jews
fighting fascism?
And then, you're using thosewords.
The other thing you can do isuse those words in a headline or
(10:37):
metadata.
This is marketing jargon, whichmakes me wanna gag and I'm so
sorry to throw it at you.
But metadata is a data that wecan't see when we go to your
site, but you or the personwho's helping you set up your
website can behind the scene,like under the hood, assign a
(11:03):
description to a page or adescription to each photo.
And that's something that youshould be doing.
And if you don't know how to dothat, I'm gonna talk to you in a
minute about how to do that andhow to get it done.
And what I did, what I needed toget it done.
Because a couple of people toldme inside of a month, like you
(11:24):
need to do X, Y, and Z.
And I was like, holy crackers.
Okay, I will get it done.
You only need to tell me like15,000 times, and then I will do
it.
What I really want is for yourwebsite, which is the only
platform you own, it is yourowned media.
It is the only thing you own.
(11:45):
To be SEO friendly and to beflexible and to work for you
because you are going tocontinue to write other things
and also maybe you'll writereviews of other people's books.
Maybe you'll expand, maybe ityou'll expand and add another
topic you don't know today atleast purchase the domain in
(12:09):
your name, and then you canpurchase other domains, other
website names, and maybe youdon't have a separate site.
Whatever you do, do not createtwo different sites and then
say, oh, I'll just connect tothem.
What you do is you create onesite, and then all those other
domain names think of as, otherdoorways into your site.
(12:33):
And we call them vanity URLs,which is whatever.
It's like, you know, a sidedoor, but it still lands at your
house.
That's all you know how I thinkof it.
What you want to do is make surethat whatever people are
searching for, they end up atyour website.
(12:54):
So, the keys here aresearchability, a personal name
as your domain helps people findyou, cause you are a big effing
deal.
And if you didn't know that, I'mtelling you yes, you listener,
driving on the highway, orfolding the clothes, or baking,
which is so, so time consumingand boring.
(13:19):
While you're listening, yes.
We want people to find you'causeyou're a big effing deal.
And the keywords in your contenthelp the search engines
understand what your focus is sothat they offer your site up to
the person who's looking for thesolutions you provide or the
insight you share, or theexperience you had.
(13:39):
The historical view that youhave cultivated.
It also in terms of credibility,using your name gives you
long-term authority cause you'reyou.
And chances are no matter whatyou're writing about today, you
will end up writing about,talking about, representing two
(14:02):
or three other topics that aretangential but not exactly.
You know, one focus.
So, give yourself thatflexibility, which is the third
point.
You can still optimize your sitefor any phrasing through content
on the site, even if it's notthe domain name.
So, if you're new to SEO, startsimple.
(14:26):
Choose a name that representsyou, and build from there like I
have lane lit.com.
And a lot of people say, oh, buyall the book titles that you
think, you wanna write.
No, don't do that.
All book titles change, so don'tdo that.
(14:46):
It's a colossal waste of yourtime.
'cause your domain is just onepart of the equation.
What really matters is thecontent and the structure of
your site.
If you need help setting up yourwebsite or optimizing it for
SEO, I am going to do a part twoof this episode.
(15:09):
So, check out the next episodebecause I wanna talk to you
about how to set up your site soyou don't blow a gasket.
And how to optimize for SEOwithout hiring a website
marketing agency who will, youknow, try and sell you a Ferrari
(15:29):
when you need a, you go.
I mean, seriously, this is sosimple and I want you to have
some options'cause all of thisshould be easier and super
straightforward and I am here tomake that happen.
If you want my help and youwanna work with me, go to
lanelit.com, and you'll see ahow to work with me.
(15:54):
You are welcome.
I would love to work with you.
And you can jump in my Author Exbrand accelerator, which is
about visibility.
Author visibility is somethingthat we need to zoom, so don't
claw your way to being visibleand discoverable.
(16:15):
Don't plot and think, oh, I haveto put five years into building
my brand.
B.
No, that is bologna and we don'tneed to put in more time'cause
you're a grownup and that's notthe way things work anymore.
Those are olden times ideas.
So, next week I will talk to youabout setting up your site and
(16:40):
optimizing it for SEO.
Just some hacks that you can useso that you don't claw your eyes
out'cause I really don't wantthat.
Thanks for listening, and I willsee you next time.
Oh, and by the way, share thiswith someone who needs it,
please.
This should all be easier and ifwe don't help each other, we're
(17:04):
missing out on such a greatopportunity to bring good things
into the world, which is alwaysa good idea.
Okay, until next time.
A good domain name can improve your searchability,
(00:03):
which makes it easier for Googleto understand and rank your
site.
It enhances your credibilitybecause a clear name builds
trust with the people who arelooking for it, and trust with
the search engines.
(00:45):
Hey there, and welcome to theAuthor's Edge or welcome back.
If you are new around here, I'mAllison Lane and I'm so glad
you're spending time figuringout how to market yourself as an
author, whether you are planningyour first book and you wanna
get it out of your head and ontopaper and into bookstores or
(01:08):
you're working on building yourbrand so that you can get your
book into the world or find anagent or a publisher, or you're
one of the OGs thinking myeighth book is coming out.
What do I do now?
Everything is changing all thetime in terms of marketing
yourself, and it's my job tohelp you do the things that are
(01:31):
streamlined and effective andfocused and fun, cause this
should be exciting and itshouldn't feel like a third or
fourth job.
Now, today is one of our shortyepisodes.
It's Q and A day, which is whatI do every Thursday.
And I'm tackling a question froma listener who writes about Jews
(01:52):
fighting fascism and they arewondering, should they name
their website after that missionor use their own name instead?
And since they're new to SEO,what's the best choice for
getting discovered online?
If you've ever wondered how yourwebsite name affects your search
(02:15):
ranking, or if SEO is like amystery to you, stick around.
I'm gonna break it down step bystep.
First, let me explain how youcan ask me a question that I can
answer on one of my Thursdayepisodes.
If you scroll down to theepisode description at the very
(02:38):
top, it says, send me a text,click it, and send me a text.
That's all.
And then, ask me your question.
And if you want, you can addyour name so that I can address
you by name.
This person did not add theirname, so I will not make up a
name'cause that would be weird.
(02:58):
Okay.
So send me a text.
I would love to answer yourquestion.
Also, just send me what it isthat you're thinking about.
It doesn't have to be aquestion, but what do you like,
what do you want more of?
You know, it could just be acomment.
Send me anything.
I get your, comments and yourquestions immediately.
(03:19):
And it's nice'cause it drops itinto my inbox and it's like a
nice hug from I know, from likeother writers and word nerds and
people doing good things in theworld.
Alright, let's get back into it.
How does your website nameimpact SEO and should you go
with a personal name or amission-driven phrase?
(03:42):
And if you are SEO illiterate,which most of us are, where do
you even start?
First, we have to start bydefining SEO.
This is search engineoptimization, and it's what
helps people find your websitewhen they search online, when
they go to Google and they'relooking for something.
(04:05):
Your website name plays a bigrole in that and a good website
name.
And your website name is calleda domain name.
A good domain name can improveyour searchability, which makes
it easier for Google tounderstand and rank your site.
It enhances your credibilitybecause a clear name builds
(04:31):
trust with the people who arelooking for it, and trust with
the search engines.
And when I say trust, it meansthat when someone's searching.
And the search engine shows themyour site and they go to your
site, if they quickly bounce, ifthey show up in a third of a
second, they go,'oh no, this wasthe wrong place.' Then, your
(04:54):
website name is not enhancingyour credibility because somehow
people are going to your siteand they're realizing, oh, this
wasn't what I was looking for.
So, we don't want that.
We want your website name to becredible so that when people
come to your site that theystay, which the search engines,
(05:17):
they know and they can trackyour balance rate versus that
people get what they need whenthey're on your site.
The third thing a good domainname can do is give you
long-term flexibility.
That means your name for yourwebsite should serve you not
just for today, but for years tocome.
(05:39):
Because let's face it, you aregoing to be writing more and
doing more, and expanding, orgoing deeper.
So, your website name should beable to flex with you.
Okay, let's break this down.
The key question about the SEOand searchability from this
(06:04):
listener is what should theyname their site?
Should they name it, jewsfighting fascism.com?
Maybe.
If it's available, I would snapthat up.
But will people be searching forthat on Google?
Is that something that they'regonna be typing into the search
(06:27):
bar and if people are searchingfor you or your books, is that
something that they would besearching for?
Okay, those are two differentquestions.
Maybe.
But if they search for yourname, they are not gonna be
necessarily identifying Jewsfighting fascism as your site.
(06:48):
So, it's your job to make surethat that is integrated.
If you name your site, I don'tknow your name, but you know
Allison lane.com.
Google will associate it withyou and you can still optimize
your site to rank for Jewsfighting fascism through the
content you put on your site.
(07:10):
And I'm gonna talk about how todo that in a sec.
Now, an SEO tip search Engineoptimization tip, your website
name does not have to includeall the keywords related to your
topic in order to rank well.
Google looks at the content onyour site and the titles of each
(07:34):
of the sections on your site oryour pages, and the descriptions
of each page more than the URLitself.
So, more than allisonlane.com Itlooks at the content on my site
and PS, that's not even the nameof my website.
It's lanelit.com sinceallisonlane.com was already
(07:56):
taken.
So, if you wanna go to my site,you can go there or you can even
search for my name and mywebsite pops up because the
content is related to theliterary world and publishing.
Now, the second point here isthat is related to credibility
and branding.
(08:16):
When you use your own name asyour website domain, it makes
you easier to recognize,especially if you're an author.
And you've gotta think about howmost public figures structure
their websites.
It's like a personal name orit's mission driven.
(08:36):
It's one of the two.
If you are an individual and youdon't have like a organization
or a business behind you, usingyour name makes sense because it
connects to all your work.
No matter what topics you coverin the future, you can still
feature a phrase like, for thiswriter, Jews fighting fascism,
(08:59):
you can still feature that as atagline, or a section, or a
subhead, or a blog pages on thesite, and that will then flag
that for Google, which thenprioritizes your site and other
sites.
Especially, when it's reallyreacting to people, asking for
(09:23):
information, asking for sitesthat include these topics and
these words.
I'm not saying one or the other.
I'm really saying this is up toyou.
But I seem to be leaning to yourname and then weaving in your
keywords because the third pointhere that I wanna make is that
(09:47):
you wanna be flexible for yourfuture SEO growth, because the
search engine optimization isn'tjust about your domain.
It is about everything on yoursite.
Your site should be structuredto grow with you, and that means
using a section or one webpagethat you can just put a blog,
(10:13):
and go deep into why I wrotethis book, and then put, instead
of this book, put the name ofthe book, or why I write about
your topic?
What brought me to this?
And then for this writer, itwould be why I write about Jews
fighting fascism?
And then, you're using thosewords.
The other thing you can do isuse those words in a headline or
(10:37):
metadata.
This is marketing jargon, whichmakes me wanna gag and I'm so
sorry to throw it at you.
But metadata is a data that wecan't see when we go to your
site, but you or the personwho's helping you set up your
website can behind the scene,like under the hood, assign a
(11:03):
description to a page or adescription to each photo.
And that's something that youshould be doing.
And if you don't know how to dothat, I'm gonna talk to you in a
minute about how to do that andhow to get it done.
And what I did, what I needed toget it done.
Because a couple of people toldme inside of a month, like you
(11:24):
need to do X, Y, and Z.
And I was like, holy crackers.
Okay, I will get it done.
You only need to tell me like15,000 times, and then I will do
it.
What I really want is for yourwebsite, which is the only
platform you own, it is yourowned media.
It is the only thing you own.
(11:45):
To be SEO friendly and to beflexible and to work for you
because you are going tocontinue to write other things
and also maybe you'll writereviews of other people's books.
Maybe you'll expand, maybe ityou'll expand and add another
topic you don't know today atleast purchase the domain in
(12:09):
your name, and then you canpurchase other domains, other
website names, and maybe youdon't have a separate site.
Whatever you do, do not createtwo different sites and then
say, oh, I'll just connect tothem.
What you do is you create onesite, and then all those other
domain names think of as, otherdoorways into your site.
(12:33):
And we call them vanity URLs,which is whatever.
It's like, you know, a sidedoor, but it still lands at your
house.
That's all you know how I thinkof it.
What you want to do is make surethat whatever people are
searching for, they end up atyour website.
(12:54):
So, the keys here aresearchability, a personal name
as your domain helps people findyou, cause you are a big effing
deal.
And if you didn't know that, I'mtelling you yes, you listener,
driving on the highway, orfolding the clothes, or baking,
which is so, so time consumingand boring.
(13:19):
While you're listening, yes.
We want people to find you'causeyou're a big effing deal.
And the keywords in your contenthelp the search engines
understand what your focus is sothat they offer your site up to
the person who's looking for thesolutions you provide or the
insight you share, or theexperience you had.
(13:39):
The historical view that youhave cultivated.
It also in terms of credibility,using your name gives you
long-term authority cause you'reyou.
And chances are no matter whatyou're writing about today, you
will end up writing about,talking about, representing two
(14:02):
or three other topics that aretangential but not exactly.
You know, one focus.
So, give yourself thatflexibility, which is the third
point.
You can still optimize your sitefor any phrasing through content
on the site, even if it's notthe domain name.
So, if you're new to SEO, startsimple.
(14:26):
Choose a name that representsyou, and build from there like I
have lane lit.com.
And a lot of people say, oh, buyall the book titles that you
think, you wanna write.
No, don't do that.
All book titles change, so don'tdo that.
(14:46):
It's a colossal waste of yourtime.
'cause your domain is just onepart of the equation.
What really matters is thecontent and the structure of
your site.
If you need help setting up yourwebsite or optimizing it for
SEO, I am going to do a part twoof this episode.
(15:09):
So, check out the next episodebecause I wanna talk to you
about how to set up your site soyou don't blow a gasket.
And how to optimize for SEOwithout hiring a website
marketing agency who will, youknow, try and sell you a Ferrari
(15:29):
when you need a, you go.
I mean, seriously, this is sosimple and I want you to have
some options'cause all of thisshould be easier and super
straightforward and I am here tomake that happen.
If you want my help and youwanna work with me, go to
lanelit.com, and you'll see ahow to work with me.
(15:54):
You are welcome.
I would love to work with you.
And you can jump in my Author Exbrand accelerator, which is
about visibility.
Author visibility is somethingthat we need to zoom, so don't
claw your way to being visibleand discoverable.
(16:15):
Don't plot and think, oh, I haveto put five years into building
my brand.
B.
No, that is bologna and we don'tneed to put in more time'cause
you're a grownup and that's notthe way things work anymore.
Those are olden times ideas.
So, next week I will talk to youabout setting up your site and
(16:40):
optimizing it for SEO.
Just some hacks that you can useso that you don't claw your eyes
out'cause I really don't wantthat.
Thanks for listening, and I willsee you next time.
Oh, and by the way, share thiswith someone who needs it,
please.
This should all be easier and ifwe don't help each other, we're
(17:04):
missing out on such a greatopportunity to bring good things
into the world, which is alwaysa good idea.
Okay, until next time.
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