Analyzing a Small Author’s Blog Site

May 24

Discover how to effectively manage the indexed content on your blog, similar to Author in Session. In the second blog post of the season, I guide you through conducting a thorough audit of a blog-based website. I’ll also detail evaluating your writing style and search engine optimization (SEO) for your small, author-focused blog.

This sounds like it’s about to get real technical. However, this blog is more explanatory and truly focused on analyzing a small author blog site. Take some notes as you go, thinking about how to apply this information to your current website and blog posts.

What to Expect Here and Why It Matters

Maybe you are looking for a book deal or a literary agent—or you simply want to sell a short story to a literary journal or magazine. These all require a website and a blog where the editors and other in charge entities can review you in a professional and modern way.

I’ve used plenty of bullet points to help break down plenty of aspects of website evaluation. By the time you apply these to your author website and blog you will have well-rounded and focused content to make the Google Gods happy.

By the way, that is ultimately what you are doing—sacrificing some stories you’ve written and maybe sold and some information and personal data about yourself to the Google Machine. This will, in turn, provide you with enough clout and resources about you as an author to get you to the next level.

Analyze Your Blog Writing Style

Creative fiction author blogs often showcase a distinctive writing style that captivates readers and compels them to return for more. To achieve this, authors should focus on these ACE traits:

Authenticity in voice and professional personality
Content readability for website and blog posts
Expertise in a creative fiction writing genre

Authenticity in Voice and Professional Personality

Good author blogs tend to have a certain tone that is either:

Conversational rather than corporate
Opinionated but also is notably personal
Reflective or story-driven

Blogs that perform well with readers often avoid SEO-first stiffness. Author blogs should sound human and experience-based. Blogging emphasizes content that is written naturally first and optimized for SEO second.

Blog Content Versus Static Website Content

Web content on a website is static information about your business or personal self. However, if you choose to post blogs on an active blog site on your website, this will create a different type of traffic among your readership.

Blog posts generate new information, such as keywords, website data, and hyperlinks, that can spur viewers to your website. This is typically why businesses and individuals want to have an active blog page on their website—as a way to attract new viewers.

This differs from static website content, such as a History or About Us page. Those types of content need to remain the same to build your reputation online. Web crawlers need to see documentation and evidence of your performance as a blogger and a website.

If you constantly update and change these pages and types of content, the web crawlers will look negatively on you. Your site will be seen as not authoritative and you will lack a long-standing history online. As a result, a combination of static webpage content and actively evolving and new blog content is key to a great website.

Content Readability for Website and Blog Posts

Enjoyable content sounds like an oxymoron since content is defined as both words on a web page and the feeling of being at peace. To feel at peace and be enjoyable is exactly what you are looking for when writing anything on your website.

Whether talking to the audience about your writing and publication history or to share a short story—the content needs to be enjoyable. Of course, your creative fiction will always be enjoyable, so do the same with all the content on your website and blog—including photos!

Also, modern blog readers tend to skim-read. Effective formatting helps slow down readers at the right time, allowing for better pacing. To pace your writing, include ample white space and take advantage of headings. Here are some tips:

Use bullet points to create lists whenever possible
Write super descriptive subheadings using your targeted keywords
Stick with short paragraphs of 3-4 sentences
Work with visual spacing to balance white space with blocks of text

Using long, dense text blocks in a blog can negatively impact readability and engagement—even if the content is of high quality. Readers get bogged down or are overwhelmed, especially when viewing your website on a smartphone or iPad.

TIP: To write more condensed—use the Hemingway App. This is available online and does not actually require you to download anything—as one free option.

Expertise in a Creative Fiction Writing Genre

Google and other web browsers like DuckDuckGo and Yahoo! reward certain traits and attributes in a general manner. Knowing how to identify these characteristics, such as SEO and keyword placement, can improve your website ranking.

As a creative fiction writer, your goal is to focus on your preferred genre(s) and sub genres(s). I will share 250 keywords later in this blog post to help you here.

Meanwhile, there are other ways to showcase expertise for genre writers, such as romance authors or horror paranormal writers. Look for ways to hone in on these three applicable areas:

Expertise in a creative fiction genre
Firsthand experience and publication clips
Trustworthiness as a professional and individual

How do you do this? Start with sharing valuable information and data, such as links to your stories posted elsewhere. Create a resume of sorts, or a portfolio, with your creative fiction when/where you have been published online and offline.

TIP: If you have newspaper clips that are not online, scan a copy and post that on your website blog. You win with new content, images that are more valuable, and information that is not otherwise available to the internet.

For an author blog, posts tend to perform better with web traffic and rankings when including:

Applicable examples
Failures / Lessons
Original commentary
Personal publishing experiences
Writing process insights

Generic how to write a book articles, lacking personal experience, often blend into countless similar posts. Reddit SEO discussions specifically highlight this as a common weakness in writing and publishing blogs.

An Overview of SEO Analysis

As you have been learning, search engine optimization (SEO) is the bones of the webpage skeleton. Bloggers need to include and feature keywords that highlight the main concept of the content.

But that’s just the start. You also want to include applicable hyperlinks, either in the blog post or in a sources section on the same webpage. URLs ending in these domain extension names have the most strength and give you the greatest advantage:

.edu
.gov
.org

Why? Because the internet considers anything published by the government, a college, or a corporation to be well researched and good knowledge. Your SEO plan might also prescribe including specific types of web pages, such as:

Blog post page
History page
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page
Contact page
Shopping page

Every writer and author needs to have a blog post page—since the main aspect of their career is writing. Blogs are the quintessential place to present the written word as any writer sees fit.

But you might be selling copies of your latest novel or a collection of short stories you have written.

This calls for adding a shopping page with a cart and payment processor to your website. Think about what you can do with your website as a writer and go from there with page creation.

However, there is even more to SEO when developing content for a small author blog site, like Author in Session. Here are weaknesses and strengths I would address while you write content for your author blog-based site.

The Advantages of Small Author Blogs With SEO

Why, again, do you want to start an author blog, especially if you are a small author of zero books sold or stories published? So you can get to that point. A blog is a modernized way to advertise and showcase you as a writer and artist.

As you become an author, which is someone who sells their writing professionally, then you really need to blog about it. Otherwise, you lose traction—just as any business does that is not represented somewhere online. Here are four areas where you want to focus on in terms of your blog:

Development of honest reader trust and a strong site community
Showcasing a strong genre identity in creative fiction storytelling
Speaking with an authentic voice that stands out from the crowd
Strategically including well-researched long-tail keywords and phrases

Common SEO Weaknesses of Author Websites

Of course, SEO is a massive beast that needs to be wrangled in for a successful author website and blog. There are plenty of mistakes you can make including, most notably:

Avoiding keywords, which will make your content impossible to search for and find
Having bad URL links or using missing links
Not including tags and categories for images and content
Publishing a few random blog posts, which will not build authority
Writing and publishing thin or blatantly inaccurate information on a subject

Now, let’s avoid digging in too deep with what you can do wrong. Instead, stick with the fact that modern SEO expects comprehensive coverage of whatever subject you are covering. Think in terms of ‘encyclopedic’ levels of knowledge, which should be available to you before you start a site.

Even with short stories about creative fiction, your website needs to have nonfiction, accurate information about you as the writer and author. This is key to creating relevance and authority for yourself in the publishing industry. If you never talk about yourself in terms of being a writer and author on your website, then you are missing out!

How to Use Blog Post Topic Clusters for SEO

Topic clusters are one way of writing and publishing information on your website in a cohesive and comprehensive way. For example, instead of only one blog post about why you are writing a novel, you would ideally write interconnected posts about:

Creative fiction character arc development
Editing a rough draft for a short story
Finding applicable publishing agencies
Marketing ideas for fiction novels
Outlining a novel in your preferred fiction genre
Querying for literary agents in your genre

These topics are beneficial to writers and authors trying to learn more about the subject. Also, you are showcasing your path to success as a writer getting published as you do your website content. This is key—essentially key—to getting Google and other web browsers to remember who you are professionally in the future.

How to Use SEO Keywords and Links Professionally

Interconnect these otherwise semi-related book topics using SEO keywords and URL links. First, choose the keywords you want to include for each blog post as related to your website.

Then, research the most common keywords about the topics you are covering in the blog posts. SEO keyword research using Google is one way to find the hottest keywords related to your pending topic.

Next, once the blog post content is written and ready to publish, it is time to include URL hyperlinks. Along with source links, your blogs should have hyperlinks internally—that is, from one blog post to another and to other pages on your website. This will help readers, visitors, and website viewers check out relative information on your site and keep them interested.

Inadequate SEO Metadata for Your Website

Metadata is the structural information of your blog posts and webpages when posting a blog post. Here where you should focus:

Author bios
Image alt text with applicable information
Meta descriptions, including categories and tags
Optimized titles
Schema markup

Author bios, for starters, play a crucial role in building trust and establishing SEO authority. As you are published or gain expertise in a field of creative fiction, make sure to update your website pages. Blog about this kind of activity—it is your bread-and-butter.

Writing Fictional Stories Versus Writing About Writing

A common challenge arises when writers craft captivating fictional narratives, yet web readers are primarily seeking practical guidance on writing. While sharing creative fiction is commendable, it’s equally important to consider posting blogs that offer technical insights into writing creative fiction.

This approach not only enhances your relevance and credibility within the fiction writing industry but also ensures that all visitors, regardless of their search intent, find valuable content in your offerings.

SEO content is most effective when the title clearly addresses a specific problem. Additionally, the article structure should provide a concise overview of the content. Simultaneously, the author should strive to maintain a personal touch, making the content more relatable and engaging for the readers.

The absence of backlinks is a significant drawback. Even exceptional blog writing can be overlooked without a clear direction in the vast world of web-based content. SEO communities strongly emphasize the substantial impact of backlinks and mentions on improving ranking visibility.

For author blogs, backlinks often come from:

Guest posts
Interviews
Newsletters
Podcasts
Social sharing
Writing communities

What are the most effective strategies for author blogs?

The most successful author blogs employ:

Clear keyword targets
Consistent voice
Experience / Examples
Fast page speed
Great writing
Human tone
Internal links
Personal stories aka anecdotes
Search-focused titles
Strong SEO
Structured headings
Unique opinions

That balance is more crucial than pure keyword density. Numerous SEO sources emphasize that SEO prioritizes helpfulness and topical depth over keyword stuffing.

Other areas where this applies include:

Analyzing the tone and style
Headline and title optimization ideas
Identifying likely target keywords
SEO audit checklist for the site

What are the benefits of tags and categories for authors’ blogs about a writing session?

If you’re looking to boost SEO for a blog like authorinsession.blog, create tags for your website about a writing session. Then, categorize your tags based on:

Activity on your site
Industry trends
Vibe or what is popular

In 2026, the focus has shifted toward human-centric and immersive writing. Furthermore, here are the types of keywords that are most beneficial for your website:

High-traffic productivity keywords
Human-centric and transparent keywords
Technical SEO keywords
Vibed and hyped keywords

50 Keyword Hashtags for Creative Fiction Authors in the US

High-Traffic Writing Session Keyword Hashtags

These are the golden keywords signifying productivity for writing sessions. The keywords and hashtags assist visitors in finding your specific Author-in-Session updates:

#1k1hr—specific challenge of writing 1,000 words in one hour
#DeepWork—term for distraction-free intense writing sessions
#PomodoroWriting—timer needed; uses the 25/5 minute focus method
#WIPJoy—focuses on the positive side of writing sessions
#WordCount—used to track writing progress by word count
#WritingSprints—gold standard for live sessions writing by time limit

Vibed and Hyped Keywords Trending in 2026

Readers in 2026 are focused on looking for the experience of the story. Using these keyword hashtags also helps set the mood of your session:

#AestheticWriting—used when sharing photos of your desk, candles, or mood boards
#AtmosphericWriting—writing sessions focused on world-building and sensory details
#CozyWriting—low-stakes, comforting sessions and huge for cozy fantasy genres or slice of life
#HealingFiction—positivity genres for memoirists
#Hopepunk—steampunk genre and positivity sub genre of creative fiction

Human-centric and Transparent Keywords

As AI tools become more prevalent, many authors are employing credibility markers to indicate that their work is human-generated. Here are human-centric and transparent keywords to document this type of writing on social media:

#AuthorSovereignty—2026 buzzword for authors taking control of their own platforms like your blog
#BehindTheScenes—readers love seeing the messy middle of a draft
#DraftingDaily—emphasizes the habit over the result
#HumanAuthored—signals of authenticity

Technical SEO Writing Session Keywords

If you are writing about a writing session on your blog, use these long-tail keywords in your headers:

Creating an immersive writing environment
How to track word count goals in 2026
Overcoming writer’s block in 15-minute sprints
The best writing rituals for deep focus

Here is a Pro Tip for 2026

Search engine optimization is moving toward utilizing Generative Engine Optimization or GEO—not to be confused with geographic. Instead of providing generic or expected creative fiction writing keywords, incorporate specific, question-based keywords into your content.

For instance, instead of saying the overused and boring title, Writing Tips for Creatives, go with one of these newly improved titles:

Are you just trying to find more sprint buddies on social media?
Are you looking to grow the audience for your blog?
How do I stay focused during a 3-hour writing session?
What are the best tools for collaborative writing sprints?

Notice that the newer style of title making involves questions. Asking questions is important for getting the reader to be interested. Basically, you are there to answer their most recent questions, which they are searching for when they find your content.

In the US fiction market of 2026, the most sought-after keywords are not merely genres but rather hybrid hooks and emotional promises. Readers are shifting away from broad categories and gravitating towards specific vibes that provide either intense escapism or profound emotional resonance.

Hot Hashtags and Keywords for New Authors

Based on the current market demand, these categories of hashtags and keywords will get your brain bumping.

The Comfort Movement Cozy Everything

As a reaction to global stressors, cozy fiction continues to soothe souls in 2026. Think:

#CozyFantasy—magic but with coffee shops or small-town problems
#CozyHorror—spooky and atmospheric, but without the extreme gore or scary endings
#FoundFamily—readers looking for emotional warmth
#SmallTownCharm—both romance and paranormal combine

Emerging Vibe and Hype Keywords for Social Media

In 2026, TikTok at BookTok and Instagram at Bookstagram use these hashtags to categorize book content:

#NeurodivergentLeads—representation of ADHD, Autism, and other neurological types
#SadGirlFiction—depressing and overdone concept of sick, sad girl in fiction
#SpiceLevel—uses pepper or spicy ratings or keywords like #HighHeat to signal content intensity

High-Concept Speculative Fiction

Speculative fiction aka sci-fi and fantasy is trending toward near-future and socially relevant themes. Here are some keywords for speculative fiction:

#Afrofuturism / #IndigenousFuturism:—non-Western cultural influences in world-building
#CliFi aka climate fiction—stories focusing on environmental shifts, often with a #Hopepunk optimistic scope
#EthicsOfAI—explores human-technology integration via artificial intelligence

The Powerhouse Hybrid—Romantasy

This is the single most dominant force in the 2026 market. If you are writing fantasy with a strong romantic plot, these keywords are essential for discovery:

#CourtIntrigue—political-heavy fantasy romance
#EnemiesToLovers—a popular trope in romance and fantasy
#Romantasy—new name for the sub genre for romance and fantasy
#SoulmateBonds—fans of Sarah J. Maas or Rebecca Yarros know

Psychological and Domestic Thrillers

The psychologically unstable housewife/househusband effect is still going strong. Readers want unreliable and twisted concepts and search for keywords such as:

#GoodForHer—thrillers where women take justice into their own hands
#DarkAcademia—mysterious settings in elite universities or libraries
#DomesticSuspense—secrets within a marriage or neighborhood
#TwistEnding—popular drive for thriller sales

200 Best Keywords for Fiction Authors

Here are 200 powerful keyword ideas for fiction authors to enhance their discoverability and readership according to certain categories. These categories are based on keyword and content strategy.

A content strategy is a detailed editorial calendar detailing all aspects of your content marketing plan. Some of these words are web-technical, but several categories are fiction book based.

50 Author/Book Identifier Keywords

Author and book identifier keywords are metadata phrases that help make your work discoverable by readers on search engines and retail platforms. These keywords are categorized based on audience search behavior.

Here are 50 author and book identifier keywords to use when marketing your writing and published works:

Author name
Award winning
Bestselling book
Book club pick
Book titles
Chic lit
Comedic
Cozy mystery
Cyberpunk
Dark thriller
Drug dealer
Dragon shifter
Edition
Fantasy
Feel-good romance
Genres
High brow
High society
Hilarious memoir
Historical fiction
Intellectual
JK Rowling
King-slayer
Librarian
Literature
Medieval historical fiction
Mystery
Nautical romance
New York Times’ Bestseller
Owner
Paranormal romance
Plucky sidekick
Primary genres
Psychological thriller
Queer
Romance
Science fiction
Scientologist
Series names
Series titles
Small town
Steampunk
Sub genres
Thriller
Tropes
Urban fantasy
Visual art
Webpage blog
Xray bio
Yearbook club

50 Character and Plot Keywords

In storytelling, character keywords define a person’s identity and their role within the narrative. Plot keywords, on the other hand, describe the events, structures, and tropes that make up the story. Together, these keywords help create compelling stories and organize narratives by tagging specific behaviors, relationships, and actions:

Antagonist
Antihero
Archetypes
Best friend
Buried treasure
Character types
Climax
Comedy
Coming of age
Cottage core
Dinosaurs
Dynamics
Elements
Enemies-to-lovers
Exposition
Falling action
Foiling the plot
Found family
Grumpy
Heist
Hero
Hidden identity
Intrigue
Jokes
Kraken
Leap frogging champion
Lovers’ Lane
Man eater
Monsters
Obstacles
Operation board game
Protagonist
Quests
Pirates
Rags to riches
Redemption arc
Reluctant detective
Resolution
Returning
Rising action
Role playing
Scenes
Sidekick
Strong female lead
Structural plot development
Little Miss Sunshine
Themes
Tragedy
Tropes
Voyage

50 Setting and Tone Keywords

Setting and tone keywords are descriptive adjectives used to establish the atmosphere, emotional weight, and narrative voice of a story. These words guide the reader’s emotions and create a distinct mood:

Academia
Aggressive
Allotriomorphic
Bustling metropolis
Cyclone
Dystopian future
Dank
Enchanted
Enveloping
Ethereal
Feel-good
Fiery
Gentler
Girth
Gothic
Grave
Grim
Heartwarming
Hospitable
Interesting
Junglegym manufacturer
Killer lemonade stand
Light-hearted
Lyrical
Magical
Melancholic
Moody
Neon
News room
Objectively
Oppressive
Overlook
Pastoral
Project Runway
Rural countryside
Small town USA
Sober living
Softly reflective
Sticky
Taut
Tender
Tone descriptors
Tongue-in-cheek
Victorian England
Webby
Whimsical
Xhale City
Yale University
Zealous
Zoology office

50 Long-Tail and Trope-Based Keywords

Long-tail phrases and trope-based phrases are highly specific, multi-word search queries used by niche audiences to find exact topics, products, or forms of entertainment. Trope-based long-tail keywords follow a set formula to make life easier, which is:

Genre + archetype + plot trope + setting modifier—in some order

While they have a lower search volume, long-tail keywords are valuable because they have less competition and target users with high, intent-driven conversions. A long-tail keyword contains 3 to 6 words, such as:

Amish romance for teenagers in South Dakota
Big city sleuth cat cozy murder mystery
Billionaire fake dating marriage of convenience
Boasting chicken shaker romance
Bodyguard horror zombie attack
Chosen One long journey fantasy
Cinnamon roll sweetheart cozy romance
Cyberpunks attack central banking in Cinderella retelling
Cozy mystery flash fiction
Damsel in distress fairy tale retelling
Dark academia anime with vampires
Digital marketing experts fall in lust
Dual timeline unreliable narrator of domestic thriller
Enemies living in sci-fi space opera
Enemies to lovers grumpy sunshine romance
Feisty heroine living in 16th century
First contact alien invasion military sci-fi
Forced proximity of characters in mystery
Gritty mystery with unreliable narrator
Higher than gravity locations in sci-fi
Historical fiction set in World War II
Insane pervert shoots up Fargo, ND
Librarian goes berserk after Book Club
Living a life of sin in the Southeast USA
Mistaken identity leads to alien invasion
Seeking naive ingénue for travelogue
Only one bed in the room romance
Mistaken identity of werewolf proves insatiable
Mafia is murdered by a flock of crows
Memoir by author who traveled solo to the Netherlands
Morally grey romantasy
Murder mystery saga told by viking ghosts
Naked mole rats start an art colony in magical realism tale
Protective alpha male attacks domestic pets
Reduced sized men fantasy
Reluctant hero saves planet from aliens in sci-fi
Royal bodyguards living a secret gay lifestyle
Sarcastic best friend goes to the Moon
Secret commune hiding on a beach in a rom-com
Single mom becomes a serial killer
Small-town paranormal romance with second chance
Time travel to the Medieval Ages
Teenagers take over the town in psychological thriller
Too many turtles in ecological fantasy
Tortured artist seeks refuge during a typhoon in Tokyo
Space opera with sequel-ready world-building
Waterlogged hiking journals from missing trail trash
X-rays lead to curing cancer in medical fantasy
Years of trees grow suddenly in present-day realism
Zero humans survive in dystopian fantasy

And those keywords and hashtags—especially the long-tail trope-based phrases—will take your web marketing very far. You will also find yourself thinking of short stories and full-on novels simply by reading through these lists.

Print this resource and save it as a bookmark on your desktop or laptop or phone if you are smart!

Til next blog post,

Miranda Yearwood