SEO to Rank Higher - Writing Update by Greg Luti
- Greg Luti
- May 25
- 5 min read
A writing update can show the real behind-the-scenes work of an indie author trying to grow their audience. In “SEO to Rank Higher,” Greg Luti discusses his recent push to improve the site’s Google rankings — from requesting indexing on dozens of pages and adding meta descriptions to every post, to learning the hard way about Google’s daily indexing limits.
Working on SEO for the Site
I have been really working on getting the SEO for the site down, and as much as I like to focus on only writing, and the stories, I do recognize there are other aspects of the field I have to know about just because they are important to the lifespan of a writer. One of those areas is SEO. I have been indexing every page from my site, and even getting meta descriptions and snippets in every post to better help my standing in SEO.
What Is SEO?
What is SEO? Google. It is to get ranked higher on Google. Yeah, let’s face it, everyone has to at least know how to be on Google in today’s world, or at least get traction so well, that Google notices.
It is why you will see a third person description of my posts at the beginning of each one. That is to tell Google what the post is about as much as you the reader.
Google’s Daily Indexing Quota
What I am amazed about the SEO part of this is how Google has a limit to the number of pages you can request daily to be indexed. I don’t know why that is the case. I mean, we are talking about Google here. Are they really not able to get more than 8 requests from a site per day? That seems so strange that you can’t actually request hundreds of pages to Google for a site. As much as technology is great, there are certain parameters or limitations that surprise me.
The Extra Responsibilities of Modern Writers
I don’t mind doing a few extra minutes per day to get the SEO up to date. I understand that is apart of this all. But there seems to be an unfair playing field with writers today. They have to run their website, then get the newsletter out, then run social media. Oh, and by the way, they also have to write. It seems the first thing a writer should do when they get money is to hire a few people to help them with other stuff in their writing career, as much as the writing itself.
I noticed I had to learn social media and be involved in it, regardless of my negative attitude towards it. There is no hiding from it, so I was forced to basically learn about it. I still don’t like to make videos and go with more of the picture format with most of my posts. I think that is a trend in writers today, in that they are not really only writers. I don’t know what the word is, or if there is a word, but the writer has to be multiple things before they even get to their writing.
What is fascinating about that is how the words and the stories are then affected by the involuntary participation of the writer. We are learning new skills to keep up with writing and those new skills or at the very least the exposure of the information those new skills give us, has to, in some way, seep into the stories.
The Writer Who Had No Social Media
I don’t like social media. I have said it many times before, and I will probably say it many times again. I am definitely the old man on the block who is mad at the kids running on the grass, with social media. My family is on it, and I just don’t bother with any of it. That is not to say I don’t love them or want what is best for them. I do. But I have only ever been on it because of my writing. Yeah, if I could be a hermit and basically not be on the internet and people still read me somehow, I would.
I read about a guy who did that one day. I am not entirely sure how he did it. He had no website, no social media following, nothing that a modern writer would include in their writing portfolio, and yet he sold more books than I ever did.
There is a certain level of irony in that I am writing this post about that guy, whose name I don’t even remember, and I will share this on social media.
How Social Media Sparks Stories
There is one thing that I like social media for. There is a dirty joke here that I can make about there really being two things that I like about it, but I want to stay on the point I was trying to make. Social media is good for stories, because there are a bunch of people who share things on it, but not in a way that is useful for a story. They share a random clip, or an opinion on something and that by itself is not really a story. I then think to myself, “You know that is a great jumping off point for a story. I can use that as inspiration for something that I can write.”
I have an example of this too.
I saw a video of a guy saying he was so surprised by what the stranger said to him that he didn’t even remember what he went into the store for. Now, on its own that is not a story. It is a brief mention he tells you during dinner, a write-off in a conversation, but if you add a few other elements, which I did, then you have a flash fiction piece. (I made the stranger have more of a role in the story, and I gave the stranger a intriguing theory about math, rather than something you may hear a conspiracy theorist say. There was also more of a beginning to my story. I didn’t just jump into it, telling about a guy saying something to me.)
That is what I mean when I say that social media is good for stories. Then again, that may just be me. I am a storyteller, so I look at basically everything and wonder if I can make it into a poem or a story I am writing. Social media may suck, and I just look at the world as though it is a story to be told.
The Real Lesson: Stay Ready for Inspiration
I guess the lesson for this writing update, since I did say I wanted to include a proper ending in these, is that you make more of the situation than you think. Your mindset dictates how you handle something as much as the scenario itself. There were a lot of people who viewed that short clip and just moved on with their day. I saw it and said, “I can use this for a story. Remember this.” Because as much as anyone wants to tell you they know about life, they really don’t. Nobody knows. You don’t know where inspiration comes from, the only thing you can do is be ready when you see it and capture the moment.
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