I give you now proof that it works:

This graph shows search engine referrals from May of this year until now, and is graphed by month, courtesy of Google Analytics (a free service you all should be taking advantage of). Yes, it is trailing down at the end, but a best-fit line will still show a positive slope, and the month isn’t over anyways. Yes, the percentages there are negative (in red), but that is contrasting the behavior of search engine referrals to the rest of the referrals I get–so of course people who stumble across my site via search engine won’t be as keen as the group of people who come to my site directly, knowing what they’re getting into.

The success that this graph shows is:

• 1) a distinct increase in the number of referrals per month since taking steps to optimize my site, and therefore…
• 2) a distinct increase in gaining NEW readers through search referral rather than direct webcomic-webcomic referral.

My goal was to gain new readers, real NEW readers, and I think I succeeded. This isn’t a “hey, I’m so great!” article. It is my intention that this article simply proves that if I can do this kind of thing, anybody can!  My degree is in biology, not um, computer science.  Everything I’ve learned has been the result of paying attention, and learning from people with experience. My goal with this blog is to pass all that experience on to you, so you don’t have to scrounge it up yourselves over the course of years.

For new readers of this blog who have their own sites, I will repeat myself about what SEO is, how it works, and why it’s something you should be doing for your own site:

[From this article] “…Why is it important to get more search referrals to your site? Because outside of webcomicdom, that is where sites get most of their visitors. Here, it’s the opposite. Most people visit our sites from direct links on OTHER sites. It means we get a small, in-bred audience, with few opportunities to catch a truly new reader. This is why it’s critical to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization.”

SEO works by reading the text on your webpages. Search engines don’t see images, and webcomic sites are primarily composed of images, which is why traditionally, they don’t get many search referrals.  You can fix this problem by adding more text, cleaning up your code, inserting titles and alts for links and images, and relying less on images (well, text flattened onto images, especially if you’re not all to HTML/CSS savvy).

When you optimize your site for search engines, you also optimize your site for context-based advertisers, a service I champion as a way for webcomickers to make money.  As soon as I exhaust the articles on what you need to do to change your site, I will change focus to how to make money with your comic (AND your site.)

Interested readers can find more about that in a 2-part interview I gave at The Floating Lightbulb.

Next Up: Links and Gallery Pages: two great pages to have for “webcomic relations.”

ADDENDUM: I would like to apologize to those who have sent me emails within the past 72 hours. I have been phenomenally busy with website commissions, and have not responded to anyone.  I greatly appreciate your comments and your emails, and I will reply as soon as I have free moment. No, I am not ignoring you, I promise! I would also like to say that I flattered at the attention this blog is getting. I really had no idea so many people would find it helpful, and I will earnestly try to continue posting articles of substance. Thank you for visiting, everyone!

So how do you do this? No one wants to read down a huge, scrolling wall of text. No one wants to have to scan through that text to find the ONE piece of information they want.  This is where link achors come in handy.

Link anchors are regular links that take you a place on the same webpage.  You can see it in action on my own about page.  When you click any of the links in the sub-navigation, you are taken to the paragraph in question.  These are extremely convenient when used properly, but like all “tricks” should be used in moderation.  You do NOT need to use link anchors on the majority of pages you make unless you are doing something wrong: writing TOO much, basically.  Brevity is a virtue on the internet (and just about everywhere, for that matter), practice it.

To code a link anchor, you do the following and place it at the destination of where you want to take the reader (anchor goes at destination, simple, yes?):

<a id=”LINK-NAME”></a>

There is nothing inside of that link, and there is no “href.”  It is an anchor. You CAN put text inside of that, but it defeats the purpose of even having an anchor.

To link TO the anchor, you code the following (no spaces in the link name, only underscores and hyphens!):

<a href=”#LINK-NAME”>Text</a>

For example, I will make a link inside of this article.  This link…

…

…will take you here.  This comes in handy when you want direct readers to a specific place, obviously. For example, on your cast page. If you go a recent website I built, the character thumbnails on the front page link to separate character profiles on the cast page.

The second trick is link titles. Last time I went over link titles it was on the subject of SEO. Now it’s about putting more information in a page without actually PUTTING it in there.  Again, I will direct you to a live example: my cast page.  Please hover over the text that is highlighted in the character profiles. See the “title” that comes up?  The information is available if people want it, but it is not there to take up more space unnecessarily.

This is coded with the following:

<a title=”descriptive text here”>Visible Text Here</a>

And in action:

Visible Text Here

This text is not clickable. It doesn’t take the visitor away from the page The extra information only appears when the cursor is hovered over it. BUT! This extra text is visible to search engines. SEO FTW!

Next Up: A personal success story in Webcomic SEO.

Of all secondary pages to have, the archive page is the most obvious one, and indeed, about 99% of comics have it. However, the format of the page seems to be beyond some people.  First, I will list what you should not do:

• Do not have your archive be a listing of “calendars.” This is most often seen on Comic Genesis sites.  A calendar contains no information about chapters, page titles, or filler pages you may have. The only thing it’s good for is showing people what your update days are, and/or how often you miss them.
• Do not list your archive by text-link, date only.  This is most often seen on ComicPress sites that have not been personalized.  This is just as bad as the “calendar” feature on Comic Genesis.
• Do not list your archive as shrunken-down “thumbnails” of the original comic files (make real thumbnail images instead).  It’s called a “thumbnail” for good reason: it’s small, and it loads fast! You may think you are being innovative, but you’re really being annoying, taxing your bandwidth, and taking up people’s time.*

When people visit your archive page, they are looking for a couple things. First time readers may want to know how large your archives are. For example, “This comic looks great, but I don’t have the time or energy to read an epic. I will check the archives to see how big/small it is.”  First time readers may also being trying to find a link to your first comic page, and this is often the fastest way.  Loyal readers will browse your archive to pull up a specific page they are looking for, or to re-read a part they liked a lot. This is why you should not have your archive set up by date or calendar. No one can find anything! Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule: make it as easy for the reader as possible. Not easy for YOU, for the reader.

Now that you have the “do not’s,” how about the “do’s?” When in doubt, go the archives of the most popular comic you read.  I choose you, Phoenix Requiem! See how the information is presented in a chronological AND chaptered way? What about Tales of Pylea?  Date, page number, chapter and page title, though ideally, the formatting of this page would be a little improved.  It can be hard when it’s automated, I know.  What about Xylia Tales?  Chapter cover image, chronological and chaptered order.  Ok, now what about my own archive?  I’ve taken everything I like about the previous examples, and then added my own flair: The War of Winds’ Archive.  I have a thumbnail image, chronological chaptered order, each page text linked, AND a written synopsis.  The written synopsis serves three functions: it is a refresher for long-time readers looking for a specific page, it gives a better idea what the story is about to new readers, and lastly, it provides textual content for context-based advertisers and search engines.

How could I improve my archive? I could add page titles as link titles and alts, as discussed in a previous article of mine.  I have the chapter cover image, the chronological order broken down by chapter, but I don’t have titled pages. If I included link titles, the final piece of information my own archive doesn’t offer, the page title, could be seen whenever you hovered over a page number. Why haven’t I done this? Well, I’ve got 270+ pages. That’s a lot of work. It’s on the list of to-do’s though!

So, to repeat myself in a coherent manner, for your archive page, do the following (only the first two are definitely necessary for 99% of comics out there):

• link every page. This can be done with a collapsible menu if your archive is extremely large, or be broken down into multiple webpages so as not to be overwhelming.  The only comic I know of who can get away with NOT linking every page is Sluggy Freelance, because there are thousands of comics.  Sluggy has an expandable dropdown instead. Be aware that an expandable dropdown does NOT replace an archive page!
• split up the page links by chapter or story arc.
• provide an image to represent each chapter or story arc.
• provide page titles to differentiate between separate comic pages.
• provide chapter synopses.

*ComicPress has an option for “archive by thumbnail.” If formatted correctly, and if your comic files sizes are rather modest, then this may be the option for you–especially if you have a black and white strip comic.  You could even set up the archive by week (well, past 7 strips), if you know how to do it. HOWEVER, you should also have a chronological and chaptered archive as well, especially if you have a large archive.

Of all secondary pages to have, the archive page is the most obvious one, and indeed, about 99% of comics have it. However, the format of the page seems to be beyond some people.  First, I will list what you should not do:

• Do not have your archive be a listing of “calendars.” This is most often seen on Comic Genesis sites.  A calendar contains no information about chapters, page titles, or filler pages you may have. The only thing it’s good for is showing people what your update days are, and/or how often you miss them.
• Do not list your archive by text-link, date only.  This is most often seen on ComicPress sites that have not been personalized.  This is just as bad as the “calendar” feature on Comic Genesis.
• Do not list your archive as shrunken-down “thumbnails” of the original comic files (make real thumbnail images instead).  It’s called a “thumbnail” for good reason: it’s small, and it loads fast! You may think you are being innovative, but you’re really being annoying, taxing your bandwidth, and taking up people’s time.*

When people visit your archive page, they are looking for a couple things. First time readers may want to know how large your archives are. For example, “This comic looks great, but I don’t have the time or energy to read an epic. I will check the archives to see how big/small it is.”  First time readers may also being trying to find a link to your first comic page, and this is often the fastest way.  Loyal readers will browse your archive to pull up a specific page they are looking for, or to re-read a part they liked a lot. This is why you should not have your archive set up by date or calendar. No one can find anything! Remember KEZ’s #1 webcomic website rule: make it as easy for the reader as possible. Not easy for YOU, for the reader.

Now that you have the “do not’s,” how about the “do’s?” When in doubt, go the archives of the most popular comic you read.  I choose you, Phoenix Requiem! See how the information is presented in a chronological AND chaptered way? What about Tales of Pylea?  Date, page number, chapter and page title, though ideally, the formatting of this page would be a little improved.  It can be hard when it’s automated, I know.  What about Xylia Tales?  Chapter cover image, chronological and chaptered order.  Ok, now what about my own archive?  I’ve taken everything I like about the previous examples, and then added my own flair: The War of Winds’ Archive.  I have a thumbnail image, chronological chaptered order, each page text linked, AND a written synopsis.  The written synopsis serves three functions: it is a refresher for long-time readers looking for a specific page, it gives a better idea what the story is about to new readers, and lastly, it provides textual content for context-based advertisers and search engines.

How could I improve my archive? I could add page titles as link titles and alts, as discussed in a previous article of mine.  I have the chapter cover image, the chronological order broken down by chapter, but I don’t have titled pages. If I included link titles, the final piece of information my own archive doesn’t offer, the page title, could be seen whenever you hovered over a page number. Why haven’t I done this? Well, I’ve got 270+ pages. That’s a lot of work. It’s on the list of to-do’s though!

So, to repeat myself in a coherent manner, for your archive page, do the following (only the first two are definitely necessary for 99% of comics out there):

• link every page. This can be done with a collapsible menu if your archive is extremely large, or be broken down into multiple webpages so as not to be overwhelming.  The only comic I know of who can get away with NOT linking every page is Sluggy Freelance, because there are thousands of comics.  Sluggy has an expandable dropdown instead. Be aware that an expandable dropdown does NOT replace an archive page!
• split up the page links by chapter or story arc.
• provide an image to represent each chapter or story arc.
• provide page titles to differentiate between separate comic pages.
• provide chapter synopses.

*ComicPress has an option for “archive by thumbnail.” If formatted correctly, and if your comic files sizes are rather modest, then this may be the option for you–especially if you have a black and white strip comic.  You could even set up the archive by week (well, past 7 strips), if you know how to do it. HOWEVER, you should also have a chronological and chaptered archive as well, especially if you have a large archive.

So, the first article is about comic navigation.  Your comic archive should ALWAYS contain links, above AND below the comic* to the following: first comic, previous comic, next comic and last comic. Few things annoy a new reader more than being unable to go back to the first comic (as in, your site only has previous/next), or being unable to get OUT of the archive with a last/today comic button.

Many choose to present these buttons linearly, in order, as you might see on any ComicGenesis site (ex, my mirror site). Some choose to put buttons on the sides of the comic too, or even on top of the comic itself (hover on the left and right sides.)  Regardless of where the buttons are, they need to exist in a recognizable, easy-to-access-and-click form that, if not presented “normally” should still be analogous to what people are already accustomed to. For example again, Chasing the Sunset has a second set of navigation buttons beneath the comic on the left (see the little eyeball like thingies?). Whether or not some might consider a second set of buttons as redundant I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter for this article. The first time I read the comic, I used the small set of buttons because I was unaware I could click the left and right sides of the comic itself. :3 Now I find I rather like clicking a large area instead of using my cursor to find the small “next” button.

I’m getting off topic here, however. If your site features an odd type of navigation (non-recognizable signs if buttons are wordless, or simply something “innovative”), you need to provide some sort of short, informative directions, much as Zuda does, or make it obvious in the order they are presented.

One of the few gripes I’ve heard about ComicPress is that the basic format does not allow for the first/next/prev/last navigation. Instead, you have a “previous” button up top in the SITE navigation, and then a “first” and “previous” link in the BLOG navigation.  I understand the aesthetics for this, but functionality and ease-of-use should always win over stream-lined looks when it comes to a webcomic website.  The good news is that there is a now a easy modification for this to install on your own ComicPress site! Read this post in the CP help forum to learn more (and implement as soon as possible :P)

Some other features to consider adding to your site that are related to this issue:

• if your homepage does not display your comic, you need to DEFINITELY have obvious links to the archive and the latest comic.  The latest comic link needs to have a date, and if is an image, should be updated with every comic update.  I say “should” because it’s not as important as providing the date of your latest update. You should also strongly consider adding a link to your FIRST comic on a homepage that does not display a comic.
• always have a link to the archive and the home page inside of your comic archives. Don’t make people work harder to get where they want to be.
• if you have a ComicPress site, make sure your archives are by page title (designated with chapter and page number also), or hard-code it by chapter, linking to each page separately. For the previous, if you do not provide page titles (and are using the date default), it means absolutely NOTHING to someone browsing through, trying to find a specific page.  The second clause holds true whether or not you are using ComicPress.

That’s it for today!

*comic navigation above and below the comic is only necessary when the comic causes a vertical scroll in 800×600 resolution. I say 800×600 because even though it is basically already phased out by 1024×768, when people have tabbed browsing and the bookmark sidebar up in their browser, your site will get squished into something resembling 800×600. If they have to scroll to read the whole comic, and then scroll back UP to your comic navigation, you need to fix that. Reading your comic should be a pleasure, not a chore for the pointer finger and scroll wheel.

So, the first article is about comic navigation.  Your comic archive should ALWAYS contain links, above AND below the comic* to the following: first comic, previous comic, next comic and last comic. Few things annoy a new reader more than being unable to go back to the first comic (as in, your site only has previous/next), or being unable to get OUT of the archive with a last/today comic button.

Many choose to present these buttons linearly, in order, as you might see on any ComicGenesis site (ex, my mirror site). Some choose to put buttons on the sides of the comic too, or even on top of the comic itself (hover on the left and right sides.)  Regardless of where the buttons are, they need to exist in a recognizable, easy-to-access-and-click form that, if not presented “normally” should still be analogous to what people are already accustomed to. For example again, Chasing the Sunset has a second set of navigation buttons beneath the comic on the left (see the little eyeball like thingies?). Whether or not some might consider a second set of buttons as redundant I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter for this article. The first time I read the comic, I used the small set of buttons because I was unaware I could click the left and right sides of the comic itself. :3 Now I find I rather like clicking a large area instead of using my cursor to find the small “next” button.

I’m getting off topic here, however. If your site features an odd type of navigation (non-recognizable signs if buttons are wordless, or simply something “innovative”), you need to provide some sort of short, informative directions, much as Zuda does, or make it obvious in the order they are presented.

One of the few gripes I’ve heard about ComicPress is that the basic format does not allow for the first/next/prev/last navigation. Instead, you have a “previous” button up top in the SITE navigation, and then a “first” and “previous” link in the BLOG navigation.  I understand the aesthetics for this, but functionality and ease-of-use should always win over stream-lined looks when it comes to a webcomic website.  The good news is that there is a now a easy modification for this to install on your own ComicPress site! Read this post in the CP help forum to learn more (and implement as soon as possible :P)

Some other features to consider adding to your site that are related to this issue:

• if your homepage does not display your comic, you need to DEFINITELY have obvious links to the archive and the latest comic.  The latest comic link needs to have a date, and if is an image, should be updated with every comic update.  I say “should” because it’s not as important as providing the date of your latest update. You should also strongly consider adding a link to your FIRST comic on a homepage that does not display a comic.
• always have a link to the archive and the home page inside of your comic archives. Don’t make people work harder to get where they want to be.
• if you have a ComicPress site, make sure your archives are by page title (designated with chapter and page number also), or hard-code it by chapter, linking to each page separately. For the previous, if you do not provide page titles (and are using the date default), it means absolutely NOTHING to someone browsing through, trying to find a specific page.  The second clause holds true whether or not you are using ComicPress.

That’s it for today!

*comic navigation above and below the comic is only necessary when the comic causes a vertical scroll in 800×600 resolution. I say 800×600 because even though it is basically already phased out by 1024×768, when people have tabbed browsing and the bookmark sidebar up in their browser, your site will get squished into something resembling 800×600. If they have to scroll to read the whole comic, and then scroll back UP to your comic navigation, you need to fix that. Reading your comic should be a pleasure, not a chore for the pointer finger and scroll wheel.

Second, I will be writing short articles on tricks I use when writing novels or short stories, about characterization through action and dialogue, minimalist and maximalist approaches, choosing names, writing “magic,” portrayal of the antagonist, etc.

Third, I will be posting excerpts here from the novel version of The War of Winds, as well as an illustrations that won’t be on the comic site.