Domain name strategy for multiple publications by same author?

[Johnstax]

Hi everyone,

Just joined after being impressed by the quality of content on this site.

I'm a book author. In the coming year I will be publishing three books, and wonder about the best website strategy for them. Each book has a main theme - for example:
- one is about a place, like Hawaii, and has that place in the book title;
- another is about a time, like The Renaissance, and has that time in the book title;
- the other is about a philosophy, like Objective Idealism for example, and, again, includes that philosophy in the book title.

I have a hosting account that has a primary domain, and can host a few add-on domains in subfolders.

In terms of SEO - if I make the primary domain 'my-name.com" it could serve as the central page about me, the author, with descriptions of, and links to, each of the books. But no one is going to be searching for my name. I'm a nobody. Having "my-name.com" has zero SEO value. But people may be searching for the place, or the time, or the philosophy, in the book titles. So what if I register "my-name-book-title.com" for each book, set these as add-on domains to sub-folders in the hosting account, and make the website titles "My Name - Book Title", and of course the main heading on the page is the same "My Name - Book Title".

This way, I figure, the keywords in the book title get prominence, but in a natural, non-spammy, manner.

Does this sound like a good strategy?

One thing I wonder is how this plays off backlinks? On the one hand, it would permit me to make very specific backlinks with the keywords in related forums and discussions. On the other hand, that will dilute backlink density, since each points only to a specific book site.

OK - wait a minute.....

Either way, the structure is going to be the same. A root page about the author, with descriptions of, and links to, the individual books. Then sub-directories that contain each book's web page(s). So, there are lots of ways to address these sections with urls that contain all the same keywords:

author-name.com
author-name-book-title-1.com
author-name-book-title-2.com
author-name-book-title-3.com

OR

author-name.com
book-title-1.author-name.com
book-title-2.author-name.com
book-title-3.author-name.com

OR

author-name.com
author-name.com/book-title-1
author-name.com/book-title-2
author-name.com/book-title-3

So I guess the question I'm really asking is - is there any SEO advantage of one over the other?

Thanks for any help.

Update - Once framed in those terms, i found lots and lots of online articles about subdomain versus sub-directory structure for SEO.

 

[Johnstax]

Continuing my conversation with myself.....

On the other hand, maybe I should just forget about author-name.com. Yes, it would be nice to build up a brand. But as a nobody starting from nothing, that's going to take time and effort. Especially since there's no budget for anything like advertising. Maybe I'd be better off focusing on those keyword-laden titles to start off. Register

book-title-1.com
book-title-2.com
book-title-3.com

and if they manage to attract some attention and get some traffic, then add author-name.com.

 

[Marc van Leeuwen]

Using this then

author-name.com
author-name.com/book-title-1
author-name.com/book-title-2
author-name.com/book-title-3

Because this

Hi everyone,

Just joined after being impressed by the quality of content on this site.

I'm a book author. In the coming year I will be publishing three books, and wonder about the best website strategy for them. Each book has a main theme - for example:
- one is about a place, like Hawaii, and has that place in the book title;
- another is about a time, like The Renaissance, and has that time in the book title;
- the other is about a philosophy, like Objective Idealism for example, and, again, includes that philosophy in the book title.

I have a hosting account that has a primary domain, and can host a few add-on domains in subfolders.

In terms of SEO - if I make the primary domain 'my-name.com" it could serve as the central page about me, the author, with descriptions of, and links to, each of the books. But no one is going to be searching for my name. I'm a nobody. Having "my-name.com" has zero SEO value. But people may be searching for the place, or the time, or the philosophy, in the book titles. So what if I register "my-name-book-title.com" for each book, set these as add-on domains to sub-folders in the hosting account, and make the website titles "My Name - Book Title", and of course the main heading on the page is the same "My Name - Book Title".

This way, I figure, the keywords in the book title get prominence, but in a natural, non-spammy, manner.

Does this sound like a good strategy?

You should use my-name.com because when someone wants your ebooks or find your ebook, they can search your name instead of your ebook name, that's better for you and your website.
Also, you can use these

author-name.com/book-title-1
author-name.com/book-title-2
author-name.com/book-title-3

When you can rank for each ebook by its title as My Name - Book Title, it is a thing should be done.

One thing I wonder is how this plays off backlinks? On the one hand, it would permit me to make very specific backlinks with the keywords in related forums and discussions. On the other hand, that will dilute backlink density, since each points only to a specific book site.

it doesn't have any differences between building backlinks for a normal site and your ebook in SEO, if you want to your ebook name get ranked high on search engine results, try to build backlinks to these pages

author-name.com/book-title-1
author-name.com/book-title-2
author-name.com/book-title-3

So, you have all SEO in a place (website), you build backlink for your domain author-name.com while your page book-title-1/2/3 will be ranked high on search engines.
That's for sure and you don't need to buy domain for each your ebook like

my-name-book-title-1.com
my-name-book-title-2.com
my-name-book-title-3.com

It is a waste of money, time and not worth building that.

Right?

I think you already got answers for your questions but the problem is you didn't know which answer is correct!

 

[Johnstax]

Johnstax

Yes, exactly right. After more reading, I was leaning towards the sub-directory solution - but for a non-expert it's very helpful to have live confirmation from the more knowledgeable that I'm on the right track. The concern is that I misunderstand some important detail and put a lot of effort into doing it wrong.

Subdirectories it is.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Marc van Leeuwen]

Marc van Leeuwen

You are welcome.

It is easy to test and know which the answer is correct. For example, instead you have 3 ebooks, you will have 300 or 3000 ebooks, how many domain names you will buy for them? you can buy 3000 domain names for 3000 ebooks?

That's why you should go with a domain for all your ebooks.

Hope it helps!

 

[Ron Killian]

The only thing, each book is a different them/niche/market. So in this case, getting a domain for each one, might be best because then you can narrow focus on each market. Focused promotion and marketing. Probably better SEO as well. Just a thought.